Rituals
Image by Amber Avalona from Pixabay
Rituals keep us grounded. They keep us down to earth and reminds us of where we came from and what we are made up of.
Rituals are the songs of the old and the voices that no longer exist but want to interact with us and guide us towards the meaning of life.
A ritual can be as small as washing your feet before you walk into a holy place or it can be as big as shaving your hair because the ritual demands it.
Over the last several years I have drifted away from many of the religious and cultural rituals that I use to perform. I guess I have a complicated relationship with my creator.
Of the many things I do these days, I am very keen on a few that are very close to my heart and I am having a tough time deciding which ritual to write about here in this post.
I have spent a good part of the last two days thinking of all the things that I do and I have been trying to figure out if any one of those can be a ritual.
I even tried to ask my best friend about it and we spent a long time discussing many of the things I do on a daily basis.
"Imran... " she whispered my name as she pondered deep.
"You are a man of rituals," she said after thinking carefully.
"Each year during the rainy season you plant trees and it is a ritual," she said with a smile and I agreed to it.
I have been planting trees to help fight global warming, to keep our surroundings green and I wish to pass on this message to everyone especially the next generation.
"She is right," I thought and nodded my head.
Day after day, year after year my team and I have planted thousands of trees without expecting anything in return. We do it for all altruistic reasons and I guess that is my ritual.
"But then you have other rituals too," she said and she clearly had something mischievous in her mind.
"More rituals?" I was puzzled and asked her to enlighten me more.
"Well, you have a computer and yet you use those white sheets to write"
"And you never really write anything unless you have your favorite brand of gel pen"
What's it called? Umm... " she went on.
"Rorito Maxtron" I helped her with the name.
"Yes, yes, that. You never really write with any other pen and I think it is a ritual that you perform when you write."
She was right. I use a computer to write but to outline the articles that I write I always use white sheets and a black ink gel pen. I can and have not written with any other pen in the last several years.
I guess it is a ritual.
Every morning when I sit on my chair in front of the computer I first make a to-do list on those crisp A4 size white sheets with a black ink gel pen that always sits on my desk and there have been days when I lost my pen and I couldn't write.
I always keep them in stock because you never know when my favorite pen might go extinct as the machines have taken over our lives and we do not do anything without these tiny plastic devices called smartphones.
Yes, I fear my favorite pen might go extinct.
I know a lot of people might not understand the satisfaction I get when I hold the pen in my hand and pour my thoughts down on paper.
It adds some quality to the things I write.
When I start writing I hold my pen in my fingers and feel it. I take a deep breath and think about the things I want to write. I imagine it all and make a mental note of it and then I start scratching on the piece of paper and the ink flows along with my thoughts.
And when I pour my thoughts it ends up being permanent and cannot be easily destroyed. It is something tangible and then I copy it on my computer.
Once I finish writing I carefully write the date, page number, and then I keep it somewhere safe so that they will be a point of discussion long after I have died and people would be in awe of the last writer who wrote on paper.
Ah! Such wishful dreams!
It certainly one of my rituals and I think this is what I want to share with you guys today.
Regards,
Imran Soudagar
Writer / Tree Planter