“They will know us by our horses, by our habits,
and by every other appointment, to be ourselves”
Henry IV
ACT I, Scene II
Today we enjoy Christmas Day. We are asked “do you celebrate Christmas” and our response is “no, we celebrate each other with a Christmas theme”. The real question today is not whether we celebrate Christmas but whether Christmas celebrates us. In other words – is Christmas a ritual or a habit?
The term ritual and habit are often confused with each other. A ritual is the opposite of a habit. A ritual is an action or an event that interrupts our habitual routine.
A habit allows us to operate without thinking and feeling. Habit is 'auto-pilot' We feed a habit by following its rules. A habit saves us from thinking. We invest in a habit. Habits are important because we could not function if we had to think about every single thing we had to do in a day.
A ritual is something that ‘works on us’ that reveals us to ourselves. A ritual awakens us. A ritual instructs us to see and shape the world around us. A ritual transforms us.
Our habits define us. Our habits define the circumference of our identity.
Our rituals change us. Our rituals extend the circumference of our identity.
Rituals have existed in every age and society. Birthdays, funerals, meditation/prayer, vacations, even (exercised properly) a handshake or a hug can be a ritual.
A ritual as simple as eating with loved ones or telling a joke can bring us back to life or be a habit concealed in the garb of a ritual.
Our environment shapes many of our habits. When we become hostage to social rituals we feel so lost and depressed that we lose our self.
Sometimes our rituals become habits. Suddenly Christmas or vacations even weddings become something that we need ‘to do’ rather than something that can work on us. Once a special occasion becomes a chore, it no longer refreshes our habitual way of thinking and living, it becomes another habit that we feed.
It should be no surprise to us that the term spiritual has the word ritual embedded in it. In a day and age when spirituality has been taken hostage by fundamentalists of every persuasion, people who impose their habitual thinking on the exhausted masses, perhaps it’s time we gave ourselves a break and allowed the simple rituals in our live to bring us back to life.
So from the Birk household, today its “Happy Christmas” not happy holidays.
MONTJOY You know me by my habit
K. HENRY. Well then I know thee: what shall I know of thee?
MONTJOY My master’s mind
K. HENRY Unfold it.
Henry V
Act III. Scene VI.
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