Daily Rituals

This is callie my one yr old cat. She thinks she is human and we haven't told her the truth. shhhhhh

I have had cats all of my life, but this one is certainly different from any other.
She spends every night wrapped around or across my head. She will wash every inch of my face and of course that always wakes me up.

Every morning she heads to the bathroom with us and has her 'morning drink.' If we forget to leave the water on for her she will meow and let us know we aren't doing our part.

I always laugh. This morning I started thinking about the rituals I go through. They are always done the same way and in the same order.

We have two dozen coffee cups and there are only 2 I pick to drink coffee out of every morning. I have to drink a soft drink out of a certain mug---it happens to be a WSU thermal cup with handle--from our son's college.

No matter how many times i rearrange my studio, my art tools are always on my right.
When I put on my tennis shoes they are always double knotted and the ends slipped through the first shoe lace at the bottom of the tongue. I can't afford any 'trips' if i can help it.

When I enter an antique store I ALWAYS go to the right first. It never fails. I thought about it today when I was browsing through one. I never vary my pathway.

If each of us thought of all the 'rituals' we observe consciously and unconsciously
I imagine we could come up with a pretty long list.

I mentioned it to John this morning when Callie was 'drinking' her morning water.
He agreed. We have two sinks in our bathroom and we each use a different one and the same one every day. I guess it is like sleeping in bed.

We don't ever remember saying "I want to sleep here you sleep there." John has always slept facing the door no matter what angle the bed is placed.

That has been our sleeping ritual for 36 years and remains the same when we travel and stay in other beds.

I have a vert odd ritual that I observe every time I have a lot of stress or increased pain. If it lasts more than a few days I have to completely reorganize my studio. I once talked to my therapist about it and his comment was that this is MY space exclusively. IF I can't change what is causing the stress or the increased pain, I CAN change my space. It is like being out of control and taking control of what I can.

This week is another one of those weeks and it is only Monday. The stress actually has been ongoing for a few weeks now. Things are just coming to a head. It has to do with my family meaning my Mother.

It is too detailed to go into here but my five siblings are all as stressed as I am over it.

I told my sister in law I know I am very upset with her as I am redoing my studio.
She sighed and said I wish I had a studio to redo instead of eating chocolate.

She decided that was her ritual!!

I hope I have planted a seed for each of you to sit back and think about the 'rituals' you observe throughout your own day.
catie