Rituals

Morning Ritual, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I love my maté. Really love it. A couple weeks ago I bought that great thermos on the left. It's incredible! I put hot water in it at 7am and opened it at 2:30pm and it burned me!

Tons of people in Argentina drink maté, but not nearly as many as do in Uruguay. In Uruguay every second or third person has a thermos under their arm, everywhere they go. Here in Argentina it's a really communal activity, similar to smoking a bowl, with it's own etiquette and language. (Except that it's legal, and instead of giving you munchies it makes you less hungry, and instead of making you tired it gives you energy.) One unspoken rule is that when you're sick you don't drink from a shared maté, which means that for more than a month I've been drinking my maté all alone. This might seem sad, but I actually enjoy my little quiet morning ritual.

I've started a new ritual with myself, and I thought it particularly appropriate to share it here. I've turned into a real whiner in the last couple of months. It's hard to read and hear about all my friends starting their gardens, going on hikes, and heading off to festivals when I'm here in Argentina, at a point in my trip that's pretty anticlimactic. At this point I just live here, and there's no dirt to put my feet in. I've worked on a farm for two summers now, and I miss it! I'm really just homesick, I know, but it makes me feel resentful towards Argentina, which is wrong!

My new ritual involves writing in my journal, my real journal. I've started to keep a list of everything I'm grateful for, or that I've learned or discovered since I've been here. It' helps! I had an incredibly productive day yesterday, based on the fact that I realized the upside of having too much free time! This is the free time I always wanted! I had two fabulous ideas yesterday, and the wheels are in motion to actually pursue them!

I've decided to share some of my list each week, so here's today's bunch! It's not all significant and huge, but it all makes a difference in my life.

Big, small, profound and trivial things I am grateful to have discovered since coming to Argentina:
I can converse, more or less, in Spanish!
I love drinking maté with friends, but I also love my morning ritual
I can enjoy a beer, in a bar, with the right friends
Ceci, Steve, Ali and Ashley
I have time to knit
I got to explore the city with Mom and Paula, it was wonderful!

The list is really long, so I'm breaking it up over time.

Now, I want to know, what are your rituals? What keeps you on track? What never fails to bring you joy?

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