Rituals & Being Grateful
Rituals & Being Grateful
During the holiday season, a very dear friend of mine and I get together and go over the year. It is a little ritual we have been sharing for the past few years, and I treasure the moment, sometimes with trepidation, always with excitement.
A Year In Review
We talk about our accomplishments and obstacles and how we handled both. We talk about how we have grown and learned. We acknowledge to ourselves and each other how far we’ve come. We say good bye to the things we no longer care to carry with us and create ourselves anew.
We do all this without judgment. Our hearts are open to receive and give, to support, love and hold each other in this sacred space that we have created.
Then it is time to turn our eyes to the coming year. New goals and aspirations are set. We can now speak to our hopes, to our heart’s desires, to the road we choose to take.
We renew our commitment to being and doing the things we stand for. We re-commit to our own integrity and to the people we love. We re-commit to cherish our differences and how they serve to support us. And most of all, we honor our commitment to each other, to support our growth as spiritual beings, to encourage the pursuit of our dreams, and to always hold an open space in our hearts for love.
Rituals Help Define Who We Are
Rituals are an important part of our lives as human beings. They help define who we are, to ourselves, our loved ones, our friends, and to the world at large.
In simpler times rituals seemed more defined. Children witnessed them as part of their daily existence and knew what to expect for their own lives. American Indians of certain nations would change names to better portray the person they now were, as opposed to whom they had been up to now, thus acknowledging their continuing growth.
Now days, rituals are a little more blurry. Our communities have expanded to such proportions that the intimacy of the village has disappeared. We now communicate on a daily basis with people all over the world. Some spend days without face to face conversation -their world exists in virtual space.
We must take care that we ourselves do not become “virtual” being.
We Create Our Own Villages & Tribes
Maybe as a reaction to this we recreate our own villages with its sub-tribes, clans, and rituals. We gravitate towards people with whom we can relate. They could match our core values, have similar interests, or share certain characteristics. We, in part, define ourselves through them.
As you get together with family and friends for celebrations, become aware of the rituals, big and small, that define your community, tribes (group) and more specific clans (sub-groups).
- What things do you cherish as you gather with this particular group?
- What familiar gestures do you perform as a group?
- What defines you as a specific tribe / clan and in turn defines you yourself as a member of that group?
- What place do you hold within this group? How does that define you within the larger community?
Be Grateful
Acknowledge these things as they are and be grateful for the people that share that moment -be they family, friend, or strangers.
If you feel so inspired, create your own rituals to mark particular events and steps in your life. Do this by yourself or with others. Hold that space of non-judgment. Acknowledge the person that you are at that very moment.
One last thing… a very important detail too often forgotten: remember to pause for a second and truly look at your own accomplishments. Give yourself credit for the road covered.
Have a joyful end of 2007, and I’ll see you next year.
