Suddenly I noticed I was in the kitchen, pouring chopped nuts into rolled oats, heating up honey and molasses and almond butter and mixing it all together.

I’m grounding myself, I realized.

It had been a long day filled with the little one home from school and doctor’s appointments and things to do in the usually child free time. Plus mercury in retrograde was beginning to slip into the mix.

And there I stood, feet planted firmly on the kitchen floor, at the end of a long day, making granola.

A little while later I picked up where she and I had left off, held scissors in hand as I found words and images from magazines strewn across the floor.

A phrase found its way to me, cobbled from various scraps.

I simply welcome happiness…

I’m doing it again I thought to myself, sitting in the glow of our still lit up and still alive Christmas tree.

I’m grounding myself.

I stood about an hour later in front of the tree, lifted arms to the sky, bowed forward, with intention of flowing my body through a few sun salutations and instead found myself in child’s pose, a space of surrender, of inward devotion.

This is where my heart guides me when it knows I need to feel rooted. To nourishing food, to self inquiry, to moving my body with gentleness and love.

And so, that is how I eased myself out of a stressful Tuesday, preparing myself for sleep and all that would come with the next sunrise, knowing that with my practices, I can always find my way back to my roots.

This is part of feeling rooted in ritual.

Sometimes the rituals come daily as the way you start your day, find your rhythm.

Sometimes they come in the moments when you feel most off balance and you are searching for a way to return to yourself.

Sometimes the rituals are old parts of yourself, woven into your being, and other times they are new practices that find you when you need them most.

Open your heart, listen closely, and discover what rituals ground you and bring you back to center.

With Love and Gratitude,