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In the attempt to become more “one” with myself, as I’m sure everyone can relate to, I am becoming more aware of my thoughts. And, (spoiler alert) us humans think A LOT.

I’ve been practicing meditation since my senior year in High School. I spent most of my first months thinking “thinking” to myself. That’s what the instructor at the Shambala center told us to do: say “thinking” to ourselves whenever we catch ourselves, well, thinking…

I admit, I’d gotten pretty good at meditating and not thinking and all. But now that I’m in grad school…well, I kind of HAVE to think. There is a lot of thought that is put into each element of work. But there is also the need to balance all that thinking with not OVER-thinking—not censoring oneself.

This month has knocked me for a loop because I realized that, although I love to write, I have been out of practice. Surprising, right? I write my own songs, and I write here on Marginalia. But, there is something comforting about the consistency of a particular audience, and the consistency of a particular reason and style of writing. Writing for a song, you have your layout, you have your story, you have a melody, boom, songs done. Writing for a post or poem, you have a concept, you complete the thought, and boom, you’re done. Even academic writing, you have your point, you get your resources, you put the bibliography together, and 9 weeks later (wink) you’re done. It’s all about consistency.

It has come to my attention that after having the experience of weekly required writing, to a series of prompts, both for expanding my writing process and for performance, I have no consistent writing process. I have no ritual. I just have been writing. I didn’t realize it until we had been given a reading about the importance of ritualizing.

The concept of having a set ritual has been on my mind since I learned about the transition of Saturn and how it is a time to hunker down and focus to lay a foundation. The interesting thing for me, is that this is what I understand laying a foundation to be. To practice, to rehearse, to be consistent, and essentially to ritualize. So NOW what?

Well, I went back to my January post, and I decided to take some of my own advice. I declare that I shall compile a list of possible actions that are fit for me so as to ritualize not only my writing process, but my rehearsal process, and in general, my creative process. Wish me luck!