Hi there.
Whether it's early morning or late at night,
Whether it's warm or cold,
Sunshiny or gray where you are,
Well done,
You.
Bringing yourself to this moment of centering,
This space where you turn in.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
What are some things that you do every single day?
You might have to think about that question because many times these habits are mindless,
Meaning you might not even notice you are doing them.
But Annie Dillard once said,
How we spend our days is,
Of course,
How we spend our lives.
This got me thinking about habits,
How some serve us well and others don't.
And from there,
I began to think about the difference between a habit and a right.
The Oxford English Dictionary says that a habit is a settled disposition or tendency to act in a certain way,
Especially one acquired by frequent repetition until it becomes almost or quite involuntary.
In other words,
Habits are so familiar to us,
We don't even know we do them.
A right is very similar.
In fact,
The Oxford English Dictionary says simply that a right is a custom habit or practice.
This surprised me.
I was waiting for them to add something about making the ordinary sacred through intention and mindfulness.
But it didn't.
The closest it got is when I scrolled down a bit and saw a right of intensification,
Which is different than say,
A rite of passage.
While a rite of passage is something we do to mark a transition from one phase to another,
A hallway,
If you will,
From here to there.
A rite of intensification was particularly common among agricultural communities.
It was a ritual that involved the whole community,
And it was meant to increase one's sense of belonging.
It was meant to strengthen group ties.
Let me pause here for a second and ask,
Do you ever come across something and want it to be one way,
But instead it's something else entirely?
I'll admit when I read rite of intensification,
I wanted it to be all about me.
What kind of ritual could I do to make things grow,
To intensify the good things in my life?
Because doesn't that sound great?
But the OED had other plans for me and this meditation.
The rite of intensification is about community.
It is bringing everyone together to reunite all into a cohesive whole.
A rite of intensification is meant to celebrate planting,
The planting we all do,
The first fruit we all gather,
And our bountiful harvest.
God,
I hate it when that happens,
When I want this to go one way and it goes in a completely different direction,
When I want to make something all about me and here is the universe saying,
Nope,
This,
This is what you need.
In this splintered,
Shouting and hurting world,
Can we consider walking into our days,
Not mindlessly,
But full of intention to not only do the best we can for our own selves,
But also to engage in rites of intensification,
Not escalation,
Mind you,
But intensification.
Can we engage in acts of community and cohesion?
Can we help others to plant good and nourishing things?
Can we help others to celebrate whatever the first fruits are in their lives?
Can we be a part of a whole host of people who celebrate a bountiful harvest together?
Because as another saying goes,
We all do better when we all do better.
Namaste.
