How do you start your day? What is the first thing that happens as you emerge from slumber? Is it with an alarm or do you wake up instinctively? Do you need coffee or tea in the morning? Is your house quiet or noisy? Do you like having the radio or tv on or do you like the silence of the morning? Do you look outside to check the weather? Do you take a walk around the yard, checking out the garden?
I have been thinking about ritual, daily rituals that we embrace almost unconsciously, those things we do without thinking but, when they are disrupted, our day feels off kilter.
I first think of ritual as something that we do repeatedly that brings meaning or order. The dictionary definition is “A religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.” Communion is a ritual. Baptism is a ritual. But I also think that life is filled with many little rituals, habitual activities, that bring meaning. For me – it is a ritual to open my blinds first thing in the morning to see my garden. It brings me pleasure, anytime of the year, to see what is happening outside. My morning coffee is a ritual! I like the routine of filling the coffee maker, spooning in the coffee grounds, breathing in the aroma as it brews, and then that first flavourful sip. Ahhhh!
So I am pondering … what shifts routine to ritual? What happens to elevate what we ‘normally’ do to something that makes it ‘holy’? ‘Sacred’? I think it is something that makes us pause, something that stirs gratitude. An activity or experience that takes us to a place of sacredness. Something that moves us to prayer. A cup of coffee could be ‘just a cup of coffee’ or it could be a moment of gratitude for the grower who tended the plants, the picker who selected the beans, the trucker who moved the product, the grocer who lined the bags on the shelf, the technician who made sure the water was safe, the plumber who installed the faucet, the sensory gift that lets me smell and taste and see. All of these things combine to make that first sip a moment of gratitude, a moment of holy wonder for the goodness of creation. A moment that moves me to prayer for the goodness of life and all its riches.
How about you? Do you have a habit that is really more like a ritual – something that moves you to holy space?
