Recently, my sister Nancy and I were exchanging memories… You know that type of conversation, where often one remembers it one way, and the other may have a completely different memory? Well, this was a time when we both remembered the same thing. It was a trip our family took to St Louis, from South Dakota for Christmas one year back in the Sixties.  I was five and Nancy was eleven.  We were packed into the family station wagon, six children, (the last three  siblings were not yet born),  our mom, dad and our Grandpa Gill.  Packed in we were, along with Christmas gifts, suitcases and eggs.  Yes eggs.  Our grandpa brought along farm fresh eggs from South Dakota, for our aunt and uncle. How we kids did not end up breaking those eggs in that packed car was probably a Christmas miracle unto itself!

We had a wonderful time with our cousins that Christmas, and I know our mom had a great time with her sister, our Aunt Toots. Dad, Uncle Pat and Grandpa all had a good time as well.  Lots of playing, lots of gifts, lots of laughs.  We have great photos to look back on, remembering this holiday time, but what Nancy and I both have zeroed in on with our memories, was the trip home. We drove late into the night and nothing eventful happened, but we both have this imprinted image in our heads of being so safely tucked in, drowsy and sleeping on and off.  We both recall looking out into the dark of the night,  seeing the precipitation rolling down the outside of the windows, all the while feeling so safe and secure as Dad drove us home. Maybe it was the warmth of the car, or the joy of having had a good time with our cousins or just the relaxed feeling of being tired and tucked in, that has us remembering feeling so good.  I think it was all of that plus the feeling of just being with family. Our family. Our mom, dad, brothers, sisters and grandpa, all crammed into that car. Nine of us.  (Yes,  you might be wondering about seat belts,  but really, I don’t think they even existed back then.)

I believe the warmth of this memory is quite simple. We felt loved and taken care of and protected, and accepted as members of  a family. I hope anyone reading this has good memories like this, either with their  family or with a special group of friends. Belonging, being part of a pack,  being taken care of, and helping take care of the others…that’s what a family or special group of friends should be about, right? That safe place… That cozy, warm spot in the car, as you drowse on and off, with someone in control of things.  It feels good to know we had that growing up…and I hope my own kids can think back on some times they felt that kind of secure love. I’ll have to ask them….. And you? Maybe tonight, as you fall asleep, try to think of your “safe spot” memory. It might be a nice thing to drift off to sleep thinking about.

PS   I  just now asked son Jeff if he knew what I meant about feeling safe and secure as a kid.  I am happy to say, he had several instances to share with me. I’ll keep them to myself, since this is my blog, not his, but it is nice to know Mike and I have fostered that safe place too, now and  then. Feels comforting…kind of like precipitation rolling down the outside of the car windows on a long drive home.

 What’s your  “Carpe Diem?”…. Me? Anything to do with Water.  I  have always loved that song, “Age of Aquarius” written back in 1969 by The Fifth Dimension. My sis Nancy and I are both Aquarians.  I think our mom was too… (Sometimes I get mixed up on this since supposedly all those Astrological dates changed a few years ago, but no matter what, Aquarians we are!) I know this for a fact because we love love love anything to do with water. Always have, always will.   Today was a  good day for this Aquarian girl. You see, some good friends gave me a Spa gift card for my birthday LAST year and just this week I remembered I had not yet used it. (I am a saver!  Thank goodness when I called the Spa,  they extended the expiration date!)

I made an appointment for today, for a one hour massage at the local Ameristar Resort.  Well, the massage was awesome, I will say that right off the bat! (By the way, I always feel a bit awkward having to ask, “Do I keep my undies on or not?” )  Sister Robin just had a massage earlier this week and we had this very conversation.   Ok nuf on that. You don’t need to know if undies were on or off, right? TMI!    The point in this story?….Oh yeah, WATER…Aquarian Girl… After the most heavenly of massages, I took full advantage of the offered use of pool, hot tub, sauna and steam room. Yep, I arrived at 1 pm for my massage and left the Spa at nearly 5 pm!  Ahhhhh….What a day, what a day!…. The Spa was first class all the way… I didn’t even need to bring my black robe I use at my gym! Beautiful white spa robe and  great quality flip flops were provided. (I know I sound like a hay seed, all impressed with this stuff, but it was just grand!)

I went back to the women’s spa room after the massage and read the sign that suggested the perfect end to the massage…1. “Steam room for five minutes.” (Ok first off, I wasn’t sure if the steam thing was working and had to ask a fellow spa participant for help, after I got tired of pressing a button that seemed to be doing nothing.) Yes, it worked, and yes, I stayed in there for a good seven minutes. 2. “Take a cold shower for one minute,” said the instruction card.  I entered the gloriously lovely shower and took said one minute shower, cold… (this was AFTER I nearly burned myself, not getting the fancy schmancy shower to adjust properly. Once I got it adjusted, it was great…Water coming from every direction and then some.  3. “After the  one minute cold shower, take a 5-10 minute relaxing stay in the sauna.”  I was able to accomplish that with no help from anyone. Felt great. (By the way, I have always noticed that a sauna smells a lot like potatoes baking in an oven. That’s not a bad thing at all, just a weird observation.)   4. “After another one minute cold shower, go to hot tub for ten minutes.”  Ok, shower worked out fine this time…no scalding, just one minute of cooling water, and it felt great. Check.   BUT, the hot tub? Well….. I didn’t quite understand the  turn on switch. Ended up sounding some sort of alarm , but no worries, I figured it all out and no one came running to the sound of the alarm.  So much for security, huh?  I will admit,  I cut the hot tub time short as I was getting hot and antsy.

Next stop, the pool.  Yes, the pool was my favorite part of the day. I had my waterproof IPOD with me (Thanks to sister Nancy, great gift!)  and I swam for a good 45 minutes. The coolest part of the day? This pool was indoors but connected to the outdoors. Yes, here it was, 29 degrees out, January 31, and I had the utmost privilege of swimming outside in Missouri!  I marveled at  the sky, as I floated on my back, just taking this all in. I felt like a kid…You know how kids always make full use of a hotel pool? Well, that was me… I loved it and said a silent  thank you to my friends for giving me this lovely birthday gift. I gave God a thank you too, for giving me a soul that connects so precisely with water. You know when you just KNOW what things delight your soul? For me it is water…Always has been, always will be, and I am grateful for knowing myself well. Do you know what truly delights your soul? I hope you do!  If you don’t know, I hope you will get in touch with yourself and figure that out. It’s a good good thing to know .  When you do figure it out, (and maybe you already have) you will have that feeling like I do, like that  expression , “Carpe Diem”… My sister Susan JUST gave me a necklace last week for my birthday that says that…Carpe Diem..Seize the day.  Today was definitely a day to seize… and I am grateful…Amen.

PS….the Spa also provided a nice bowl of fruit. You’d better believe I helped myself to an apple…If you are tracking with me, you recall, I am on a 28 day food use up campaign. We are out of apples and my, that apple was fabulous!