Reverb 14 / Ritual and Routine

This month, I’m playing along with Project Reverb and Reverb14. There are different prompts every day; I’ll pick and choose the ones that interest me.

DECEMBER 11 / What tiny rituals signal that your day is starting; help you ease into a creative project; give you closure from an intensive task; or mark other significant milestones in your day? What new rituals would you like to create in the new year?

Coffee.

Turning on the Keurig, listening to the soft “whooooo” of it warming up, popping in a K-cup and waiting as it quickly chugs out a cup of coffee.

I know, I know, there are so many things that are probably wrong with this scenario — it’s a Keurig, for one, which probably means it’s crappy coffee and the cups are bad for the environment and the machine is growing moldy sludge that will make me sick, blah blah blah.

But it’s good for me, and good for my mood. On weekdays, I make a double cup and tote it to work in a thermos. On flex Fridays I drink it slowly on the couch right after Jose and Emma have gone. On Saturdays and Sundays, I sip as I scramble eggs for Emma, as we sit at the table eating breakfast, as she runs off to play when she’s done. It’s how I ease into my days, and I have come to look forward to it immensely.

(I still treat myself to Starbucks some mornings, and that works too.)

This past Sunday morning, I didn’t immediately made myself that cup of coffee. I skipped it because I was going running, and morning + caffeine + running does ugly things to my GI tract. But I missed it, and when I was home and showered and about to head out the door with Jose and Emma for our weekly HEB outing, I made a cup and carried it with me up and down the aisles of the grocery store.

It’s a small thing, but sometimes that’s what a ritual is, isn’t it?