Ritual

I watch people undertake mindless rituals.
They do these activities which define them,
For no other reasons than habit.
Or perhaps a promised ticket to heaven.
I ask them why?
What is the purpose?
They don't seem to know the answers.

Yesterday a Koori Uncle explained a practice of his people.
Build up the camp-fire before you retire for the night.
To me it served no purpose in the laws of cause and effect.
Tomorrow we would need to gather more wood,
For what reason?

Yet he said it was for the 'old people' to enjoy.
(He meant his spirit ancestors.)
I realised this ritual was what 'it' was all about,
What all rituals are about.
Mindfulness.

Pacing

Society creates an expectation of pace.
High productivity,
Or the impression of such.
A dichotomy,
Those over employed,
Those underemployed.
Perhaps we need a re think
A thoughtful rather than progressive society,
Less enamored with growth and consumption.
How to be in pace,
Pacing ourselves,
Living mindfully,
Measured,
And at ease.
So no matter what life endows,
Fortune or no,
Leave space for calamity, misadventure, ugliness,
Joy, love, beauty and freedom.

The Birthday Party

She strove for excellence
As close to perfection as she could get with one week of preparation to execute.
Identifying appropriate recipes.
Acknowledgement that a sit down meal would not work with the number of guests.
Finger-food.
That would work as long as it was real food.
Beautiful, tasty, unique and easily carried and held in the hands.
Exotic, but not too spicy.
Or challenging to an unused palate.
Vegetables, aquatic and terrestrial meats.
Pre- prepared and warmed in the oven or quickly roasted on the BBQ.
Then dessert.
Not too heavy with  a rich chocolate Birthday cake to follow.
Fresh fruit.
Berries in season.
Drinks?
 People are welcome to bring their own.
An assortment of exotic fresh fruit punches.
Alcohol of various intensities.

This was what greeted us at the most thoughtfully prepared party I ever attended.
It was sublime food as mindful as analytic meditation.
And true art.