Universal Solvent

The water droplets caress my face, massage my shoulders, and cleanse my thighs.

The soap washes the germs, removing the grime, and leaving us smooth to invite a new day, a brighter beginning, and a way to start fresh.

As I move the shower head settings from a soft gentle rain to a rougher massage waterfall, I know that this feeling of being free will only last for the next twenty minutes.

I’m showering not because I’m dirty or unclean.

I’m showering because showering is my way of hiding the pain and hoping that the water can somehow erase the past.

I once learned that water was the universal solvent. Does its universal powers work with humans as well?

My shower can camouflage the tears that stream down my face and the red and puffy eyes I’ve acquired from sleepless nights and sorrowful days.

The soap can wash away the bruises, the scrapes, and the blood that physically sting me.

And the shaver can scrape away a layer of dead skin and hair follicles as I hope that it also shaves away the layers of yesterday.

Taking a shower for me is more than a quick cleaning process, it’s where I gain hope that once I step out onto the bathroom rug and dry off, that times have changed, and that the solvent really did dissolve the past.

Unfortunately I’ve never had that experience yet, so I’m staying in the shower for 40 more minutes to soap up, wash, and shave off some more layers.

Rain and water may not be able to dissolve the past, but shavers and blood can terminate the future.