For us, school starts on Monday. Last year, when the world could easily swallow us and rob us of the sacred, this is one ritual in everyday life that I worked hard to never miss:

I hurry to get out the door and into the carline to pick up my son from school. I have to leave at just the right time in order to hit the stoplights just right and get to school. I don’t want him to wait too long – I know he is tired and ready to be at home. My daughter is dragging her feet, complaining in a high pitched voice that could unravel me. I don’t blame her – going to pre-k is enough and I’ve just pulled her from the sacred quiet of our home to go back to school and pick up her brother.

Crap, I forgot his snack. I run back into the house, running even later. In the car now, I consciously slow down even though it’d be easy to get swept up by adrenaline. I soothe my daughter (and myself) by humming. She smiles. And I think, “Why haven’t I connected with another mom or a mother’s helper to create the space for my daughter to stay at home, unrushed, able to linger in the holy space of home?”

I move through the carline with my fellow parents waiting. Maybe they, too, went through a lot just to get here. I see my son and my heart leaps. God, he’s growing taller, he’s growing up. The minivan cardoor opens. He jumps in.

And I miss it.

“No! No, I won’t!” I say.

Miss what? Here’s what I won’t miss:

I hate carline. It’s so easy to miss “that moment” – that moment of connecting – that moment of sweet eye contact, that embrace. Just one short moment of welcome and “I see you.” That one brief moment when the world stops and you behold each other – however brief, however unaware your child is of how sacred the moment is.

It gets swept aside as the minivan’s door slides closed. Gone. My son hurries to get into his booster seat because there are other cars behind us. God, he hurries. How often throughout the day are we hurrying our children, flooding their nervous systems with stress hormones?

But I pull over into the parking lot anyway. I put the car in “park.” The world will hurry us, push us, and try to take away this moment – but I won’t let it completely.

This is the fierceness of a mother – who, under whatever the given circumstances are that she just cannot control, she pushes her hand straight out to the world and says, “Not now, world. Not this moment.” And she turns toward her child.

And so I look at him. Already the moment is mostly gone. He is already strapped into his booster seat so our bodies can’t full hug and connect. But it’s something and we embrace. He’s already tearing into his snacks, looking away, ready to go. But I slow down the moment. I try to keep the world at bay for just a moment longer.

“Hi, My Love.” I say, as I make eye contact with him.

“Hi mom,” he says, glancing at me just for a moment and I know he knows I see him and I behold him. And for a moment, there is a shared quiet, sacred space between us.

THIS is ritual in the reality of everyday life.

THIS is ritual that honors the sacred amidst the busyness and demands of everyday life.

THIS is ritual that has to be coveted, held closely and fiercely to our chests.

THIS is us creating the miraculous in the messiness of a typical day no matter what it throws our way.

The pull of the world is so strong, so forceful. From the moment we wake up, there are a hundred things just on the way to the kitchen that could distract us from what is most sacred and important. The world spins us into hurry. It pulls us into self-doubt, into isolation.

Ritual In Everyday Life

We need ritual like we need breath.

And we need ritual in everyday life.  Not just for some ‘special moment’ or holiday. We need ritual in our daily lives.

~  ritual can be your meditation bell calling back your attention when you’ve been lost in thought, pulled by the needs and opinions of the world, away from your own inner knowings and landscape.

~  We need ritual to tether us to truth.

~  We need ritual to focus us on what is most important.

~  We need ritual to nourish and ground us.

~  We need ritual to remind us of something much bigger than “me” – to connect us to something ancient and enduring that’ll be here way beyond when we are gone.

My family has rituals – our morning time of snuggling, this after school pause, our evening time of laying with our children. But those can easily slip away, get harshly pushed aside when the “to do” list looms over our heads, when the world won’t rest and it keeps asking for more from us.

Family rituals create that sacred, private space between you and your dear ones. Rituals are our resting place where we can abide with each other and in something enduring and much bigger than ourselves. Ritual in everyday life calls us to balance the need for activity and the need for rest.

Well, I am not the god to make it all happen. My God asks me to rest, to let go of my hold on the world for a moment while I hold my dear ones. Every day.

So as fall approaches, I am revisiting the need for ritual in my personal and family’s life. Brian and I are being intentional about what our rituals are, which ones we need to revisit, new ones we need to bring into our day, and devote ourselves to holding them sacred.

Dear Ones, take some time to reflect on how you want to go about your day, how you want to honor the rituals that are important to you.  Because the world will pull at you, distract you, vie for your attention. And when you have that vision deep in your bones, you’ll stretch out your hand to the world, fingers spread wide, and say, “not now, world. Not this moment.” And you’ll hold close to your chest and in your mind what is most sacred, what matters most.

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Parents, we are the CEO of our families. It’s your energy, your vibe that influences the feel of your family.  This fall, let’s LEAD WITH LOVE.

That begins with spending time naming and intentionally envisioning the vibe you want within your family.

Here are two meditations for envisioning how you want to go about your fall and how to envision the fall you want for your family.  Imagine it and make it a reality.

Here are the links to my Shop.  You can also click on the picture below:

Getting Your Family Focused, part1 and Getting Your Family Focused, part 2.

It’s my way of supporting people near and far and transforming our WORLD by each of us transforming our inner world and our homes. Please, get them at my Shop, download them, and listen to them again and again to support you in envisioning how your family wants to be this fall.