184/365 - Pampering

"Treat yourself and make me happy."  This was my beau's response when I discovered the pedicure fund he had stashed in my purse just prior to my departure for a four-day recruiting trip to California.

That, right there, belongs to its very own "love is..." statement.

Given the callused and scraggly state of my toes and feet and my recent musings about whether I could justify a pedicure as a travel expense, I gratefully obliged my beau's thoughtful, generous offer.  Even before my plane had landed - thanks to the in-flight wi-fi indulgence {I <3 Boingo} - I earmarked a cute little spa less than a block from my hotel.  I managed to get in tonight for an eco-friendly "Soul" mani/pedi, complete with a fresh fruit and whole leaf green tea soak, lemon cucumber bamboo salt scrub, Alaskan mineral mud mask, hot paraffin treatment, and foot and hand massage with lotion mixed with green tea, lemongrass, ginger and mandarin.  Oh yes, and vegan, DBP, Toluene and Formaldehyde free nail polish.

In case you might not be able to tell, I'm in Southern California.  There were whole blueberries floating in my foot soak, and I left with star flowers painted on each ring fingernail.

Now, I might normally think that such extravagances are silly and unnecessary, but as I was being doted on by these two genuinely caring, earthy women tonight, I realized that there was once a time, maybe centuries ago, when women regularly practiced this kind of tender, meticulous, ritual of beautification simply as an expression of love and kindness for one another.  

When I was on bedrest with my twins, as if my protruding hulk of a belly wasn't enough of a restriction for doing my own, a woman I knew treated me to a pedicure - "treated," as in, she sat on my living room floor and painstakingly trimmed my toenails and filed the dead skin off my feet, massaged my feet with oil, and painted my toenails.  It was an incredibly intimate and vulnerable experience.  That we usually have to pay for such "services" means we lose out on the opportunity, not just to receive, but also to give such care to one another.

Because as my beau graciously demonstrates, giving can make us just as happy.