The Importance of Ritual

Every spring our campus engages in a wide variety of annual traditions and rituals, including various inductions, banquets, and special ceremonies. These predictable events have felt especially significant to me this time around as I will no longer be sharing in them after I leave the college in July.

I’ve marveled at the academic accomplishments of students and the mentorship of faculty at student scholar showcases and academic awards banquets. I’ve been inspired by the physical feats of sports teams and the deep bonds of players and coaches at the athletic awards red carpet ceremony. I’ve been deeply moved by the pride and ownership that our students of color and other diversities showed through their first annual multicultural gala. I felt nostalgic at the leadership induction ceremony as the incoming presidents of various organizations signed the same book that leaders from past generations also marked with their signatures.

Next week even grander and more formal ceremonies will take place during Commencement weekend. Nurses will be pinned, teachers will take their oaths, candles will be lit, speeches will be proclaimed, robes will be donned, hoods will be worn, diplomas will be presented, and tears and laughter will fill the Dell as has been experienced in some form or fashion for 114 years at Lynchburg College.

In addition to these more “official” traditions at the college, other rituals are taking place.  Seniors especially have bucket lists of favorite places to go and favorite things to do one last time before everyone goes their separate ways, whether hanging out at a favorite bar downtown, climbing the Peaks of Otter, visiting over coffee from the Muse, or having lingering conversations in the red chairs on the Dell.

Why are all these moments, both informal and formal, so important? According to Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, “This is what rituals are for. We do spiritual ceremonies as human beings, in order to create a safe resting place for our most complicated feelings of joy or trauma, so that we don’t have to haul those feelings around with us forever, weighing us down. We all need such places of ritual safekeeping.”

Surely this time of year finds many of us carrying around the weight of many complicated feelings. We may have regrets for goals not reached or relationships that have floundered even while we give thanks for those accomplishments we did achieve and those friendships that have flourished. We may be eager to move on to the next chapter in our lives even as we are reluctant to let go of the familiarity and comfort of all that has been known and predictable.

For those of us who are carrying around complicated emotions this time of year, I hope we will look for ways to find or even create rituals and safe resting places to hold our feelings.  May we make space in our busy days to reflect and ponder. In looking back, may we be both forgiving and grateful. In looking ahead, may we be both courageous and hopeful. In sitting in the present, may we be filled with awe and wonder.

For all that has been…thank you. For all that is yet to be…Yes!

Peace, Anne