#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Ritual

the readiness is all

~ William Shakespeare

Stars in the night sky coming to light. A flock of geese honking overhead. Damp, warm night air. Crickets. The table on the deck, a candle, our chairs around it. We are home. My son has invited us to have a family council. It is after dinner, a dinner on the deck. All of us, and my father-in-law who flew in today as well. Not all of us can be in the circle. My youngest has to go to bed early to rise early and drive to a Playback performance in the Berkshires. My son has a new flute he plays to open our ritual. We all deeply listen and share what moves us, one by one. We go around the circle four times. I am feeling deeply moved and grateful for this unity, this intimacy under the summer starry night. Then one person abruptly leaves the circle, says goodnight. And I wonder why; but I know the why is not to be known. I could imagine a hundred reasons and still not know. I share about accepting when things don’t go as expected. This disruption deepens the circle in a surprising way. Isn’t that wonderful? I think about this afterwards. How because the disruption occurred something else happened that was special. This awareness deepened my acceptance. Another thing I shared was how special it was to come out to the deck and see the table set so beautifully for the ritual by my son, and the candle lit, and how beautiful it was to be gathered in the candle and starlight. How cluttered and disrupted the house has felt under construction, how hard it is to find a place to gather that feels lovely and attractive. And here it was, so simply and lovingly and intentionally created. I also think about how much I hoped my children would have a spiritual life. And how none of them have embraced a religious life, even though I wanted them to have exposure to this. And how deeply spiritual my son is now, and how he expresses this in such subtle and quiet and powerful ways. When I arrived home around noon today, I was invited, immediately, outdoors by an eager hand, pulling and pulling me into nature. This Special One wanted to take me to the butterfly bush where we touched the monarch a few days ago. There was no monarch in the bush for us today. But we were happy to have a look. Then we went to see if there was any water in the brook, and there was only the crusty black mud that we could pick up like crackers and crumble it up. Rain, I pray, for the brook and all the living things soon.