my new ritual.

I’ve started a new tradition that I learned from my mom.

My momma visited last fall and I had to work some of the time she was here. When I would come home, I would find her in the backyard, reading, with a coffee mug of berries. She was so content. The kind of content/happy you are when you’re on vacation.

So now, when I come home, stressed, I take some steps. Before I get into freelance work, before I get into my own work, before I eat that bread and cheese, before I plop into bed to start the nap I’ve been daydreaming about, before I get overwhelmed by life… I do something for myself.

I do this..

Step 1: Fill a coffee mug with wine. [but do remember that a mug is significantly larger than a wine glass… this will explain a lot later.]

It must be a coffee mug so as to guard your own worries that the Buddhists will judge you. [which, p.s., they won’t… but still.]

Step 2: Grab your book.

Step 3: Sit in the garden. [maybe find some shade.]

Step 4: Read. Read not by the chapter, but by the wine. Relax. Read until the wine runs out. If you love what you’re reading, drink slow. If you’d rather be working, gulp, gulp.

[stop judging me… yes, i’m still reading Kavalier and Clay… slow reader, lots has been going on.]

Step 5: When done drinking, stop reading. Then go to the berries.

Step 6: Pick berries and deposit in now empty mug.

[sidenote: if the sprinkler comes on during this step and you decide to turn it into a berry-stealing, giggling/silent-screaming game, that’s all good and fine, but remember that you’ve left your book in the straw, right in the sprinkler’s line of fire.]

Step 7: Enjoy berries.

Step 8: Get to work.