Ceremony

 

"That I think is the power of ceremony. It marries the mundane to the sacred. The water turns to wine, the coffee to prayer" Robin Wall Kimmerer

If we thought we could bring more of something into our lives that nourishes and cleanses us, just by noticing how it is already there with thought to its reverence and sacredness, would this be something you would be willing to do?

At 5:14 am on June 21,  when the tilt of the earth's axis was most inclined towards the sun and it was at the highest point in the sky, we welcomed the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice. The ceremony surrounding the Solstice has historically occurred around the world for centuries.  Evidence of this is clear in the placement of the stones at Stonehenge so the sun rises perfectly in the middle of them, making this a popular place to be for this astronomical event.  Many have made the pilgrimage to be part of this ceremony of watching the sunrise with dance, drumming, and connecting with others.   It is a time when the sun appears to stand still for a few days while its progress in the sky changes direction.  Many Slavic cultures such as our dear friends in  Ukraine have traditionally honored this day by making flower wreaths, herb collecting, jumping over fires, and bathing in rivers.  Fires have been a common element in the ceremony around the Solstice for many as they were originally believed to boost the strength of the sun for the remainder of the crop season which would ensure a good harvest.  The Solstice ceremonies are beautiful examples of bringing consciousness to rituals. 

In Canada, June 21st is also recognized as National Indigenous Peoples Day. This ceremonial day was established in 1996 to recognize and celebrate the heritage, cultures, contributions, and spiritual beliefs of the First Nations, Inuit, and Metis peoples. Three very distinct groups for us to learn from. The rationale for choosing the Solstice was that many indigenous peoples and communities have already celebrated their culture and heritage on or near this day. There are so many sacred ceremonies of the indigenous people that they partake in, not only on recognized special occasions but in their daily lives. They too, see fire as sacred and perform many rituals surrounding the building and preparing of a sacred fire. The fire is also used to carry prayers for healing.  The First  Nation lands on which I reside, are the Mikmaq.  I have had an opportunity recently to participate in a drumming circle at our school and part of this ceremony was the smudging of all of our staff and students.   The smudging ceremony is part of their daily life to cleanse themselves of negativity, nourishing them with support from their ancestors as well. The sweetgrass smudge is thought to wash the recipient in kindness and compassion to heal the body and the spirit.  When our drumming circle was created, there was an opening left facing the east, to leave room for the spirits and on this day in particular for the children found on the lands of the residential schools.  

 Ceremony is defined as  a group of actions performed for the symbolic value. It involves rituals that are performed often for special occasions like a marriage ceremony. Comparatively in indigenous cultures, ceremony is used to strengthen a person's connection to the physical and spiritual world, provide healing or clarity, or to offer remembrance and gratitude as well as mark significant life moments.    

This week as I stepped outside to watch the sunrise on the first day of summer, the solstice, it felt good to be present for the end of a season, to see the first sunrise on all the gifts and possibilities that summer brings. I started thinking about how nourishing the small acts of ceremony can be.   We can be so uplifted by ceremony and bringing it to our daily lives, not just the big events which we are not always fully present in for many reasons. I am sure we can reflect on many of our own occasions that were overshadowed by expectations, nerves, or the execution of all of the details.  I  thought of how we already have so many ceremonies embedded in our days with how we start our mornings or close our nights. How so much mindfulness is present in ceremony because we are bringing awareness to the steps, the process, the bigger picture, and the smallest acts.  We are bringing together what we love and what we have to do.  We are creating the sacred from the mundane.  Pema Chodron shares with us the perspective that everything in life is neutral until we decide otherwise. What if we decided that all moments of our intricate lives were both sacred and worthy of ceremony? If every day was a day to mark with the small ceremonies like preparing coffee. Staying mindful of the ritual and steps by smelling the coffee beans and thinking of where they came from and feeling the gratitude for the people who picked, processed, shipped, and delivered them. Then noticed the aroma wafting from the process of grinding the beans, steeping, and pressing them. Choosing your favorite mug and sitting to drink and nourish your spirit with this simple gift or maybe steeping your tea or squeezing lemon into a cup of warm water. All serve as a ceremony to begin your day. The same way that prayer, meditation, movement, or stillness can also be done as ceremony.  When I step onto my yoga mat each morning, it doesn't matter whether I lie in child's pose or savasana or move through a series of sun salutations, the opportunity for ceremony is there in the noticing the gift of this time, the nourishing the movement provides and the connection it offers to know my inner world. The same experience for you may be offered on your morning walk or run or the process of preparing your first meal of the day. The sacred lies in the slowing down to notice and to appreciate. Your shower, watering your plants, lighting candles, creating altars around your home with favorite photos, flowers, and objects placed in a way that will offer you a moment of remembrance. These are examples of the nourishment of ceremony.  The sweeping, cleaning and getting rid of physical things that clutter, like smudging and deep exhales, are examples of the cleansing component of ceremony.   We do all of these things already but when we do them with intentionality, mindfulness, and maybe even sanctity,  we have added ceremonial quality that allows us to recognize the joy that is already present in the ordinary and I am thinking we could all use a little more sacred in our lives right now.

Earlier this year I read the novel, "Braiding Sweetgrass" by the author of the quote above, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and I marveled at how steeped in ceremony her life and the life of her ancestors were. From the way that food was planted like the Three sisters crop of beans, squash, and corn so that these plants could all play a role in the nourishment of each other by supporting their growth and their gifts, to the blessing of each living thing that was sacrificed for their nourishment before it was eaten.   She ponders the idea of living with the heightened sensitivity of the lives given to ours, extending to even the daily things we use.  Thinking of the trees offered when we use tissue, or the algae in our toothpaste, the oak tree for our floors, the grapes for our wine.  She suggests that all of these things are worthy of us slowing down and giving a few moments of thought, in other words, offering ceremony through remembrance and the result is living more mindfully.

As I am writing this today, I am listening to Coffee by Beabadoobee, green tea in my favorite pottery mug made by a former student intern. The mug is symbolic to me of how service and creativity connect. The song I chose as it is about making a cup of coffee exactly how we know someone dear to us enjoys it.  All of this comes together to create ceremony in the process of writing in hopes that you too will begin to find ways to remember that which is worth your remembrance in your own creation of daily ceremony.