Ritual living

There's something soothing about holiday rituals.

Tea and cake at 4.30 in the afternoon.

Coffee first thing on the veranda.

A glass of something chilled as the sun goes down.

The call to prayer. Albeit not observed by us.

Yet the ritual I'm more accustomed to in the hustle bustle of my working life is the 8.11 to Leeds.

The third carriage along, without fail.

Were a secret spy ever laying in wait for me, deciphering my whereabouts would be child's play.

As humans we are naturally habitual.

But the habits we have slipped into are often far from healthy.

The wocca-mocha-chino on the way into the office.

Checking emails as soon we wake up and just before we go to sleep.

Sharing our every movement on social media (ok, ok, I know... I'm more guilty than most on that point).

With many of our natural rhythms disrupted by modern life, my sense is we are yearning for the rituals of our ancestors.

Where religion previously filled the gap, our ever more secular Western ways have left a void.

Our pagan ancestors worshipped the sun and the moon.

The passing of the seasons and the movement of the galaxies above informed their way of life and their perspective on it I'm sure.

Without today's light pollution all around them, the bleed of our street lamps and neon lights, their connection to the universe, and their relative place within it, must have been more profound.

Stargazing wasn't a mere holiday excursion, but a nightly occurrence.

Here in Morocco, with the stresses of work evaporating by the minute, I'm reminded of a more simple way of life. But also a more centred one.

Travelling is clearly good for my soul it would seem. It is also a quiet reminder of the need to have a healthy balance between work and life.

Morbid as it sounds, the treadmill we're all on leads to one ultimate location in the ground.

I for one am determined to jump off it from time to time.

Unplug the apparatus.

Wander a little more through life, taking detours along the way.

Time to pause. Reflect. Ponder.

Rituals that don't just rely on work work work, followed by wine wine wine, or whine, whine, whine.

Some rituals however are probably more ingrained than others.