San Antonio Day 5:

I will post this and one more ‘info’ one and then try to stop.

This, however, continues to return to me.

The word ‘rituals’...not big fancy ceremonies but those little  things we all do everyday that soothe us, keep us balanced...sacred little moments.

Roll over in bed after the alarm, brush our teeth, take a shower, have our cuppa’ coffee, work out, read the news, have a bedtime snack, pray...there are a million and one ways that we lean into our day with these little rituals.

When one little ritual gets moved or taken away, we get thrown off a titch...kinda’ get ‘flermookled’!

I told Joe how that kept coming to me when we were interacting with the migrant families;  as I have my morning coffee now, knowing how their morning begins, I think of them...so MANY times it comes to me....here are two:

After spending time with my grands and sharing ‘treats’...a typical granny ritual...I remember the abuela who brought her nietos with her and gave them each an apple b4 bedtime.  I had to ask her to take the children out of the room where they sat on their cots because no food was allowed in the rooms. They had to stand in the hall. It was for a good reason, to keep mice, ants, critters away and she was MORE than gracious as were the kids but UGH. This little ritual of evening snack time with her grands was not allowed.

All I could say was “Soy abuela. Lo siento.”

Eye contact told me she understood but...

And then we worked the afternoon bringing people over for showers. There were four shower stalls so families went in together to shower (with a 5-7 minute time request).  There were MANY families so this took 4 hours...you can imagine the wait...and again many thank you’s!

The VERY FIRST thing I thought about when I arrived home to my bath ‘ritual’ was these folk and, well...

I guess that’s all. Just wanted to get it off my mind and heart and on to this although it will remain within me, AS WELL IT SHOULD.

Maybe you might think about your own rituals and how they soothe you...we ALL have them...and then maybe you could breathe a prayer of gratitude and then maybe you could add a ritual...lifting those whose balance has been completely flipped...just for a sacred moment.