The words routines, rituals, and habits intertwine like a thick braid.  Are they interchangeable?  Have I been taking liberties with their usage? 

I can easily parse habits from the three-some.  Those are the small things I do on autopilot which are guided by circumstances like time of day or environment. Floss and brush before bed.  Squirt hand sanitizer out of the pump when I get into the van.  Pilates on Mondays and Wednesdays.  Habits are those cheeky things that push the world just a tad off kilter if you skip one. Like seeing an unmade bed late in the day. Bill normally makes the bed, and if he doesn’t, I usually make it by the end of the day.  That moment of walking into the room and seeing the visual peace in a made bed is definitely worth the two minutes it takes to make it. Even the physicality of making it has become rewarding to me.

Routines and rituals are a bit more complex.  I’ve been muttering to myself over the last several months that I need more rituals.  Or do I need more routines? Patterns of activity over time become routines.  I could say that when the library was open, my routine on Tuesdays and Thursdays was to drop the boys off at school by 7:45 a.m., go to the coffeeshop and review the day and organize the calendar until 9:00 when the library doors opened.  Then I would drive to the library, park on the side street and carry in my weighty backpack and my water bottle.  I would stop in the bathroom then soar up the stairs to the quiet room.  I would claim my space at the end of a long table and put my backpack in the chair to my right.  After a swift unzipping of pockets, I arranged the computer, water, notebook, and pen on the table.  I left the phone in my backpack.  I popped open the lid and chose “New document.”  The next two to three hours unfolded easily under the umbrella term “writing.” 

The knowing swirl of those mornings was comforting and energizing.  And while the patter of those mornings was routine, the ruffled feathers over their disappearance have convinced me that this was my writing ritual, not merely a routine.