How to have a rollicking ritual (Bless this project, part 2)

I was moved when a hard-headed rationalist had the boat he was building blessed. 

Inspired by Brian, I sought to have my creative career blessed.

If you read that first post, you’ll see I went bigger. I began by wanting to bless my Bohemia in Suburbia and Beyond book coming to an endpoint this year . . . but quickly supersized it to encompass this whole creative career I’m embarked upon.

In his honor — because he had both a Catholic priest and an energy worker bless the boat on different occasions — I’m now in the blessing business, seeking multiple blessings.

You know how you can’t have just one chip? It’s that way but better with blessing ceremonies.

Today I participated in the first one.

Here’s what set the tone for the moment: We had the most right person helming the event. Carolyn Cohen fairy godmothered us through the process with a light touch. 

This will give you a tiny insight into her personality. My wife and Carolyn became fast friends well before I had a chance to meet her too, and all Ann kept saying was this about Carolyn: 

You’ve got to meet her! She’s the happiest woman alive.

Carolyn is an intuitive and a healer and a sprightly spirit in tennis shoes. She’s got a smile on her that would be classified as highly contagious if there were any unhealthy side effects associated with it. 

You know how some people have a smile that takes over their whole face when they light up? Carolyn’s smile takes over the room. It’s pure gooey delight.

So there was that.

And then there was the Baby Buddha with a Flute she brought to honor the occasion.

Oops, Bodhi photobombed us with his dog parts . . . .

There’s the Baby Buddha! 

Sitting right where we planted our dreams. And, I should add, among plantings I’d just dug in this week. Many hard labor hours were put in to nest six large palms and all those tiny (for now) tropicals.

Beyond Carolyn here are the other elements that made for a satisfying ritual.

There were three of us. Ann, myself, Carolyn. All of us participated by blessing something we were creating in our lives. There’s something about the power of three that triangulated the energy. We all felt it.

We wrote out our heart’s desires together in funnish ways. There was colored paper! Colored pens! Chinese symbol woodcut stamps! Thanks to my ever-creative woman wife, it was almost silly fun assembling our messages. And doing it all together like that, even when we went silent into our respective thoughts, amplified the power of three.

Each of us read aloud what we were consecrating. Is there anything more powerful than declaring in front of others you trust what you seek to create?

A blessing was made and we buried the papers together in the earth. There we were, standing together in the shade of the palms I’d just planted earlier in the week, making it an extra right location. 

The whole thing was light-hearted, a joy, a playful romp. We didn’t even light a candle! (Except for the candle-powered tea Ann brewed.) It simply flowed. We made it up as we went along . . . and the levity only added to the experience.

Kinda sorta part of the What creators do series.