ritual

Rituals can be defined as temporal technologies for housing oneself. They turn being in the world into being at home. Rituals are in time as things are in space. They stabilize life by structuring time. They give us festive spaces, so to speak, spaces we can enter in celebration. As temporal structures, rituals arrest time. Temporal spaces we ... See more

we all have rituals we protect — even when we’re burnt out, distracted, or in flux. for some it’s the first cup of coffee in silence. for others it’s folding laundry in a particular way. maybe it’s rewatching comfort shows or making playlists for imaginary versions of yourself. these rituals often hold clues about what kind of life you want: slow, ... See more

Ritual prevents the ordinary from dissolving into invisibility. If you light a candle at dinner, the meal becomes an event. If you walk at the same time each day, it becomes more than exercise. Anthropologists will tell you that rituals function as technologies of attention: certain ordinary acts aren’t trivial, they’re the architecture of meaning.