Joyful Ritual
Many mornings, Lou Ann and I make our bed together. Once we have finished, we gather up some stuffed animals which I pick up and then throw them to her and she catches them. As I take each soft item, I announce the name of it and Lou Ann in turn blesses each one. The first one, is actually a pillow that has a knitted cover, that was created by our dear friend Barbara Carlson who is knitting on the other side right now. I say “We love you Barbara and Lou Ann also blesses her whole family. Then there is a teddy bear named Dylan (blessing all the animals). Next, I throw her a pink dolphin and a blue one. And I throw a grey and white dolphin which we named Rainbow and then one named Aleta. These two, are named after actual dolphins, that we swam with at the Dolphin Research Center in 1994 in the Florida Keys. Then we throw and catch two baby dolphins who are hugging each other.
Finally, I hug a white bear and a red bear who are hugging each other, and attached with a valentine heart, then toss them. Red and white were the colors of my Hollywood High School, and Lou Ann had a dream before we met, about those two colors and knew they were going to be significant. Then in 1982 Lou Ann and I went to Disneyland together with some of our children; and we fell in love dancing beneath the red and white canopy at the Carnation Plaza. The colors have been our primary symbolic colors of our relationship through the years. Red, being the color of love and white the color of illumination, understanding and clarity. We love doing this as a ritual that begins our day, and we feel a deeper connection to all of the actual beings on Earth that these stuffed cuties symbolize.
Maybe you have some rituals like this that warm your heart and make your day. If not, it’s never to late to let your inner child out to play! From our childlike hearts to yours, Thomas