VICTORIA – Before she ended-up walking through the park, Susannah was driving through "one of those days." She was thinking about how to cross off errands on her lengthy to-do list, when things took a turn. Literally.
"Screeeeech!" Susannah makes the sound of her tires turning and demonstrates her steering-wheel spinning. "U-Turn?!" I ask. She laughs in agreement.
Susannah says she had to make the unexpected detour because she spotted her favourite flower growing in the park beside the road. "They're just magical," she smiles pointing at a fawn lilly. "Absolutely magical!"
She says they don't bloom for long and she was preparing to fly away for a while. "So, It was like now or never."
So, Susannah added another task to her list. "Bathing," she says. "Bathing in beauty!"
She shows me how it works by walking over to a section of the park where countless fawn lilies are in full bloom. It's like getting into a warm bath, she explains as she lowers herself amongst the flowers, you ease in at first. "You disturb as little as possible."
When Susannah is settled on the ground she is completely surround; you can only see her head above the blooms.
She begins the "beauty bath" by capturing her surroundings on camera, to share with others, and remember in the winter when the flowers are gone. Then she puts her camera down, and lies on the ground until she's fully immersed. "[I take] some deep breaths and smell the flowers," she explains. "Really absorbing, from all five senses, the whole experience."
After a while, the regrets of the past, the longings of the present, and the worries of the future, begin to wash away.
When Susannah is done the 'beauty bath', her list will be just as long, her life just as complex, but feelings about them will have changed. " We can appreciate what we have in the moment," she says with a smile. "And trust that things will unfold and blossom.
Watch the Sawatsky Sign-Off weekdays at 6:55 p.m. on CTV News at 6.
