Rituals of Everyday

Last fall I heard Rachel Naomi Remen when she came to speak in Burlington, VT. She is a gifted woman in many ways and I knew I would enjoy her books, which I have since read.

I love the nuggets of insight scattered through Rachel's Remen’s books, Kitchen Table Wisdom and Grandfather’s Blessings.

One of the  survival gems that I particularly like was told to her by a Tibetan nun – every morning the nun would fill a bowl with water from a stream. The water would represent the day:  its beauty, its challenges, the good, the uncertain, and the bad, all swirling together in the bowl. She would think briefly about what that day might hold.  At the end of the day she would pour the water back into the earth, turn the bowl over, and let the day go. The next morning the ritual was repeated and a new day began. I liked the symbolic acceptance  of the day and whatever it might hold– and have adopted the ritual in my house. While the water I pour may no come from a mountain stream, or bubbling well in the earth, it does rest in a beautiful old Chinese Bowl, with a fisherman inside and all of my world swirling over it.

It's been a simple way for me to help me to live in the present, learn to appreciate each day for what it is, and also to be able to let go of those that have already happened. 

What rituals do you enjoy? Won't you share them with us?