“This is the time to fly, to create, to investigate, to listen, to invent together.” ~ Bayo Akomolafe

When asked about the most important rituals of our lives, many of us respond first by naming those rituals that celebrate our connection to one another, that are carried out in community. We have an innate understanding of ritual’s extraordinary power to lift us beyond our individual selves and into the energy of the collective. On this last day of the practice, we invite you to tend your most treasured communal ritual. This may call forth a recommitment to a long-held practice or it may inspire the creation of something new. As a global community, we have arrived at the one-year mark of a pandemic that has kept us physically separate. In response, it seems that one of the most beautiful things we could do is deepen and expand the rituals that celebrate our profound interdependence, that express our wholehearted yes to one another and to life.  

• Begin with Gratitude. As you complete your breathing and gratitude ritual today, consider what this simple ritual has added to your week and how you might carry it forward.
• Reflect. This year has invited all of us to be creative about how we nurture connection with one another while physically apart. From drive-up graduations to balcony singing, we’ve witnessed and participated in communal rituals we had probably never imagined — testament to our innate sense of the power of ritual and our deep need for connection and shared joy. As you reflect on the year, what insights have you gained about the importance of communal ritual in your life? What have you created out of need that you now want to carry forward beyond the pandemic? What long-held communal ritual do you hold with new appreciation? 
• Connect with Joy. To tend something is to care for it with attention, to offer tenderness toward that thing. On your own or gathered virtually with a small circle of your beloveds (we encourage this collective approach!), recommit to the shared tending of a treasured communal ritual or to creatively designing something new that draws on the wisdom of the collective. Weave in the insights you’ve gained throughout the week’s practice about those aspects of ritual that deepen our connection to one another. Build your ritual as a container for joy. Enact it as an offering to a hurting world. Savor all that emerges.

Deepening Resource:

The Art of Gathering with Priya Parker in conversation with Brené Brown

Thank you so much for joining us for this week of reflection and creation. We’re grateful to be in community with you and would love to hear how you are tending the rituals of your lives.

We invite you to share your reflections below.