The Song and the Flame

Busy moms learn how to balance family and faith

Two things I really like about this article. One is that the author seems to have made a conscious effort to make it inclusive; it mentions Muslim and Jewish examples as well as Christian. The other is that… it actually is exactly what I needed to hear right now.

I was skeptical when I started reading, but by the end… I actually felt better about my religious practice. If nothing else, the whole thing serves as a reminder that I am not alone in this. That it’s OK to not have enough energy to go around and — a lesson I keep learning over and over in many different contexts — when that happens, some is better than none at all.

I don’t know that I’m up to the whole idea of starting a women’s group or anything (where would I find enough other Hellenics to do that?). I could possibly try to revive Ta Hiera, but I don’t know if I have the energy for that. Maybe one day I’ll get to that point. Right now, I need to just set aside a few minutes each day. And I already have a good start on that–I do pray and pour libations most mornings, and I try to remember a quick prayer and libation at noon too. There you go. Daily practice, something to keep my hand in even when I get buried in diapers and dirty dishes.

The problem is, when the routine breaks, so does this. It’s tied into my morning routine–get up, feed cats, get dressed, comb hair, brush teeth, pray. If I put off getting dressed on the weekend, if I don’t brush my teeth because I got up late and I need to hurry, it throws me off and I miss the morning prayer. I also often miss the noon prayer on weekends because my weekend “routine”, such as it is, doesn’t make such a point of marking noon the way my weekday routine does. (See also main blog for yesterday.)

I think maybe the first thing I need to do in rebuilding my spiritual and religious side is to find a way to work those in even when I deviate from my routine. Probably this is more just a case of needing to establish a habit than anything. It should be simple; this doesn’t exactly take a long time. A minute, probably, no more.

Once I get that down, I can move on to trying to celebrate more major holidays or whatever, yes?

(I was thinking of trying to do something for Thargelia this year. Then I realized it fell on the two days that happen to be my brother’s wedding and the rehearsal for my brother’s wedding. So anything I do is going to have to be seriously, seriously creative–probably it’s better to just wait until next year.)