Thank You for Sharing: Rituals & Altars
In month two of heART❤️SCHOOL we’ve been exploring RITUALS. (If you don’t know what heART❤️SCHOOL is, you can learn more here.) Today I am delighted to share contributions from the All Hands Art community — photos of rituals and/or altars.
Gratitude to all the folks named in the captions below, and may their words and images inspire you to begin or expand your own soul-care practices. ✨After all, the healing of the whole darn world begins with small daily shifts inside each one of us.
Jeannie: “One of my rituals is watching the sunset out our back windows. The sky is itself time, perpetually passing above all of humanity. It is a constant a balm to my soul.”
Gladys: “Part of my daily ritual is to tend to my garden, or take a walk in my small backyard and admire the plants, flowers, watch the bees and squirrels or pick some veggies that I've nurtured. Now that the weather is changing I still go out in the morning with coffee mug in hand or if it's raining I stand at the door and take a deep breath before starting my work day.”
Dawn: “This is a ritual: Maps. From my trip to Paris in the Fall of 2015, just weeks after the City of Light suffered a series of horrific terrorist attacks, I visited. My rituals got me through. Wherever I travel, I always lay out a map and mark every step taken. I might tuck a torn out scrap of map into my bra to pull out on a street corner for emergency reference. When I was a kid I had a gigantic map of Disneyland over my bed and drew on every nook and cranny that my E tickets got me into. Unsurprisingly, I am always the navigator when traveling. OK, the cocktail shaker is another ritual packed into the carry-on bags.”
Natalie: “Here’s one of my rituals these days - checking to see if this sprout is going to have any friends and giving all of them some gentle encouragement!”
Connie: “Everyday I walk in either the forest, a park, or on the beach with my dog Django. What was once a chore has become one of my favorite parts of each day - discovering the landscape Vancouver Island has to offer. It is during this time that I process my day’s work, set goals, and think clearly while noticing the flora and fauna that change through the seasons. During our walks, Django and I lose track of time and often come home much later than expected and sometimes after dark, but that is part of the adventure.”
Elena: “Though far from daily these days, when I have time I like starting my day by shuffling/pulling tarot and/or journaling/doing something with pen(cil) and paper🌟”
This one’s mine: I’ve been learning a lot about the wisdom and genius of trees lately, so I’ve been touching and speaking gratitude to the Douglas firs next to our house as a newly-added part of my morning rituals.
Patti calls this one “Altar of Love & Be Loved”…
… and she calls this one “Altar of the Beloved.”
Dawn sent this photo from around 1986 of her altar to/library of Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury memoirs.
Here’s a more recent close-up.
Paul sent this photo of his ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos. (Because he’s married to my sister, most of those photos on the right-hand side appear to be related to me. 🥰)
Thank you again to all the photo contributors. I love seeing the beautiful ways people nurture connection to themselves, other humans, the natural world, and the spirit world. We have the agency to bring this beauty and connection into our everyday lives. Soul support is all around us. 💫
With love,
Pam
P.S. I’ve had a flurry of fun creative projects lately, some of which I’ve been documenting on social media. I have very mixed feelings about Instagram and the others, but for now I’m still a sporadic user, and it’s where I sometimes show what I’m working on. That’s just in case you came here looking for my artwork. 😉🎨