comfort & ritual

Thursday, November 15, 2012



















autumn beach scenes with my best girl Miss Winnie Dixon

Never underestimate how much assistance, 
how much satisfaction, how much comfort, 
how much soul and transcendence there might be 
in a well-made taco and a cold bottle of beer.

Tom Robbins - Jitterbug Perfume

As my days and evenings and weekends continue to be jammed packed with work, with art, with design, with creativity ... with passion & with love.  I'm finding so much comfort in the small rituals I celebrate throughout each day. Self care has finally become understood and appreciated by me for the first time perhaps ever. My coffee in bed each morning while tucked into flannel sheets recently brought in from being hung on the line outside, a cat or 2, a dog or 2 and of course a charming Prince also. Writing my Morning Pages with that coffee in bed, planning my day neatly & in exquisite detail. The hot sudsy facecloth scented with handcrafted patchouli soap that I wash my face with, my walks with Winnie twice daily our first in early morning, crunching through leaves and occasionally lately seeing our breath in the morning's crisp fall air. Our second stroll nearer dinnertime, at sunset we walk the village streets admiring the early Christmas light displays and enjoy peering into the windows of well lit homes. Making tea each afternoon at 3pm sharp - sitting somewhere away from desk, breathing deeply, feeling grateful ... relaxing. And my final and perhaps favourite ritual of the day is leaving my desk by 8pm and tucking back into those flannel sheets soon after with a book. Reading feels like taking a tranquilizing tablet or attending an hour long therapy session. It's the carrot (my bedtime reading) hanging there, pulling me, tempting me, pushing me forward through my day. Lately I've been rushing through book after book and loving them all. I'm currently half way through Louise Erdrich's* The Round House - oh my it's so good ! the plot completely gripping, the characters so well developed I forget that they're not really part of my life.

What are some of your favourite  rituals ? I'd love to hear them

* listen to a fantastic interview with Louise Erdrich on another fav CBC show Writers & Co.


A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. 
The man who never reads lives only one.

George R. R. Martin - A Dance with Dragons

heard yesterday on fav CBC show Q & hey Blogger you are really pissin' me off !

5 comments:

  1. What a neat life you are living right now.

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  2. Would so love you to post some photos of Christmas lights. Living in Japan, it is the thing that I miss most from home. Love your rituals and the way you are enjoying them with all of your senses (the smell of sheets fresh from outside, the coffee), but I especially liked your 3 o'clock tea. Stepping completely away from work and moving into reflection. Let's see if we can get some rituals going around here, too.

    Your posts always start with nature and your walk and get me into the complete right frame of mind for reflection, but I especially liked today's post! Thank you!!

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  3. thank you mbi for your thoughtful comment, here are a few Christmas light from les archives xo Sybil too


    http://29blackstreet.blogspot.ca/2010/12/ta-da.html
    http://29blackstreet.blogspot.ca/2009/12/merriest.html

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  4. Thanks, Susan, I needed this reminder about the comfort rituals bring.

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  5. You live in a beautiful place and capture it all so well in photos. Your days sound lovely!

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