Ending the first day

Life is full of firsts-- your first steps, first words, first bicycle. There is wonder that fills those moments-- I recall watching my first child take her first steps, say "mama" for the first time...     

as I brush those moments in memory my eyes brim with the uniqueness of the occasion but can never recapture them. They are butterfly moments, quickly fleeting in their occurence and recollected only in far off  fields of Forget-me-Nots brought briefly back to life with a smell, a flavor. 

 New Year's day is a unique opportunity to embrace the Today as a first. Did you smile when you made love for the first time this morning? Did you enjoy the first message of "Happy New Year" from your children? Did you treasure the first breath you took in this first day, the first sunset? 

This day is a day to cherish firsts.  

What firsts did you stow in your memory banks for the future? 

*Emily at Keeping Time stirred my thoughts on firsts with her lovely post on Japanese traditions for New Year's day. Wonderful pics accompanied the post so I encourage you to go say "hi." 

Sleighbells ring!

What say the writer of our quest? 

Tally-ho!

A little pedestrian seeming, KMart usually has a gem or two for our treasure seeking eyes, so across the street we head. This might seem a likely place to fight off the Black Friday hordes but apparently the bargains were early or nonexistent so we are safe from deal ravagement. 

Nostalgia is a particular fancy as you might note-- the tender look on St. Nick's face caught my eye. There are pluses and minuses to this ornamental trimming. Perhaps a bit too homemadeish??? hmm....

Traditionally

Traditions and ritual have great significance in life. That is one of the reasons that I began a blog on Christmas traditions-- because in the fast paced world that we live in, we often fail to include ritual in our lives. This is one purpose that religions serve (if you can call it serve) but even many churches have less and less of an understanding of how deeply people need ceremony and rites.

Sam Harris, in his book 'The end of faith' writes about the need for atheists to acknowledge this and goes on to state that meditation and solitude are also important for the spirit. The increase of wicken ceremonies and the study of ancient women's religions reflects this need for ritual, I believe. A book "Mother, daughter, sister, bride: rituals of womanhood' which I spotted on Amazon appears to contains many of these and Sue Monk Kidd also writes about rituals that she and many of her friends engage in in 'Dance of the dissident daughter'. The rituals that represent a passage from one stage of life to another are particularly powerful. Other rituals that simply note a new season or a special day add a uniqueness to life that differentiates one day from another.

As an example: a friend told me she grew up doing a snow dance. On the morning of the first snow, her family would jump out of bed, strip their clothes off and dance around the living room. I have no idea if they had special music, but it seems to me that adding a special song would make the ceremony stronger.

It's easier to use ceremonies that others have developed and nurtured but when a family creates it's own traditions that occur year after year, one generation to the next, the meaning becomes deeper and more meaninful.