A comment on the Celebrate the Rhythm of Life Facebook page inspired me to write about routines today. I wrote a long piece on routines that felt like too much. I decided to break it into smaller more digestible pieces to post over several days, hence a series called Rhythm and Routine is born.
#1
Here's today's entry...
A routine is "a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program." as in:
"I settled down into a routine of work and sleep."
The word routine comes from the French "route" meaning road. With a routine, we take the same road, over and over again, day after day. We pass the same trees, go around the same curves and see the same landmarks in the same sequence on this road called routine.
Routines in our daily life are those series of events that can be counted upon to happen everyday, in the same order, in the same sequence, just as the sun rises and the sun sets, so shall there be the familiar and comforting routines to the day.
The word routine comes from the French "route" meaning road. With a routine, we take the same road, over and over again, day after day. We pass the same trees, go around the same curves and see the same landmarks in the same sequence on this road called routine.
Routines in our daily life are those series of events that can be counted upon to happen everyday, in the same order, in the same sequence, just as the sun rises and the sun sets, so shall there be the familiar and comforting routines to the day.
Routines Are Like Old Familiar Friends
Routines are like old familiar friends. Routines form the basis of a healthy home rhythm. They help bring form to the day. They help us, the adults, know what to do now, and what to do next.
Parents come to me and ask:
I don't know what to do with my child, we just seem to get lost in a blur during the day.
What do I do with my baby all day long?
What do I do with my toddler all day long?
What do I do with my kindergarten aged child all day long?
What I always encourage is to begin with rhythm (that is a conscious awareness of the energetic quality of the flow of activities as the child relates to them) and routine. Establish predictable routines first.
When a routine no longer serves us, or no longer feels vibrant and meaningful, then it is time to make a change, to tweak it or let it go. But I am getting ahead of myself, for that has more to do with ritual and reverence, and for now I am focusing on routine.
Do you remember familiar and comforting routines from your childhood? Please share them with us in the comment section below.
Read Article #2 Why Routines? here
Read Article #3 We Can't Have One Without the Other here
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Do you remember familiar and comforting routines from your childhood? Please share them with us in the comment section below.
Read Article #2 Why Routines? here
Read Article #3 We Can't Have One Without the Other here
Peace on Earth begins at Home.
Ah my friend, you have a way of helping me see these things in deeper ways. I am grateful. I remember my father singing to me a wake up song on the weekends. It is a very fond memory.
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