Rituals

Today I was cleaning the studio, as I do every Monday, and thinking about how excited I was two or three years ago to learn some rituals from the yoga tradition. I loved the powerful expressiveness of the mantras, the intricate play between sacred objects and sacred gestures, and the overall sense that I was doing something deeply meaningful and important.

Nowadays, I don't feel particularly excited by those rituals. As I vacuumed and scrubbed this morning, I realized that right now I'm interested in other rituals. These are regular sequences of actions that have a deep meaning for me. Here are some examples.

1. Every morning I get up, put a coat on over my pajamas, and take my dog out for a walk. We go out to the field behind our apartment building and I let her off the leash. We walk two times around the track and then I work on "Heel!" with her on the way back. We come home and I feed her. Then I make hot water with lemon for myself and we sit on the couch and look out the window together.

2. On Sunday afternoons I clean out the refrigerator. Then on Monday morning before work, I sit down and make a meal plan for the week and a grocery list. After I teach my Monday class, I clean the studio, then go to the grocery store, then go home for lunch. That way, during the week, my husband and I are able to eat all our meals at home.

3. Here's how I clean the studio: first I use the little round attachment on the vacuum to clean all the baseboards (people have their faces down there in forearm stand), the windowsills, and the puja (including the murtis). Then I vacuum the middle of the floor and the sheepskin that is the teacher's seat.  While I vacuum, my hubby sweeps out the cubbies, washes the windows, and empties the trash. I swiffer the floor and stack the props neatly. We clean the bathrooms and then we're done.

Pretty dull, and yet these rituals give my life shape and meaning. When I walk my dog I feel full of love and delight. I love seeing that white dog running across the green field! When I plan and create meals for my family I feel grateful that I have the means to eat whatever I want, and the discipline to support my health with the choices I make. When I clean the studio I feel satisfied and contented that my staff and our students are going to have a beautiful space in which to practice our passion. I literally whistle while I work! (Just so you don't confuse me with a Disney character--I spend plenty of time cursing, gnashing my teeth, and acting like an asshole in other situations.)

It's really true...the mundane is sublime.