A friend invited me to sit with him in his Finnish sauna.
He had it built in his backyard, courtesy of a company (some kind of fruit with a piec missing) he used to work for and something about stock options.
Cool experience...I mean hot..or cool or....something like that.
There are some life lessons that can be learned in a Finnish Sauna.
1. Transitions are very stimulating - my wife asked me on the way home what I thought of the sauna and the experience and which part I liked best. Besides the number two lesson, I thought the transitions were the most stimulating. Under an
ice cold shower, into a 175F room...water poured on hot rocks. Sizzzz!!! OOOooo!!! and burn...feels great to the skin and I know I am alive. Back out to the ice cold shower - YooWWWweee!!! I'm alive indeed....rinse and repeat...three more times.A men's group I belong to that meets weekly...all the guys are going through transitions - one has been promoted to a level at work that will stretch him well beyond his comfort zone. Another is changing jobs and another is leaving his. We have some big changes going on at home as well. I am alive!
2. Friendships meld in the Sauna. Does meld meant melt together? Two guys sitting together in a hot room with our brains frying...mine more than his....naked except for certain parts being covered in case the wives peek in...whaddya gonna do? Totally exposed and our defenses down...we talk to each other about things that are important and things that are not...but seem like they are because we are talking about them in what may be the last minutes of my brain's life.
Friendships are forged when parties let their defenses down and share openly with each other as if it were the last thing they might ever do. (This is the part I liked best.)
3. When you are clean, you sleep like a log. Indeed....every bad bug in my body (viruses hate the heat) was chased out. Everything good in me may have been boiled out as well...but...that time would have passed by quickly. After three rinse and repeat sessions...I was clean! And I felt so. That night, I slept more soundly than I had in a long long time.
Yeah....clean... a clean heart, a clean conscience, gosh, having just cleaned up my desk or cleaned out my temporary files...I feel better and, yup, I sleep better. It kind of makes me want to say I am sorry for things I did wrong, mistakes I made and such so I can be forgiven, that is cleaned up more often. I think that's what happens when I worship each Sunday.
The Finnish Sauna....great experience, a closer friendship, and a clean heart...
What'd you do last Friday night?
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