Tag Archives: ritual

Cat ritual

Leave a reply

Meet the co-author of this blog, Oliver the Cat. He greets me at the couch at around 5:15am, and will meow if I don’t put my legs up on the table. When they are horizontal, he jumps up on my legs and waits for a good head scratch. Once he’s satisfied, he turns around to face my feet, and stretches out along my legs.

Alas, it only lasts about 3-4 minutes, then one little adjustment or shift in my body position is enough for him to get off me. But not until I’ve started tapping away words on my phone.

Oliver is probably the only part of my morning routine I don’t have control over. He can choose to sleep in, and avoid my lap for a morning. He can decide how long he wants a head scratch & massage. He can have the nerve to jump off me before I’ve written anything. Still, any time he chooses to run through this little ritual, I’m happy to make sure it happens.

Oliver isn’t just my cat, he’s very often my writing companion… there to support me in my daily writing, stealing just enough of my attention to put me in a good mood, but not too much of it to distract me from the reason I got on the couch… which is to write.

Add title. Start writing…

Leave a reply

These are the words I’m greeted with every morning.

Add title

Start writing….

I open the Jetpack App on my phone, click a little plus sign in the bottom corner and choose ‘Post’ to get my blog post going. On weekends I have a morning schedule that doesn’t allow me to write early, because I’m not choosing to get up at 5am. But my Monday to Friday morning schedule is bathroom, change for my workout, go downstairs to the couch and open the app.

I marvel how sometimes the muse hits me and suddenly I’m 300 words in and already know how I’ll end, and sometimes I’m fighting with myself to focus and not allow my phone to be a distraction as I sit staring at ‘Add title’. Sometimes a title is all I need to complete my day’s writing, and sometimes I change the title after writing something that meandered away from what I thought I was going to write.

Add title. Start writing….

Sometimes this is a warm, comforting invitation, sometimes a cold, daunting challenge. And no matter what it feels like, I write… I’ve seen that prompt about 2,400 times in the last 6 and a half years, and I still want to see it every day.

Hold on to the good weather

2 Replies

I had a summer ritual of sitting for 10 minutes in the morning sun over the summer. Shirt off, eyes closed, listening to a meditation. Today I went in the hot tub after my morning walk and then the sun came out from behind the clouds.

I paused and took full advantage. The sun won’t be up and warm enough in the morning much longer as we head into fall, so I’ve got to take every opportunity I’ve got. I’m going to eke out these sunny morning moments before the fall rains come.

I’m also going to keep finding joy in the little things, like holding on to the good weather while we’ve got it.

Pools Out for Summer

It took a good part of the weekend, but I got the pool set up for the summer. The water pump driven solar panels are up, but as you can see in the image the pool is not quite full yet and so I still have to test all my pluming connections for leaks… but the hard part is done.

For the past few years the ritual of getting this pool ready has marked the start of summer for me. While it will be at least 2 weeks before it gets warm enough to swim, having it up and spending more time in the back yard makes the last few weeks of school a lot more enjoyable. It certainly helps that it’s also bright out a lot later.

The funny thing is that I really don’t go in the pool much. My wife loves it and gets in regularly, while I mostly go in to vacuum it. I might sit on an inflatable seat a handful of times at the most, but I love the hot tub and would rather sit in it than the pool. For me the pool isn’t a destination, it’s a symbol, a symbol of summer.

Duck wings

There were only 3 items on the menu, Pulled Pork on a Bun, Confit Duck Wings, and Jerk Chicken Tacos. When I walked in the cashier said, “You look like a guy ready to try some Duck Wings.”

“Actually, I would like the Pulled Pork.”

“Really, you can have that anytime you want, try the Duck Wings.”

“You are right, absolutely.”

She kept convincing me, even though I made the switch, and I repeated that she convinced me.

“You won’t be disappointed,” she said confidently.

This reminded me of a friend, Geoff. He’s a colleague from a district up north, and I’ve had dinner a couple times with him when we connect for meetings. Both times he left the ordering of food completely in the hands of the waitresses. Completely. When one of them asked clarifying questions, the only thing he shared was, ‘I’m fairly hungry.’ No hints as to what he likes, or what part of the menu he would favour. He told me that he’s done this hundreds of times and only once was he ever disappointed.

I’m not as brave. I have often asked a waiter or waitress what their favourite is between 2 or 3 choices and if they reply with anything specific, (rather than, ‘they are all good’), then I’ll take their recommendation. The idea of a person picking anything off of a menu for me doesn’t seem appealing. But the idea of a recommendation between two hard to choose items appeals a fair bit.

Back to the Duck Wings. They were delicious! So much better than another pulled pork sandwich that I could have had in so many other places. Food is a great place to be brave and make choices you wouldn’t normally make. Don’t duck out. 😜