The Original Ofuro, Home Again

In the journey of running a business, I know I’m prone to overwork myself.  I always have - whether it was in the corporate world, or working for the many mom and pop businesses I worked at before that.  I know, in all those experiences watching everyone work and work that it was one of the keys - you have to have complete responsibility, you have to own whatever happens. And you have to be there. 

And the corporate, cutthroat culture going on just amplifies that. I remember a time I was young, single, lived alone in a very quiet suburb, and worked a very demanding corporate job.  A really good one, the kind that people who got it, stayed there for decades.  I felt like I had to ‘beat’ them - or at least, show my value.  How could I, with their experience? Well, I had time on my side.  They had to go home to their kids, go on vacations, in essence, care for themselves.  I was willing to not do that. At all. And it worked, until it didn’t. 

That was really the start of my journey to self care.  It’s taken nose dives and ups and downs, but it’s where I’m at. Caring about it.  

Lately, this week, I spent about a week getting the house ready for guests then hosting.  I was feeling pretty down on myself for not being as productive as I could be. Which isn’t true - but I can beat myself up on wanting to be too fast.  But today was a special day.  One of the projects has been getting my original redwood Ofuro ready. The one I proposed to Ashley in. The one I made in San Francisco, under that olive tree.  

I had done an experiment on it - it was working fine, great even, but, being basically an outdoor hot tub for us, the redwood lost it’s color.  It happens, it’s natural.  Drive around Mendocino and look at any building with it’s grey redwood. But, obviously, the red color is nice.  So I wanted to see what would happen if I did what you aren’t supposed to do with wood Ofuro’s or redwood hot tubs, and sealed it with a film finish. 

This didn’t let the bottom move - and where we left it, on our deck, got full sun through more of the year than I predicted.  The wood split fairly quickly along the grain in the bottom (but none of the joints) and I told myself, I can repair this, I know how and it will be a good chance to practice, I’ll let it go until we settle into our new house, then make it beautiful again.  Lesson learned. All natural, organic oils only in the tub.  You have to let them breathe for them to work.  Also, keep them out of the sun. Keeping a cover on them is a good idea.

But today it was done - and I built an outdoor hot water heater for it.  Well, build is a strong word - I strapped an on-demand hot water heater for an RV to a dolly along with a propane tank, and got a hot shower on wheels.  It’s actually fairly easy.  Campers do it all the time, especially people who do a lot of car camping, or group camping.  It’s how you get a hot shower in a place that’s remote enough to have cold running water but nothing else. 

I filled it up, and my body was aching, watching the sun go down over the redwood forest that is our backyard.  I got a bad case of chigger bites I suspect, though they may be something more like spider bites, because they are causing more muscle pain then itching most of the time, and they needed soothing.  I laid my sore body into the water, filled with salts and oils in a tradition as old as history, and like the soldier after the Greek war or the farmer anywhere after plowing his fields, I got mine and laid down.  Thinking about how I’ve been lacking in care for the temple that is my being. That I need to do this more than anything else in the world right now.

This Ofuro has meant so much to me over the years.  From the first time I laid in in after the accident, grabbing lemons straight from the tree, to proposing to Ashley in it next to our rosemary and manzanita bushes, to our first home in Mendocino, and our new home in the forest.  Refreshed and with hot water on wheels now, home in the forest, I know I’m finally at balance, and where I need to be.