Family, Games, gardening, Gatherings, home, Uncategorized

Ritual

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The neighbors across the street are a hard working, industrious couple who spends every weekend at a little, man made lake about 50 miles east of here. It is a murky hole in the ground that greens up quite soon after the temperature gets warm, but people from around here flock there, mainly for spots to park their campers and get away from the hectic bustle of city life. (Such as it is out here!)

Every Sunday afternoon they return home and we get to observe the ritual washing of the pickup. They have only been gone two nights, they travel mainly on paved roads, yet that pickup gets washed and vacuumed inside and out.  It never fails.It is as though they can’t settle down and relax until the pickup is spotless and back in the garage.

I suppose we all have rituals of some sort. Many rituals serve as declarations of the sacred, whether we are religious or not.  Other rituals serve to bring families together.  Many folks out here have a ritual of playing pinochle after extended family dinners, or rituals involving  sausage making during deer season. Some hunting families  out here have a communal shoot into the air before starting hunting to honor family members who have died. Morning coffee has become a ritual in our home, as the person who goes to work later makes the coffee for the person who goes to work earlier, and the quality of the coffee is always evaluated. The point is that we have coffee together before anyone goes to work.  We will attend the Twin Buttes Pow Wow this weekend, a celebration full of rituals.

What rituals do you observe and participate in? Did your family have rituals when you were growing up? Are you a creature of habit?  

32 thoughts on “Ritual”

    1. Well, yes, but hunting rituals don’t seem to make sense. For example, it is part of the deer hunting weekend that requires hunters to get really, really drunk, pick up a loaded gun, then make forays into the wilderness in a state that leaves them vulnerable. They shoot each other, they shoot cows, they pass out in the woods.

      I lived in N. MN, way out in the forest for several years as a young adult. At 6 am on the first day of deer season we would be awakened by the celebratory shoot. Yes, indeed, I think it wakes up the animals.

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  2. my family rituals growing up were popcorn night in sunday’s watching walt disney , going to 9:00 mass on sunday morning and fish sticks on fridays. lawrence well was in there somewhere and trips to fargo to see cousins at least once a season ware the highlights.
    my own kids see my cbs sunday morning ritual, garrison was there until he wasn’t, i got lots of flack about my sunday morning potato mission and how the cumin fills the air.
    my life kind of became a role with the punches model instead of a paint by numbers thing as the needs called for things to be done on a catch as catch can basis.
    the blog may be a ritual thing to check in the morning but that’s about it.
    i follow the twins and vikings, theater and music art and authors but in a non ritual fashion these days.
    it’s a dose of reality to realize trips to montana florida even ely are all dependent on budgetary concerns. i love travel and concerts and theater but bucks have kept me close to cloistered the last little while and my traditionscthese days are going to entrepreneurial meetups to recharge and motivate toward that end.
    i see others bask in the retirement world and can’t envision that world for me any time soon
    i recently put farmville on my phone and found it to be dangeresouly addictive so i will be real careful about letting my life get sucked down a wormhole of mindless preoccupation for its own sake
    i guess my first thursday card game has been going on for almost 20 years. my guitar playing second friday for about 6 or 7 and my new wednesday night jam are all good x’s to put on the colander.
    the best kept ritual is a soaking bath but in current house with 1 tub and others who inherited the bathtub ritual i don’t get it as often or as long or when i would take it in a solo environment but as a soon to be empty nester i find my favorite rituals are family based get together on holidays birthdays and even just catching them on their way out the door to tell them to have a good day.
    two daughters off to college in chicago next year and son in the basement is threatening to get a life. gotta feel sorry for him. it’s gonna cost him bucks to declare independence but i guess that’s part of the deal. we will have a 4 bedroom house for 2 more years then figure out what is next after the dust settles
    i need to create an exercise ritual. i really do. old age makes you appreciate the good old days when your body worked properly. maybe a ritual of doing the right thing can tweak the rust on the hinges. worth a try..,

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    On Saturday and Sunday I complete the very important ritual of The Weekend Crossword Puzzle. So satisfying. And while there are crossword obsessed hobbyists out there, no crossword requires me to get drunk and shoot a gun at anything. And please note, I am not anti gun, I am just anti drunk shooting.

