It has been a week! Not only have the already tumultuous politics gone completely haywire, but my Prius hit 100 thousand miles so I was in the garage two morning at a very early hour. All so my car could have it's electronics reset so the warning signals don't continue to flash at me when I speed down the highway. I feel like I'm inside a robot: "Danger Will Robinson Danger!"
But it's a nice ritual sitting in my friend Billy's garage waiting for these fixes. He runs a sort of therapy session, salon and community meeting every morning presiding as the mayor of his little stretch of Nepperhan Ave in Yonkers. I always have the most interesting conversations there.
However when I have to get up early to have my car reset it upsets my own daily rituals and all the little things I need to do each morning to reset my own system. Stretching, walking and meditating. When you live with chronic pain, no matter how minor, (mine is lower back and sciatic) there is a regular maintenance that needs to occur just like oil changes for the car.
My daily rituals are such a pleasure when I can keep to them. Waking early, doing forward bends and sun salutations, eating my zucchini pancakes. However, one must be flexible in life especially during weeks when the car breaks down or the president decides to obstruct FBI investigations! Or if you want to get away on a vacation, but there is nothing more reassuring and calming to the body than ritual.
Its not just the daily ritual either. There are certain rhythms and rituals that must occur each year because they feel right. Putting away the winter clothes, changing the bed linens, cleaning out the garden, watching the amaryllis and the peonies open. In winter its packing in the car with skis and snacks and heading to the mountains, or making gingerbread on the weekend after Thanksgiving. In summer it was always playing "The Harder They Come" or "Shiny Happy People" on the CD player and singing with the kids as we drive over the Bourne Bridge onto the Cape. We no longer do this because the kids have grown, so the rituals shift and change gradually as we do. This year I look forward to a new one: going to the Botanical Garden with the kids for Mother's Day. Their invitation. Good kids.
But it's a nice ritual sitting in my friend Billy's garage waiting for these fixes. He runs a sort of therapy session, salon and community meeting every morning presiding as the mayor of his little stretch of Nepperhan Ave in Yonkers. I always have the most interesting conversations there.
However when I have to get up early to have my car reset it upsets my own daily rituals and all the little things I need to do each morning to reset my own system. Stretching, walking and meditating. When you live with chronic pain, no matter how minor, (mine is lower back and sciatic) there is a regular maintenance that needs to occur just like oil changes for the car.
My daily rituals are such a pleasure when I can keep to them. Waking early, doing forward bends and sun salutations, eating my zucchini pancakes. However, one must be flexible in life especially during weeks when the car breaks down or the president decides to obstruct FBI investigations! Or if you want to get away on a vacation, but there is nothing more reassuring and calming to the body than ritual.
Its not just the daily ritual either. There are certain rhythms and rituals that must occur each year because they feel right. Putting away the winter clothes, changing the bed linens, cleaning out the garden, watching the amaryllis and the peonies open. In winter its packing in the car with skis and snacks and heading to the mountains, or making gingerbread on the weekend after Thanksgiving. In summer it was always playing "The Harder They Come" or "Shiny Happy People" on the CD player and singing with the kids as we drive over the Bourne Bridge onto the Cape. We no longer do this because the kids have grown, so the rituals shift and change gradually as we do. This year I look forward to a new one: going to the Botanical Garden with the kids for Mother's Day. Their invitation. Good kids.
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