During these cooler fall months, when the ^sun hangs _low in the sky by early afternoon, and orange and yellow leaves blow across the road with each invigorating gust, the sauna is my happy place.

There’s just something about it--the way it makes you feel. As if the extreme temperatures raise your inner energies into balance with the elements, the two meeting as one, like the surface of the ocean dancing in perfect tandem with the air above it. Not to mention--in my experience, anyway--if you stay in there long enough, it gets you a little high.

But just the other day, I was chilling in the sauna when something strange happened. I was seated on the cedar bench, my feet up near my bum and legs huddled close to my chest, when I saw what appeared to be blood splattered all over one of my kneecaps. I looked over the knee, the palm of the hand that had been resting there, but didn’t find any cuts or active bleeding. I then examined the length of each arm, patted the top of my head, and rubbed my face in search of some abrasion. But after a full inspection, I couldn’t figure out where the blood had come from.

I found this disconcerting, but stayed all the same for my full schvitz fix. After saunaing, I showered, changed, and left the gym for the local organic foods market down the road. It was during the drive there that I realized something. I had juiced a bunch of beets that afternoon (see 35. polychromatic) and after cutting up and running the beets through the juicer, my hands had been stained red. The sweat washed the pigmentation off my palms and onto my knee, giving the appearance of a bloody kneecap.

Which I suppose means that sometimes you might think you’re all fucked up, and you’re just not.

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