Rituals

I’m working my way through a couple of on-line courses here in the waning days of summer.  Coincidentally (or is it ever really coincidence?) both have focused on creating rituals this week.

Ritual-making confounds me.

I certainly observe rituals in my life: how I celebrate the holidays with family, the way I ready my garden for spring and the way I tidy it up for the winter, the new folders that I set up for receipts every January. But daily rituals? What might that look like? How could it enrich what I’m already doing? Isn’t it just another thing to cram into already over-stuffed days?

I had just about decided to give up on the whole thing when I read that a synonym for “ritual” is “observation.” And then I winced.  “Video vidi visum” is Latin for “to see, observe and understand.” Perhaps these rituals have something to teach me after all, much as I want to shrug them off.

The shorter days mean that my early morning meditations are now taking place in semi-darkness. Perhaps mindfully lighting a candle – yes, creating a ritual out of it – will add something to the experience.

What else? Do you have rituals that you swear by? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Pictures taken with iPhone. The candle lighting has a Luminance filter added.
The photo of the reflections was taken via Instagram.