Alright so in my religion (Wiccan/Pagan) it’s considered important to take a lot of showers and baths, preferably baths, before doing just about anything religious or spiritual. Cool and good, except that with limited mobility even taking a footbath or shower can be a really difficult thing. I managed to overcome the shower hurdle somewhat by taking a methodical approach to each step required and planning out the process ahead of time (for instance: 1. lay out clothes, 2. take off shoes, 3. grab towel, etc.) in gruesome detail on my phone in a note and/or written in my planner somewhere. That made those more doable more often.
But the herbal component of some of these things is a lot harder to do. See, herbal baths are traditional in my religion. They’re relatively easy if you can bathe easily. Brew a cup of tea, or make an herbal infusion or decoction, strain it directly into the bath or simmer or infuse the herbs in a coffee filter tied with string, or just make tea as per usual with a bag, and toss out the bag or coffee filter thing. Pour the liquid into the bath as it’s filling and you’re set. You can even just throw a teabag in there without the tag as the bath is filling, let it bob around then take it out before you bathe. You can accomplish this sort of thing in a shower by buying herbal shampoos, soaps, shower gel, etc. if you want, but that has its own hmm, hurdles to overcome. Yesterday’s experiment was to see if I could make showers more herbal-y.
Long story short, if/when I do this again I’ll brew just one cup of green tea, let it cool, and put that in a plastic (or if I’m feeling like living dangerously, just in the same mug) bottle to take into the bathroom with me along with a washcloth for a shower. Or two cups of decaf green tea, cooled and poured into two plastic bottles, for same. To read the long story as to why, read on.
Here’s what I did. Green tea is considered “lucky,” but it’s also great as a beauty treatment. One cup is for drinking. I added 3 teabags to that one cause I like tea. Second cup is for pouring over hair to give it more shine and a light fragrance. Bowl is for dipping a washcloth into in order to put it on while in the shower. Makes sense so far, right? Well, I brewed it up. Here’s where it started to all go sideways. I gingerly took the boiling hot cup into my room for later, the boiling hot cup and bowl into the bathroom, and quickly learned they both needed folded washcloths underneath to avoid scalding the bathroom surfaces. Whatever. Shower time. The plan was to turn off the shower water in order to use the stuff, but no way, too cold. Meanwhile, the bowl and cup had retained their boiling-ness. Much additions of lukewarm shower water later, it was sufficient to not scald me, so I proceeded with the plan: stepping a bit away from the shower’s main spray to dip the washcloth into the mix and put it on. I was quickly reminded why the skin is used for transdermal applications of medicine, such as nicotine patches, because the caffeine set to work in increasing heart rate and making me Uncomfortably Energetic. (Would not recommend this if you have heart issues or medical issues that could cause problems. Would also recommend thorough research and a doctor’s approval on any herbs you use for anything like this, including baths.) I proceeded anyway, adding shower water to the mug and pouring the still really hot liquid over my head. Without rinsing any of it off, as that would also rinse away the skin benefits and hair benefits, concluded the shower. Experiment kind of a success.
New Book of Days 
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