Ten recipes for a ritual
Celebration is something we make.
A ritual can hide in the background. Waiting weeks, months or years to really emerge as meaningful.
This week, I had an unexplainable (and rare) desire to bake. In what seemed like a true Ratatouille moment, where a little rat chef takes hold of your limbs to cook yummy things, I was pulled around the kitchen gathering flour, eggs, milk, baking soda, and ~*matcha*~.
What I am saying here is that I had an unconscious desire to make bright green and tea tasting muffins. And not only that, as I threw back 5 or 6 of them, I realized that every spring, like clockwork, I bake with matcha.
It’s a pull I can’t quite explain, but looking at those bright green lumps, it felt like a projector flicked on in my mind. Frame by frame, a ritual was hiding. Japan at 18 years old. An engagement party. Karaoke. Moving to Vancouver and falling in love with T&T Supermarket. Finding new love in Chinatown. The pandemic. And now, a snack made for a preschooler.
Matcha is bright, energetic, earthy tasting and seemingly, made for May.
The Play Menu
This week, play revolves around ritual: a simple way to build meaning through repetition.
We tested a matcha mini muffin recipe that works for both kids and adults. It’s balanced, not too sweet, and easy to repeat. The batter comes together quickly, bakes in under 15 minutes, and holds up well for snacks or shared plates.
The Spring Hand invitation is a simple, personalized way to mark this season. It captures what your child notices and chooses right now, while holding the size of their hand in this moment. It becomes something to revisit later, both for what they gathered and how small it once was.
Recipes for a ritual
“Rituals are, among other things, tools that help us process change. There is so much change in this universe, so many entrances and exits, and ways to mark them...each one astonishing in its own way.”
― Sasha Sagan, For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Mark the end of the week with lighting a candle. Light it at dinner and chat about the week ahead, what’s everyone excited about? Nervous for?
With a wax pen, personalize the candle for your family. Pick a day of the week, the surname of your family, or tie it to an upcoming hurdle or milestone. Perhaps, a big overseas trip is coming up, write the location on the candle. A scary medical follow up? Call the candle “health” in a language you love.
If the transition between school pickup and dinner is a struggle, set up a crab boil (snack edition). Tape the corners of some craft paper to the dining table, spread some snacks and washable markers around. Encourage kids to make silly drawings using the snacks as part of the design. What would a monster with grape eyes look like?
In this week’s paid portion, you’ll find:
Five more ways to bring rituals into your daily life
The Spring Hand tutorial
The ingredients that make meaning
The educational power of a ritual
