Overwhelmed by Sheep Fluff
I feel like I've been attracting sheep a lot lately.
It all started at the beginning of the year when my husband said he wanted to get a new duvet, so we went around to bedding stores together. I had just finished reading 'How to Sleep in a Corner of the Universe' and was thinking about how I'd love to sleep on a sheepskin sheet.
A sheepskin sheet is a sheet made from sheepskin, and wool is water-repellent and has excellent moisture absorption, release, and body pressure distribution properties. The temperature when it touches your skin is always 28°C, whether in summer or winter, maintaining a comfortable temperature. I heard that every bedding manufacturer develops their mattresses aiming for the comfort of a sheepskin sheet, so after rolling around on many of them, I finally chose a sheepskin sheet with long wool fibers.
The first thing that surprised me when I started using the sheepskin sheet was that my skin became moisturized by the water vapor I emitted myself. Since I originally had dry skin, the effect was immense. My dry heels and wrinkled hands became supple without any moisturizing care, and the moisture level of my skin feels like it has rejuvenated by 10 years.
And then, of course, there is the wonderful body pressure distribution. I had knee surgery a long time ago, and I often used to wake up with pain so intense it felt like my knees were being torn off. But since switching to the sheepskin sheet, that pain has completely disappeared. Being freed from this pain was a very happy and joyful event.
By the way, what is considered high quality is the Australian Merino spring lamb, which is high-density, has little damage from sunburn, is under 3 to 5 months old, and uses the skin from the back that has not yet been shorn even once. It is said that a single size uses the raw hides of five lambs.
The quality (and price) of sheepskin sheets varies widely; Mitsukoshi was selling them for 1.2 million yen, while the lowest price online was 30,000 yen. At first, it was more expensive than I had imagined, and I hesitated, thinking about how I could sleep every day on the skin of five lambs whose lives had been taken. Still, I ultimately chose it out of curiosity to experience the history of how ancient people slept on animal fur, and a desire to get a good night's sleep.
When I think about the lives of the five lambs, the price is immeasurable, and I feel that it is a noble thing for fragments of life to be useful to someone for decades.
When I go to sleep, I stroke the wool and
I have started to go to sleep feeling grateful to the sheep and to the day.
By the way, I am an Aries born in the spring.
In June, while reading my horoscope for the second half of the year, I suddenly wondered why those born in the spring are Aries, so I asked Gemini.
In civilizations such as ancient Egypt and Babylonia, the ram was sometimes considered a symbol of a 'messenger of God' or 'strength.' By placing the sheep, a symbol full of vitality, at the 'special timing when the sun regains its power' known as the vernal equinox, they gave strong meaning to the cycle of the year.
Thus, the fact that Aries is in April (the vernal equinox) is not just a positional relationship on the celestial sphere, but can be called cultural wisdom deeply connected to the actual lives of people at the time, such as 'spring = birth of new life = birth of lambs.'
Sheep are indeed deeply connected to people's lives, aren't they?
And the movie 'Sheep Detective Agency,' which was still in theaters, was already available on Amazon Prime. It's a mystery movie where sheep whose beloved owner was killed struggle to find the culprit. Recent releases are too fast! It's a dilemma between the thought that the film industry will decline if fewer customers spend money at movie theaters, and the gratitude for being able to watch them at home.
It's a detective story set in a rural town in England, and since it firmly hits the classic tropes where you think 'isn't this person the culprit?' from the beginning, and it's directed by Kyle Balda of the 'Minions' series with sheep as detectives, it was definitely going to be fun and cute. Lily's intelligence, the head-butting twins, and the lambs not born in spring were all adorable. I kind of admire the job of a shepherd.
The living room carpet arrived this week and
of course, it's wool.
Since switching to the sheepskin sheet, the pillow I had been using no longer fit, so when I told my daughter I wanted a new pillow, she said the 'Sheep-Free Pillow' I'm using now is good, so
I'm thinking, 'It's sheep again'.