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The Healing Power of Hot and Cold Water
A Trip to Harbin Hot Springs
Cindy and I are at Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California for the long Memorial Day weekend, staying in a little caravan on this land that we had both independently loved for years before we got engaged here: after whispering to Cindy that I was going to be bathroom, I came back to the cold plunge pool with a diamond ring clasped tightly in my hand. I signaled in the silence that we were both to duck under the chilly water together, where I placed the ring on her finger. When we returned to the surface, I pointed out that something about her had changed. When she noticed the ring, she started crying.
In the fall of 2015, a fire in Lake County destroyed Harbin and many homes in the surrounding area. It’s taken over three years to rebuild enough for a what they call a “soft opening.” Apart from tenting, the only on-site accommodation are these cute little caravans, which work surprisingly well. Cindy sleeps like a cat in the little alcove where the bed is while I sit at the tiny dining table across from the stove and sink. This caravan also, somehow, has its own toilet and shower.
Cindy has a memory of being drowned as a baby. While she was being bathed, a frustrated caregiver, maybe her mother, pushed her face under the water and held it there. Now she has a mixed relationship…
