Rituals

Recently, I was thinking about bedtime rituals.  I can think of them in terms of putting a baby to bed easier than for myself.  For me, in my life, I have never even considered myself to even have a bedtime ritual.  I say my prayers during the day much more than in the evening before going to bed.  I do say prayers each evening, a habit I have had all my life.  But it is not part of what I’d consider to be a ritual.

A ritual, in my mind, seems to be more than that.  As important as prayer is to me, I say prayers throughout the day and bedtime is only one of them.  I could definitely be wrong about this.

But, I remember specific bedtime rituals with my children.  It consisted of having a bath, putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, a story, tucking them in, a kiss and a hug and maybe a song followed by saying, “Goodnight, sleep tight and sweet dreams.”  We all looked forward to this ritual.  I know I did.

As I have been thinking about this, I realize that rituals are actually a part of everyday life.  And this is not just at bedtime either.  The specific things we tend to do on a daily basis can be seen as rituals.  In fact, our lives are full of them.  Some people have specific ways of doing things that they consider the “right way” of doing things for all people, not just themselves. 

As I think about it a little more, rituals can be like a kind of “trademark” for a person.  We all have rituals.  We each have our way of doing different tasks.  We may not call them that, but they can be seen in that way.

As I get older, I enjoy the memory of bedtime rituals and other things we did as a family.  The things we did then and the ones we do now, create the memories that we will treasure for the rest of our lives.  Rituals are just a part of it.  And as they play a part in our lives now, they will live on in the memories of those we leave behind.

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