Fire and Ice

by Dorothee Lang

Towels Pitcher Tony Obrien

Through the jamming traffic, through the blinking city, through the buzzing shopping mall, where beauty comes in bottles and the air comes filtered, where sharp dressed plastic models give me long critical looks. Four more things to buy, three more things, two more things. I leave them unbought and leave this place unnerved, I walk back to my car to exchange bags, I close my eyes and relax, thinking of the hours to come, of my special date, a date with myself and the spa, for it is women's days there today.

I go up the stairs, get out of my clothes, get out of the buzzing world, get into the shower and let the water drizzle down on me like rain. I wash away all the noise, all the critical looks, all the tension. It takes a while, but thank goddess this place comes without time limits, lets your body go in its own rhythm.

Then into the sauna, this world of calming fire and soothing steam. You feel your skin vibrate, feel the moist gather in small mint-flavoured drops on your legs and arms, glittering like dew at sunrise. You feel the heat flowing through your body, rising in slow circles, melting away your little worries and softening the edges of your bigger ones. You drift away for some seconds, forget the world outside and dream of a faraway place under a glowing moon.

When you're all flames, you get up slowly and get out in the fresh cool air. You can walk barefoot through snow now, naked through the rain, with arms wide open. Your body heat is like a shield that vaporizes the cold before it reaches your skin, creating a cloud of steam around you, bringing out your inner smile. You exhale deeply and hold your breath for some seconds while you take a shower that is cold and fresh like glacier water, opening your senses, washing new energy into you. Then you lay down, nestled in a well-worn bathrobe, your hair in a knot, your feet in woollen socks, and you can feel your pulse slowly beating in your fingertips, your toes, your navel, you can feel yourself slowly finding your balance again.

No need to look styled here between all this other women, young and old ones, tall and small ones, white and brown ones, chatting and sleeping, listening and humming, sharing little secrets and tasty snacks. A perfect hideaway, a perfect women's place, a bit like a trip to another world.

(Yes. Try it. It's just some towels away.)

After working for several years in the advertising division of a media company, I am now a freelance writer and web designer. my work has appeared at various online publications in my home country Germany, including Der Spiegal Online (news magazine), Girlsplanet (online magazine for teenage girls) and LIteratur Digital (online literature magazine).