    I have a lot of rituals, many of which I find comforting or that allow me to get on with my day. I make my bed every morning. It just gives me something to do while I wake up and move on to putting on my gym clothes, then launch myself out the door to exercise. Another favorite ritual is the Sunday afternoon televised Vikings Game (with the sound off), in which I ignore the game and do the Sunday Crossword. Then I fall asleep in the third quarter on the couch covered by my fleece throw. I awaken in time to know if they won or lose and watch all the replays of great plays. Once I actually attended a Vikings Game. I did not like it because all there was to do was Watch The Game.

    OT—yesterday was medical/dental appointment day. Wed. Sept 18 I join LJB as a patient. I need a knee replacement. GGGrrroooooaaann. I don’t want to do this. And I must. A knee replacement does not really compare to LJB’s level of intervention or threat, but I am still reconciling myself to it and accepting that life ain’t fair. I believe that is called pouting.

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    1. Ooh, that knee replacement does not sound fun, Jacque.

      I am about to embark on a new phase in life where I will have to find new rituals. My entire focus will have to be Taking Care of Myself. Which, frankly, sounds kinda boring. It will include daily medical appointments for a while, which will Not Be Fun At All. But it’s necessary.

      I suppose I will be able to incorporate some new rituals into the new life, but I do not know yet what those will be. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to watch some Twins games on TV, which will be a treat, since at home I’m limited to only radio listening.

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      1. Stay focused on the that one advantage, then. TV! And the Twins are really hot this year.

        Is it cable or other expanded stations? If so, you can stay occupied and distracted from the real issues for at least 3 months. My cancer recovery occurred just as cable was hitting the scene and it pulled my attention away from The Darlk Thoughts, which, while really a threat, are not helpful to recovery.

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        1. Dark thoughts. Right, they are not helpful. I’ve learned I need to ask lots of ‘And then?’ questions at the doctor. Because if I don’t know the ‘what-if’s’ then I’ll create them in my head and my imagination is worse.

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    3. I know your sense of trepidation, Jacque, but I suspect that you’ll be greatly relieved to discover that the surgery isn’t nearly as bad as you imagined, and you’ll be pain free. That was my experience when I finally, after several years in pain, agreed to a knee replacement. I predict you’ll be back in great shape in no time.

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  4. I’m actually off in a few minutes to do a ritual this morning. This is a biannual ritual, the cleaning of the allergy covers. So strip the bed, take the mattress and box spring off the frame, take the allergy covers off, get everything washed in hot water then super hot dryer (this means laundromat) and then put it all back together when I get home.

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  5. I have fewer rituals (besides morning ablutions) than I used to, because my schedule is now always in a state of flux – the pieces of the puzzle get moved around each week and depend on each other. I still do some crosswords and Sudoku, but instead of Sunday, they’re whenever.

    I guess my anchor ritual is Tuesday and Friday morning’s t’ai chi, and Saturday a.m. Farmers Mkt, but I try to get home for Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. And I try to keep Wednesday mornings clear, so I have one day when I don’t have to get up and go anywhere.

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  6. Today we did our annual covering the strawberries with netting to keep the robins out. It is sort of like putting up the Christmas tree in terms of testing the strength of one’s marriage. We were successful. The netting is down and no one was stabbed with a netting stake.

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  8. Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s on the Trail. The Bing Daily picture and quiz has a gorgeous picture of a lion and cub on their site today. We will take part in the annual Father’s Day ritual of the Lake Harriet Concert (FREE, FREE, FREE) with Cantus. We will swathe ourselves in bug dope, take and umbrella and go listen to angels sing.

    This morning I am weeding and thinning garden plants.

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  9. I’m not really consistent enough to observe rituals. Some habits stick, like the morning coffee and reading a bit before going to sleep at night and watching PBS Newshour. But I don’t think hose qualify as rituals.

    I can’t imagine washing a pickup once a year. My car would be lucky to get cleaned once a year.

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  10. I’m in the camp of baboons who doesn’t think of daily habits as rituals. To me a ritual is much more regimented. Not in a negative way, but much more ceremonial. There are lots of things I do every day – mostly by necessity – but I don’t think of them as rituals.

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