別等好日子，今日就值得。
你的衣櫃或抽屜深處，有沒有一件捨不得用的好東西？
我們總習慣把最好的留給未來。等一個重要的場合，或者等一個覺得自己「配得上」的時刻。為了這份等待，很多美好的事物就這樣被安放在角落，慢慢積了灰塵。
納米比亞西北角的 Himba 婦女，對待珍貴事物的方式卻截然不同。
每年最熱最乾的月份，懷特沒藥的樹脂會從矮灌木的樹皮自然滲出，凝在樹皮上，或者掉在樹下的地上。婦女通常一季只出去一次，花一個上午撿拾。一年能夠收取的份量就是這麼多，亦很珍貴，但她們從來不把撿回來的樹脂留給盛大的節慶。
這股氣味上手是明亮的，像剛刮開的柑橘皮，帶一點松節的乾淨感。她們把樹脂壓在油脂底下，讓香氣慢慢滲進去，再輕輕抹在皮膚與頭髮上。放一會，底下的樹脂氣息慢慢厚實起來，化作一層圓潤溫暖的香脂，陪伴她們度過最普通不過的日常。
一年只採一個上午的珍貴，她們沒有等到特別日子才使用。一日的質感，其實是看你願意用甚麼方式去對待它。
如果你也有一件美好的事物，一直在等一個「夠好」的日子才捨得拿出來的話，請記得在無常的流動裡，其實並沒有一個絕對完美的時機。
所以，最好的東西，不必等特別日子。今日，就已經足夠值得。
以香為語，安在當下。
Don't wait for a better day.
Somewhere at the back of your wardrobe or a drawer, is there something good you cannot bring yourself to use?
We are in the habit of keeping the best of things for later. For an occasion that matters, or for a moment when we feel we have earned it. And for the sake of that waiting, a great many good things are set aside in a corner, gathering dust.
The Himba women of north-west Namibia treat what is precious to them quite differently.
Through the hottest, driest months of the year, the resin of Namibian myrrh seeps out of the bark of a low shrub by itself, setting there or falling to the ground beneath it. The women usually go out once in a season and spend a morning gathering it. That is all a year will yield, and it is precious; yet they never keep what they have gathered back for a festival.
The scent is bright at first, like citrus peel just scored open, with something clean in it of turpentine. They press the resin down beneath animal fat and let the fragrance work its way in, then smooth a little of it over their skin and hair. Give it a moment and the resin underneath thickens, turning into a layer of rounded, warm balsam that keeps them company through the most ordinary of days.
Something precious enough to be gathered in a single morning of the year, and they did not wait for a special day to use it. What a day comes to is a matter of how you are willing to treat it.
If you too have something good that has been waiting for a day "good enough" before you will bring it out, remember that in a life that keeps shifting, there is no perfectly right moment to be had.
So the best of things need not wait for a special day. Today is already worth it.
𝘽𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩.