Ritual and Routine, Preparing Atmospheres ~ Joylene M Bailey

My husband and I are entering a new season. New home, new community, new calling. New season.

This demands some new rituals and routines. Since I don't really have any in place yet, I decided to do a study on ritual and routine, and the difference between them.

I paid special attention to my movements this week, from the time I woke up each day. Maybe I already had some rituals in place that I hadn't noticed before.

I wanted to pay attention to what I do naturally; what fuels me, what I lean towards doing, what brings me joy. These are the things that become rituals - things that prepare the atmosphere for my writing. They settle me into my work, my purpose, my calling.

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Rituals help you make the most of time and help you feel you have more of it because you are enjoying yourself more deeply as you flow through the day, adding touches that stimulate enthusiasm and give energy.

[Alexandra Stoddard - Living a Beautiful Life]

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It's natural for me to wake early. I love the early morning; I'm most creative in the morning. Once I've dressed in comfy clothes, slithered my feet into cozy socks, and put on my grey cardigan with the shawl collar, I head to my new library, painted in Woodlawn Blue. Such an airy, peaceful colour.

The large windows face Northeast. Morning light slowly and gradually bathes the room, illuminating the books on the shelves, which give me joy whenever I look at them. The sound of the outdoors is important to me so, except on the coldest of days, the first thing I do is open the windows. It's a bonus if the birds are singing, but more than that, I need to hear the trees speaking to me: the tentative whispers of the poplars, the confident wisdom of the grand evergreens.

Coffee in hand, I sit at my desk in the library to write Morning Pages. Morning Pages has been mentioned a few times on this blog, but if you're not familiar with them, suffice it to say, it's a brain dump, and it doesn't have to be pretty. Morning pages are meant to empty your brain of everything holding back your creativity, and they're not meant to be kept forever, like a journal. I couldn't bear to think of throwing out a pretty journal, so I got the old-style school notebooks - four for 79 cents.

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Morning Pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness... not meant to be art. Or even writing ... Pages are meant to be, simply, the act of moving the hand across the page and writing down whatever comes to mind. Nothing is too petty, too silly, too stupid, or too weird to be included... Nobody is allowed to read your morning pages except you.

[Julia Cameron - the Artist's Way]

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My Morning Pages are scribbled as thoughts come fast and furious. Not my best handwriting. But I do love handwriting - the actual act of handwriting, the forming of the words as the ink from my smooth-flowing blue pen glides across the paper. So, I take a couple of minutes to handwrite some quotes into my quote book before I tuck in to my Bible reading for the day.

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The grey cardigan with the shawl collar, the open windows, the sound of the trees, sitting at the desk, handwriting - these are rituals. They fuel me and give me energy.

Daily rituals are personal statements; they fuel our zest for living.

[Alexandra Stoddard - Living a Beautiful Life]

Coffee, Morning Pages, Bible Reading & Prayer, the walk I take before breakfast. These are routines, a usual order and way of doing something that brings structure to my morning, and thus my day.

And I haven't even got to my writing yet! The ideal for me would be to head back to my library after my walk and breakfast with The Cowboy, to write until 1 pm. Hopefully, with these new rituals and routines in place, that goal will be realized. I'll be fuelled and energized for the work ahead because I've already prepared the atmosphere. 

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Sunrise image by ken lecoq from Pixabay

Writing image by Tanvi Malik from Pixabay

Joy is implementing some new rituals and routines in their new home in the country, where she lives with The Cowboy and a puppy named Chara. Find more of her joy-infused view of the world at Scraps of Joy.