I took swimming lessons all through my childhood, and by the time I was 12 I realized I was on my way to becoming a lifeguard. I spent endless hours in lifesaving classes, swimming lap after lap with dozens of other students. The choppy water made it harder to breathe, because when you turned your [...]
Category Archives: rituals
control
Also posted in contemplation, mindfulness, minimalism, organizing, spirituality, wellness
Tagged control, personal development, personal growth
Comments closed
recalculating
I remember when my dad first got a GPS for his car. I would laugh whenever he took a wrong turn, and the machine would intone: “Recalculating. Recalculating…” Now I’m the one who’s recalculating. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I keep getting hunches that I should cut back on the time that [...]
Also posted in contemplation, mindfulness, prayer, soul, spirituality, wellness
Tagged personal development, personal growth
Comments closed
learning to trust the inner voice
I have a horrific headache as I’m writing this, so it may be very short. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trust – and about trusting my inner voice most of all. It’s part of why I’m writing my book about ritual – I believe so strongly that it’s our connection to our inner [...]
Also posted in contemplation, mindfulness, spirituality
Tagged inner voice, intuition, personal development, personal growth, Source
Comments closed
food as medicine
In the pre-dawn half-light, I prepare my breakfast. I wash my hands with scented vegetable oil soap and warm water. I pull my ingredients out of the fridge, one by one. A base of green leaves – romaine or leaf lettuce, sometimes accented with kale or cabbage. A colourful harmony of vegetables – different every [...]
sweeping
My first paid job (aside from babysitting, and helping family friends with a coat-checking gig at a local hotel when I was 13) was dishwashing in a nursing home. I was a model employee: smart, learned my tasks quickly, hard-working, conscientious… and each shift I finished much earlier than my employer expected. So they kept [...]
Also posted in cleaning, contemplation, home, housework, mindfulness
Tagged cleaning, contemplation, eco-friendly, floors, green, sweeping
Comments closed
ritual – the book
Have you ever stopped to look back on the last few months of your life, and noticed a huge, unexplainable shift? Have you ever wondered how you got from A to B? Are you ever amazed at the path that life has taken you down? In January 2012 I had one active blog and a [...]
Also posted in contemplation, wellness
Tagged book, creativity, draft, journey, personal growth, ritual
Comments closed
being fed
I have stories running through my head all the time. One recent story involves a man and a woman. They are beginning a relationship, and they each have very different attitudes towards food. The man sees food as a necessity, but he doesn’t like to think too much about preparing it, or even eating it. [...]
Also posted in contemplation, soul, wellness
Tagged cooking, food, personal development, personal growth, relationships, ritual
Comments closed
the fruits of ritual
There’s a woods I like to walk in. Far off the beaten path (and hikers aren’t supposed to go off the beaten path, so shhh, don’t tell anyone) there’s a wild apple orchard, overgrown and voluptuously prolific. In the fall, the ground is literally covered with fallen fruit as far as the eye can see. [...]
incorporating new experience
Once the ritual is finished, and you’ve returned to your regular daily life (hopefully transformed, and with the treasure you’ve brought back with you), it’s time to incorporate your new experience. (This is where reflecting on your experience can be useful.) I love the word incorporate. It literally means to “put in the body,” or [...]
