Thanks for the Zen, Ann Litts .

I have literally chopped wood and I have literally carried water. I once lived in a home at high altitude in which the only heat source was a wood stove. I also once lived in a cabin that had no running water. Chopping wood and carrying wood is about as Zen as you can get. It was a profound learning experience.

I don’t recall ever sanitizing a single thing in my life — unless soaking one’s contact lenses in a sanitizing solution each night counts. But I haven’t done that in years. I got tired of sticking my fingers in my eyes and reverted to glasses.

I also once lived with a cranio-compromised kiddo whose life I saved after she fell from a 20-foot high balcony landing head-first on the concrete 20 feet below. For a year she had to wear a special helmet whenever she was awake because if she had bumped her noggin she could have died. Every sharp corner in the house (which only had wood heat) was padded and every minute of my day was a nervous one as I tried to keep her alive.

(Chopping wood was my way of maintaining sanity.)

I had bronchitis once back in the Seventies. It led to pneumonia and I almost died. If I had asthma I probably would have kicked the bucket. The experience gave me an appreciation for those with asthma and other breathing difficulties. I never changed any of my behaviors, though. I was far too stupid back then.

One of the things I did not mention in my little story is ‘dish-pan hands.’ Although I hand-wash dishes on a daily basis and love doing so, I never, ever, ever, ever get ‘dish-pan hands.’ And that is because I drink copious amounts of water every day. Water is about the only thing I drink — aside from the occasional cocktail. To enjoy water on the outside you’ve got to have plenty of water on the inside. It’s a balance thing. When you carry all the water you use and consume you start building a spiritual rapport with water and your body reflects that rapport. The skin on my hands is as soft as a baby’s ass. (Some females have expressed their jealousy of that.) It’s all about developing a healthy spiritual relationship to water. Hand-washing dishes is just a small part of that.