do what you love!

mm
By: Ben Crosky

My spa day isn’t your typical spa day.

I woke up this morning knowing I needed a spa day. Don’t get turned off yet. My spa day isn’t your typical spa day. In fact I haven’t had much typical in my life lately. You see, I live on a houseboat in Berkeley and “spa day” started because a water pipe broke on our dock, stranding us without water for a few days. Naturally I snuck into the nearby Double Tree Hotel to use their showers. And hot tub. And sauna. And towels.

Just so you understand how different my spa day is, the process of sneaking in involves waiting patiently for someone to walk in or out of the security card locked door and gracefully sprinting out of my hiding place to grasp the door handle with the tips of my fingers just before it closes. Yes it’s sketchy, don’t judge.

Sometimes in life there are moments when you ask, “how on earth did I end up here?” or “where the heck am I?” This happens a lot on my spa days. Today it happened in the sauna. The weird old lady came in and put her stuff down in the corner of the upper bench as usual. She leaves it in there while she works out in her thick sunglasses and bird watching hat. She’s all business too. No wasted time or relaxing on her Spa Day.

I’m getting better at relaxing. I used to think I was being caught by the invisible security guards every time the metal from the sauna heater would expand and pop. I would jump back and think of what my excuse would be. Usually I decide on a room number to tell, and 1306 has been a go to recently. Sometimes I think i’ll just tell them I’m on a trial membership. Which in truth I am. I’m just trying it out.

So there I was one year ago. Living in a small town in Massachusetts. Spending time with my family and all that has been familiar to me for the past 27 years. Now here I am. Living on a houseboat in Berkeley, sneaking into the Double Tree to soak and sauna with old folks who do laps with snorkel gear. Surrounded by hotel guests who are coming to god knows what kind of conference in the extremely oversized meeting rooms in the hotel. So yeah, “What on earth am I doing here?”

An old lady who I’ve talked with before comes in to get dressed and put on make-up in the sauna. Which seemed normal before I wrote it down. I stretch in the sauna so maybe that’s pretty weird too. She told me again how her husband had torn his quadriceps and about their relaxing trip planned for Hawaii coming up soon. I thought, what on earth do I say to her this time? And then she turned to me and said “you know, every time I see you stretching you inspire me to go home and stretch.”

So, I have no idea really how I ended up moving across the country in a matter of days, how I came into owning and living on a houseboat, sneaking into a hotel for Spa Days or talking to the weird random and amazing people I never knew existed before this past year was set in motion. But I do know that when you do the things that make you happy, and you don’t care who’s watching, you will inspire the people around you.

Who cares where or when or who it is. Just do it. Dance, sing, write, walk, eat, smile, kiss, STRETCH, INSPIRE! (and sneak into a hotel once in a while, it’s silly and fun)

Read next >> Listening to the heart