This past week, I spent some time reading Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. It’s a lovely book and I do recommend reading it. It’s kind of nice reading a book about seasonal tendencies as spring is beginning to emerge and make its presence felt. It’s good to say good bye to the short, dark days and grey, cold, wet weather of winter.

I was in a section of the book where there was a lot of talk about life in Finland with its sauna culture. I came across a sentence that struck and diverted me:

“And yet hard-core users of the global hammam seem to admire the sauna over all else, as the mother of all hot rooms.”

The words of the sentence were not deep nor was it something that solved something for me. The choice of one word, however, hammam (a type steam bath or a place of public bathing) made all the difference. It’s a word I haven’t heard or used in over 25 years, but which sparked so many memories and connections. I stopped reading the story while my mind went in a variety of different directions.

I thought about a hammam I went to in Morocco, a sauna in Finland, hot springs in Japan. How public baths and bathing are so not part of American culture. How the new-to-Japan teachers and I were really puzzled that there would be a company-wide event at a bath house in Japan. How is this fun or even considered a thing? (I was younger and new to life in Japan).

I thought about traveling again, post-Covid-19 vaccine. Where do I want to go? And I thought about travel journals and wanting to keep more of them.

I though about the fun and exploration in traveling. It reminded me of cultural differences and new things to learn about. All from one sentence that held one particular word.

This is the second time in a few weeks that I ever remember being inspired and fully entranced by a random sentence in a book. I’ve decided to keep a small notebook and write down when I come across other sentences like this.

Where’s a place you’ve had unexpected inspiration from?