The British and the Luxurious go for a Bath.

If you stick around long enough - and I hope you will - you will find a recurring theme in my appreciation for life: British novels. Whether from the influence of my mother's Scottish heritage, or an attraction to all things quaint and precious, I reside somewhere on the thick line between dabbling and divulging.

One of my favorite heroines is from the novel The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher. (isn't her name even quaint? I wonder if it's real. Huh.).

Anyways.

This heroine, Penelope (um, okay), asks her lover-boy which things in life are luxuries to him. He's thinking yachts, fine dining. Maybe a honeymoon in Paris with you-my-dear...

But she explains that no, those aren't the real luxuries of life. Those are only available to a select few - and rarely appreciated as luxury by those who frequent them. No, the luxuries she's talking about are personal ones. Like, say, taking a bubble bath with a candle or two (or a spouse, if you have the 'luxury')... be right back...

What was I saying?

Oh yeah, personal luxuries. (Sorry, just let me get the water out of my ears here). To borrow from a New Age philosophy - to which I do not subscribe, but will make use of - luxury is whatever you want it to be. And it takes practice to find your luxury in every day, but you can do it.

Here's some luxuries I have discovered:

- Coffee pots with timers: How amazing is that to wake up to coffee?
- Finding $5.00 in the pocket of a coat you haven't worn for a while; Just enough to buy something, but not enough to ruin it by telling everyone you know about your find... a personal luxury.
- Waking up at 3am. I realize this seems un-luxurious to most, but stick with me. It means I still have at least 4 more hours to sleep. Imagine if it was 6 already?!... hardly worth going back to bed. But 3am... luxury.
- When double doors open automatically for you as you're leaving a store. Seriously! It's like they're saying "You, my dear, are far too important to push on us with your delicate hands. Now, go, seize the big wide world before you!"

Yikes.

Would love to hear about your luxuries. You really don't have to look too far...