Monday, May 25, 2009

A Hot Bath


For a recent writing class we had to make a list of 10 of our favourite things. Not an easy task to pick 10 out of so many but way up there at the top of the list for me was a deep, hot bath. Not very eco friendly but I'm afraid a mere 2 inches just doesn't do it for me.
No one else in my family can take it as hot as me. I have to feel completely submerged and for real luxury I add Badedas bubble bath - I love the smell of the horse chestnut.
I lie there relaxing, meditating, sometimes praying, sometimes drifting off into a complete void. I have to lock the door otherwise my youngest daughter will still try to get in the bath with me and then there's no peace. A dream come true for me would be to have a huge skylight in my bathroom so I could open it while lying in the bath and stare at the sky at the same time.


One of my favourite children's books is '5 minutes peace' by
Jill Murphy. It tells the story of The Large elephant family and How Mrs Large tries to escape from her rambunctious children for a few minutes peace. Mum's love this book!!



Just by chance a friend lent me Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar' to read which has been on my 'to read' list for ages. She describes having a bath so perfectly, obviously a woman after my own heart.

'There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: ‘I’ll go take a hot bath.’
I meditate in the bath. The water needs to be very hot, so hot you can barely stand putting your foot in it. Then you lower yourself, inch by inch, till the water’s up to your neck................I never feel so much myself as when I’m in a hot bath. I lay in that tub...... and I felt myself growing pure again. I don’t believe in baptism or the waters of Jordan or anything like that but I guess I feel about a hot bath the way those religious people feel about holy water.
I said to myself: ‘Doreen is dissolving, Lenny Shepherd is dissolving, New York is dissolving and none of them matter anymore. I don’t know them, I have never known them and I am very pure. All that liquor and those sticky kisses I saw and the dirt that settled on my skin on the way back is turning into something pure.’
The longer I lay there in the clear hot water the purer I felt, and when I stepped out at last and wrapped myself in one of the big, soft white hotel bath-towels I felt pure and sweet as a new baby.'

3 comments:

James Owens said...

Suzi: Thanks for the quote from "The Bell Jar." I hadn't thought about that book for years. I read it long ago, just after I'd first read Plath's poems, and --- even though it isn't strictly autobiographical --- it was a kind of introduction to the idea that poets are real people. Plath has remained a favorite.

Roxana said...

Suzi, hi
i will let James comment on Plath and i will only say that i totally agree with you about the hot baths, this would indeed make my 3 top list as well! they are fabulous, aren't they?

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