Ritual and silence

Peace seeking on election day

I don’t know about you all, but this election season has been so triggering for me, reminding me of the rifts in my personal life that haven’t healed since 2016. I knew I’d need a shoring up, so in the spring, I booked a return to a retreat I’d first visited in 2023. It’s in a state park, beside a lake, and if the trees are “past their peak,” maybe I am, too. Neither of us mind. My altar’s purposefully orange, a reminder of the goodness and warmth of that color.

I voted a few weeks ago, thanks to Virginia’s early availability without any need to have an excuse to cast my ballot early or by mail. I trotted to city hall, filled in my ovals fully and have been trying to exhale ever since. I’ve done what I can. I’ll wait out the news here, away from the DC metro area’s contentious streets, where fireworks could mean anything, and where, eight years ago, the T-trains literally disrupted my neighborhood peace every weekend leading up to the election. I’ll fill up with silence and reverence and the knowledge that I’ve done what I can.

There is no time left for anything

but to make peacework a dimension

of our every waking activity.

— Elise Boulding

Below’s my little altar, which changes and adapts as I travel, and I’ll return to my desk with new artifacts and little bits of magic that will help keep me on the path. I always gather a little from the natural world when I arrive, and include tokens and talismans that feel related to whatever’s on my mind.

Thank goodness for morning pages. Thank goodness for a husband who can spare me for a getaway like this, who understands the importance of time to myself in quiet. It’s goodness that I want to focus on, and the generous care of those who allow us the space to decide for ourselves what we know to be right for our own lives.

What rituals do you have that sustain you when everything feels up in the air? What’s on your altar these days?

PS: I’ll make this a chat question as well - hope you’ll join us over there to see what people find necessary to include in their rituals and altars!