rituals and traditions
May. 6th, 2019 10:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingMy congregation has been doing monthly themes for a while, which means all the sermons in a given month are vaguely related and we get a list of things to think about during the weeks. This is May's.
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Possible Ponderings
The theme for May is Tradition.
Possible Ponderings is an offering of ways you might consider engaging more deeply with the theme or reflecting on the ways the idea of Tradition shows up in your life. These will also be printed in the order of service each week.
May 5-11: What are the daily, monthly, or seasonal rituals that sustain you?
May 12-18: Who are the people who have inspired and nurtured you in your life? How can you thank them this week?
May 19-26: How do you live your Unitarian Universalist values in your daily life? How would someone known you are a UU just by knowing you?
May 27-June 1: Take some time this week to notice the memories of those who have died when they come. How does it feel to remember them?
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So. Rituals that sustain me.
On a purely practical daily level, meals and chores. *wry* But also I have a very specific thing I do as close to every day as possible, which is walk to Cascadilla Creek and take a picture from the Tioga St. bridge, looking east. I have been doing that for six or seven years now, and I find it a very useful physical and mental pin to sort of arrange my days around. It makes sure I get out of my house and get some exercise, and it makes sure I spend at least a couple minutes looking at moving water and trees and stuff.
I don't think I have any monthly rituals as such, but there's the seasonal round of gardening, which is very emotionally fulfilling -- sort of "Look! I am helping things grow! And then I get to eat food I participated in creating!" Plus it's very cycle of life. Seeds sprout, plants grow and bloom and fruit, and then they die when winter comes (or I bring them inside and they are slow and tired for a season)... and then spring returns and we start all over again.
In winter I also light candles in the evening a lot, which is both a way to make my apartment smell nicer when it's all closed up against the cold (scented candles, tealights under a wax melter, etc.) and a little bit of light-in-the-darkness symbolism. *wry*
Those are some of my rituals.
What are yours?
-----
Possible Ponderings
The theme for May is Tradition.
Possible Ponderings is an offering of ways you might consider engaging more deeply with the theme or reflecting on the ways the idea of Tradition shows up in your life. These will also be printed in the order of service each week.
May 5-11: What are the daily, monthly, or seasonal rituals that sustain you?
May 12-18: Who are the people who have inspired and nurtured you in your life? How can you thank them this week?
May 19-26: How do you live your Unitarian Universalist values in your daily life? How would someone known you are a UU just by knowing you?
May 27-June 1: Take some time this week to notice the memories of those who have died when they come. How does it feel to remember them?
-----
So. Rituals that sustain me.
On a purely practical daily level, meals and chores. *wry* But also I have a very specific thing I do as close to every day as possible, which is walk to Cascadilla Creek and take a picture from the Tioga St. bridge, looking east. I have been doing that for six or seven years now, and I find it a very useful physical and mental pin to sort of arrange my days around. It makes sure I get out of my house and get some exercise, and it makes sure I spend at least a couple minutes looking at moving water and trees and stuff.
I don't think I have any monthly rituals as such, but there's the seasonal round of gardening, which is very emotionally fulfilling -- sort of "Look! I am helping things grow! And then I get to eat food I participated in creating!" Plus it's very cycle of life. Seeds sprout, plants grow and bloom and fruit, and then they die when winter comes (or I bring them inside and they are slow and tired for a season)... and then spring returns and we start all over again.
In winter I also light candles in the evening a lot, which is both a way to make my apartment smell nicer when it's all closed up against the cold (scented candles, tealights under a wax melter, etc.) and a little bit of light-in-the-darkness symbolism. *wry*
Those are some of my rituals.
What are yours?
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-07 03:36 pm (UTC)I actually do a similar thing to your picture-taking: on Tuesdays, I get up at early o'clock to drive my sister to school, and then I have some time before work, which I spend in a coffee shop. On the way to work from the coffee shop, I pass a reservoir, so I usually stop and take a picture, from the same vantage point every time.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-08 04:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-05-11 11:27 pm (UTC)