Temporary Life

by Patti


Have you ever been so relaxed, but SO relaxed, even the drool sliding down the side of your face takes it time?

That was me this weekend.

Hoops and I took a little 3-day Girls’ Escape this weekend to a well-known, luxurious, out-of-this-world spa, and literally got buffed, scrubbed and rubbed from head to toe. The luxury and pampering were straight out of a movie. But it wasn’t a movie -- IT REALLY DOES HAPPEN AND HOW DID I NOT EVER KNOW THIS?

After all the Chardonnaying and Champagning, and gourmet food shoveling, and having doors opened and closed for us, and hearing “It’s all been taken care of” in soothing tones over and over again, the drive home was a bit of a letdown. It wasn’t that I didn’t miss my family, but honestly? I kind of didn’t.

I love them to death and God forbid anything should ever happen to them, but life? Can be stressful. And to have your only worry be choosing between a Lavender Rain Treatment or a Body Harmony Bath is intoxicating. So of course to go back to having your worries be your mortgage, your child’s grades, your husband’s needs, your job’s demands, your parents’ ailments, your neighbor’s dog, the clunking sound from your car’s front end whenever you hit a bump and wait – didn’t I just pay $1,000 to have that fixed? To have all of that be your worries is not nearly as intoxicating. Instead, it’s just, well, toxic-ating.

At the spa one morning we were enjoying breakfast, these crazy perma-grins covering our faces, and two women across from us were just finishing up their breakfast. As they rose to leave, one of the women began gathering the coffee cups while the other swiftly swept crumbs off the table, and the coffee cup gatherer stopped her gathering and said, “Wait a minute! What are we doing? We don’t have to clean anything!” The other laughed and said, “Oh my God, I know! I was ready to load the dishwasher!” They laughed at the sheer lunacy of not having to clean up, and as they turned to leave, the coffee cup gatherer looked at us, her hair disheveled and her face ruddy from probably never having had a facial in her life, and, as if offering an explanation, said, “It’s just that this is not my life.”

And although I chuckled, it also made me just a little sad. Here we were, Hoops and I, wrapped in fluffy 5 million thread count robes, feeling giddy and tingly from the anticipation of the full day of being totally spoiled that stretched before us, and it hit me: This is not my life. And it probably never will be.

And you know what? Because of that, I can honestly say that I think I appreciated and enjoyed and savored Every. Single. Moment. of our weekend even more. Every scrub, buff and rub, every morsel of every meal, every sip of every glass of lemony water, every hand smoothing of every crisp white sheet, every scent of every oil, cream, perfume, every drop of every warm water, every jet of every hot tub, every bubble of every glass of champagne, every stretch of every muscle of every yoga pose, every inhale of every lavender-scented air, every word of every menu, every melody of every song, just....everything.

And I realized: it is not the actual luxuries of life that make for a great life, it is simply appreciating them. For even in our real lives, and not in the magic bubble of a temporary life, there are luxuries. They may be little luxuries, but they are just as real.