Rituals
Heather asked me to fill in for her today (not that I could EVER take the place of Heather!) and so I decided to write about rituals.
We just finished up another season of religious ritual, including giving up something for Lent. (For me that was all sodas except club soda. Technically, I could have had a soda at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday, but I didn’t. Funny, I missed soda terribly at the beginning of Lent, and now don’t miss it at all.) And of course, Easter brought lots of rituals–dying eggs, a hunt for those same eggs Easter morning, Easter baskets, church, dinner with family.
All those rituals got me to thinking about writing rituals. I have two: I feel I MUST light a candle before I write in my home office. And I MUST have a caffeinated cup of coffee.
About a month ago, I tried to give up both. Even cheap candles add up. And caffeine isn’t healthy. I’d been making half a pot of coffee in my family coffee maker–and drinking all that myself, since my husband switched to tea as his morning beverage about half a year ago. I started seeing my writing rituals as vices. My self-sacrifice didn’t have a thing to do with Lent. I just wanted to “improve” myself.
Well, maybe if I had given them up for Lent I’d have had better success. Instead, I found myself sneaking the dining table candles down to my office and burning them. And running out to buy expensive coffee… just this once.
Finally, I decided some rituals should just be treated as sacred–and not as vices. So, I stocked up on votive candles (much safer around all that paper than tapers!) And I invested in a one-cup coffee maker, a cute Sanseo. The one-cup maker is expensive in the short-term, but in the long run it’s a lot cheaper, in terms of both time and money, than running out for coffee. And a whole lot healthier to have one cup than a whole pot.
So… how about you? Any rituals you wouldn’t do without before writing, crafting, working, etc.?
