So it just keeps getting better. Today i slept in again (8am!), showered, and then had breakfast at my B&B. So delightful to have delicious food prepared for you. There was wonderful fruit salad, homemade granola, and freshly made vegetarian corn/squash/pepper/tomato tamales with really good avocado on top. Super yum. After breakfast I walked to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum and spent some time there learning about her life, her work, and enjoying her art.
After the O'Keefe museum, I wandered around downtown Santa Fe, stopping in several of the art galleries (there seem to be hundreds of art galleries). My favorites were one whose name I can't remember with local artists and the other was the Chuck Jones Gallery. Oh, if to only have thousands and thousands to spend on art...oh well, looking is free! I wandered along the river and came across some really beautiful, bizarre carved wooden saints (see photo album). I bought a few pieces of jewelry as gifts (though I'm tempted to keep for self). I had lunch at a lovely place with a covered patio so I could be outside without frying (I think I'm developing my summer arm-only tan). After lunch, I walked and walked and walked some more. I went to a great used bookstore that really reminded me of the creepy bookstore in Buffy. There was even a section on the "occult". I bought two books, one lovely compilation of Shakespeare (all his plays and poems in one volume) and a copy of "Verses from the Center" by Stephen Batchelor, a book that I had borrowed for months from someone at work that has a wonderful translation of Nagarjuna's "Mulamadhyamakakarika" (for those who care). I then returned to my room and lounged/read/relaxed for half an hour before going to my SPA treatment.
Well, I thought yesterday was luxurious and pampering and indulgent, and it was, but today's treatment was bliss.
It all began with a foot scrub while sipping Jamu tonic which was some sort of chilled, fruity, herbal infusion. After the foot bath, I had a 1-hour, hot jasmine oil massage. I think yesterday's adventure in nakedness was just preparing me for today. Sure I've had professional whole-body massages in the past, but it usually takes me a good part of the massage to get comfortable with my own naked body being touched by someone else even with the covering and draping. Anyway, I had no shame holding me back, and I was able to enjoy the whole hot oil massage experience.
After the massage, I was covered in warm towels for a few minutes while my massage therapist prepared the body scrub. Section by section, I got another layer of hot oil rubbed in, I was then sprinkled with a turmeric, sandalwood, and rice powder, after the paste was scrubbed in, that section was then slathered in a mixture of honey and yogurt and then covered back up as she repeated the process over the rest of my body. After I was covered head to toe, I had 10 minutes in a private steam shower where I got to sit in the steam and let my whole body mask soak in. While I was steaming, my massage therapist prepared my bath.
After the steam shut off, I showered, and then climbed into my giant, granite bath tub that was filled with lovely warm water and hundreds of rose petals. There was ginger tea and a small plate of fruit and chocolate on the edge of the tub. Divine. 30 minutes in the tub is a long time to sit and think and try to float. For me, trying to float doesn't work. I discovered that when I was able to really let go, to not think about it, I was floating. So interesting to notice my breath, to notice the thoughts coming and going.
Laying in a tub covered in rose petals...what a silly thing, what a wonderful thing. Laying in the tub, sipping ginger tea, with soothing music playing quietly, I thought about the word sensual. Sensual means experiencing through the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). This spa package certainly hit all the senses. I find it interesting how the mind can make connections to memories based on sensual experiences...the taste of ginger tea reminded me of my first Naropa Orientation party where a first year student made ginger tea. The little plate of fruit and chocolate reminded me of spending time with my ex-sister-inlaw in Hawaii. The bath got me thinking about my mother, wondering if she ever has treated herself to this kind of experience. How I learned from my mother to take care of everyone else in your life before you take care of yourself. How I want to take care of her, to treat her and pamper her while I still can. When my time was up in the tub, my massage therapist rang a little bell to let me know it was time to get dressed. Is it all over so soon? And yet it feels a lifetime.
My outer self is radiating. My inner self is radiating. I am soft, I am melting, I am a glowing smushpot of love.
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