Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither. ~ William Wordsworth, Intimations of Immortality
Since Etruscan times, people have journeyed to natural hot springs in Tuscany for many reasons. We decided, on a blustery Monday in November, to attempt to navigate our way through the countryside to one of the few hot springs left that is not encircled by a spa/hotel.
With three kids in tow, we don’t exactly blend with the fancy “spa” crowd. As we drove through autumnal Tuscany, winding our way to a small village called Bagni di Filippo, we wondered quietly, what discoveries awaited us.
After missing the handwritten post marker and scaling a muddy slope, we arrived at three private pools in the middle of a prismatic woodland. We immersed ourselves in the water when the messages in my head started swirling:
- “You are wasting water.”
- “Shut the door so we don’t heat the neighborhood.”
- “Don’t stay out too long, you will get a cold.”
- “Don’t stay in too long. You will get dizzy.”
When I came up for air, I realized I had to accept the abundance Mother Nature was offering to me. The message was so profound:
- “There is enough to go around.”
- “It is flowing from every direction.”
- “It does not start or stop with you.”
- “You are a piece of something greater.”
- “If you resist the flow, the flow continues without you.”
- “It will go around, over, under and even through you if you let it in.”
I had a choice to listen to old voices that cautioned me that there is not enough, or to listen to the roaring overflow of natures atonement.
The longer I settled, the more still I became. The less fear I felt, the more I believed in this new message that has been there all along but I was not ready to heed.
