I love having this challenge to help structure my day. I love ritual, period. I don’t always know how to explain why I love ritual. It’s something I feel in my bones. Now, I am loving the challenge of finding a way to incorporate ritual into my life every day. I tell others that they can create rituals anytime, anywhere. What better way to show the truth of this than to do it myself?
Today involved a lot of activity, and while I thought about what I would do for my ritual challenge all day, I didn’t actually decide on anything until late afternoon, after I got a call from my best friend telling me that her husband’s father is in the hospital with a collapsed lung. I decided to spend five minutes sitting in ritual space with the intention of sending him comfort and healing.
The ritual was very simple. I lit a candle and asked to connect to my friend’s father-in-law’s higher self. Then I sat and breathed and prayed. There is often a great peace and stillness that comes when I bring myself into the present like this. It can be hard to hold focus. My mind was and is still busy; it wants to think about all the things I have to do tonight. But for the moments when I did hold focus, I was in peace. I believe we all have the potential to connect to each other through the space of present moments like these, and that this quality of blissful attention to being actually brings about a space outside of space and a time outside of time, a reality that is quite different from the one ordinary consciousness creates, but no less solid and true. I believe we can touch each other in this space even if we are physically distant, and I believe we can, through our loving intention, help each other find this space.
I dedicated whatever merit there was from my sitting in this space to my friend’s father-in-law, and then I blew out the candle, wishing that its light may also go to him, for whatever he most needs.
Incorporating Ritual 