10 Comments

Very well done.

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Thank you!!

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Awesome post… My ritual is to send pictures to family members so that they see what I see… It’s always fun to get them in return… That way you can see it right where they are at that time at that place… And share that moment with them, no matter where you are in the world…

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One of the absolute best ❤️❤️❤️

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I had a deep rejection of religious rituals as a child and I sense much of the modern, intellectual world has rejected them as well. Your words bring up the observation that we all take part in rituals every day: morning meditation, making coffee, saying hello to that someone we see everyday but don't know well, walking to lunch with a colleague. Maybe, rituals are more defined by our attitude toward these activities than the activities themselves. Do we see everyone as sharing this beautiful, difficult, mysterious thing called humanity? Do we truly see and accept it in ourselves? If we do, maybe its possible that rituals that create connection are all around us. We just have to see them through the right light.

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Mmm love that you're bringing this up! It's a part of ritual that I decided to skip over for the sake of brevity. It could be it's own post entirely. Make the "mundane" sacred. Bringing intention, attention, purpose, meaning into small acts like making coffee or our morning commute. And how that connects us to each other and to all of life... There's so much here! It's hard to put into words. Thank you so much for opening this discussion. Would love to hear if you have anything more to share!

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I am a HUGE fan of rituals. I love my Sunday spa showers (TMI?), birthday lunches/dinners with friends we make a point never to miss, my odd addiction to EastEnders, my inexplicable delight in F1 (don't judge me; I already judge me for that). Starting a new urban-hike-to-brunch ritual with a friend now that the weather's getting better. If only I could fall in love with the ritual of housecleaning. All of these rituals/traditions do bring us closer -- to ourselves, to our loved ones, to our community. This is a lovely post, Sue. Thank you. Enjoy your travels. xo

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Oooh I love all these examples of non-religious rituals! Giving me a few ideas of my own... And the ritual of housecleaning! Hah. That's a good way of re-framing it. Think of all the people who have spent hours upon hours cleaning houses. Now there's a communal connection. Thanks for sharing Sandra, and as always, thank you for your support!

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My friend and I started a housecleaning ritual. Each day is assigned a task so that the cleaning is spread out during the week days. Mirror and Microwave Monday which includes dusting too, Toilet Tuesday, Wash Wednesday, Trash Thursday, Floor Friday (includes vacuuming).

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Rituals are important as they bring us together. In Sweden, where I come from, we still celebrate christmas (on the 24th of dec :-)) , Easter etc. even though like 80% consider themselves atheists. Since Sweden has been ipeace for over 200 years we don't have any officially rituals related to the war (for some reasons we don't have any rituals celebrating peace either). One of our greatest ritual is "Midsummer" where we bring all together (family members , friends and others) to dance around the maypole, feasting etc.... Without our official rituals we would be much more lonely than we already are. Globalisation also makes us inherit more rituals (especially those coming from US)That's good!

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