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Hello everyone!
I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a full piece for you today. Like so many other folks, I got really sick—not Covid, though—and so I haven’t been writing. Instead, here are a few notes, and I’ll be back in the new year.
First, if you are new here, welcome! You might want to check out this piece, which explains how violence can be created by systems instead of people, and how that violence is impacting our collective and individual mental health.
Second, I’ve been thinking about those almost imperceptible actions we take to remind ourselves of who we are. It might be a secret ritual, like picking a sage leaf on the way to the bus stop and crushing it, so later at work when you lift your hand you’ll smell the oil and remember the garden and the dirt.
It could be the way you take care of a particular tool when you’re finished using it. It could be the thing you say to your dog at the end of every walk. It could be the way your gait changes when you put on a particular pair of shoes, and how you feel your power differently when you walk in them.
There’s a privacy in the smallness of the act: people who know you well still might not know you do that thing, say that phrase to yourself, make that small move with your shoulders when you catch your face in the mirror. I wonder when the last time was that you had a chance to be the person you are when no one’s looking. I hope you can find that version of you and hold it for a quick second, before you close your front door behind you.
Take good care of yourselves—
Rebecca
Secret Rituals