25/11/2025
Hot springs hopping with a nudist 🧜♀️
I spent the last month in some of the most ethereal waters all over the west of the United States with a women who is basically a mermaid and a bunch of friends along the way. Like children we played in natural baths that never get cold and don’t charge you a water bill. In my time on the road ive found people that I can be as open and free as you can get with. Vulnerability of any type has always been pretty hard for me, I was the kid in school that tried to fly under the radar and didn’t shared much with friends. A lot of which probably came from my midwest upbringing that holds a lot of modesty and suppression of emotions. Until recently a lot of people around me also held those values. The taboo of nudity is probably the best metaphor for all of this. I remember being the odd one out wearing a swim suit at my first hot spring, a group of us being called unsponteous by the Santa Barbara college students for not participating in the clothing optional actives, and the apprehension the Americans had at the strict rules in the saunas of Europe. It’s been interesting to see the hot springs culture change the relationship people have with traumas and desexualizing the body. Being on the road has given me so many lessons of freedom and connection, like sensations of walking without shoes, eating without utensils or feeling the air and environment without a barrier. These modern nomadic hippies have all left behind previous lives like Tara who had a previous life of a corporate marketing career which make them open to being challenged and changing. It has been healing to be able to be so unfiltered through conversations and overcome shame in more ways than just how I feel in my own skin.
