64 Comments
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Kate Ardis Oden's avatar

I do love showering last thing before bed by candlelight, medievally, in a 21st-century, highly convenient way.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

me too!! (minus candlelight but now I want to try it). you know what we need? those old-timey baths with the ornate handheld shower head type thing

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Kate Ardis Oden's avatar

Yeah, baths are the bomb.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

really had to resist not making a bathbombs pun

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Teresa Renton's avatar

Morning stretch - not necessarily anything I’ve been taught at yoga, or Pilates, or whatever, but just stretching any which way I please before I even put my foot on the floor 😍

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Shannan Mann's avatar

so underrated...need to do this more often

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Kate Ardis Oden's avatar

That was the idea!!

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Joy Lennick's avatar

Deliciously'kooky!' I'm 93 and I still smile as I replace my tiny china pig (in secretary mode, sitting with a pad and pencil) on my bedside unit, 'interviewing' the Corgi dog a dear lady gave me as an evacuee over eighty-three years ago!! It's the simple things. . . Cheers. Joy Lennick

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Shannan Mann's avatar

haha that's so sweet! I love the idea of someone describing something I wrote as "deliciously kooky" -- that'll stay with me, thank you Joy!

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Catalina's avatar

6 & 9 lmao, i thought i was the only one!

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Shannan Mann's avatar

haha, this weird world we're all in, you can almost guarantee that all experiences are shared in some way ❤️.

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Coley's avatar

I do the swimming thing too, but it’s under the 5 am moonlight. So meditative!

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Shannan Mann's avatar

oh my god how...do you have a pool at home!? Do you live in Scotland next to the fairy pools?? Where ARE you where such witchery is possible??

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Coley's avatar

It’s in a lap pool in our town. I wish it were Scotland, but it’s merely Florida.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

and it's open at 5am? you lucky weird floridains

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Coley's avatar

Yessss so you can swim before your commute to work.

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Jason Gael's avatar

I have a pool, a hot tub, and a walkin cedar wood sauna.. sadly can’t use them at the moment. Can’t submerge at all :(

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Kait Quinn's avatar

Love this! One of my silly rituals is the three beverages (that aren't water) that I look forward to each day: morning decaf oat milk latte, afternoon mint chocolate protein smoothie, evening sparkling water. Sometimes an after-dinner bonus smoothie.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

All of these sound delicious (okay except the mint smoothie but that's my problem ha). Do you make them all yourself?

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Kait Quinn's avatar

Lol my partner doesn't care for the mint smoothie either. I make all of them except the sparkling water but I'd LOVE to make my own of that one too.

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Nancy Huggett's avatar

daily visit to the tamaracks at the river park across the street from our house. I touch them, lean against them, lie under them, listen to them. Sometimes photograph them, little details.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

this is beautiful, thank you for sharing Nancy! I love touching and hugged trees. There's something so comforting about this simple act that really any of us can do.

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Nancy Huggett's avatar

its the listening that's hard! Thanks Shannan

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Shannan Mann's avatar

Is there anything that makes it easier?

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StanleydelGozo's avatar

Alo-HA David et al....at 78 I still really enjoy dancin' with nny moonshadow

Shannon et al Remembering to BREATHE

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Joy Lennick's avatar

To All, Treasure the early sun, that errant breeze; that unexpected smile from a stranger's face; the distant echo of children's laughter; the early summer blooms - all sent to please! Enjoy. Cheers Joy Lennick

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Shannan Mann's avatar

"distant echo of children's laughter" -- one of the sounds that makes me feel truly safe

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Roger Mathias's avatar

I loved to read this! Keep up 🙌🏻

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Shannan Mann's avatar

🫡 Thank you friend!

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💖SparkleSauce💖's avatar

I like to open a window and softly read poems out loud to myself, especially if it’s raining a little. Also, brushing out my hair; it’s very relaxing to me.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

YES to both! And poems + rain are the best companions

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PostPlandemicChronicles's avatar

I’ll go on weekend trips to a different town and reserve a hotel for a two night stay. I started doing this during the Plandemic. At first it started off because I wanted to avoid all the areas that I knew were locked down.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

you've taken my "drive to go for a walk" ritual to new heights!

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Danielle Wong's avatar

Every morning, I pour myself a cup of coffee, burn my tongue on the first sip, tell myself to wait for it to cool down, and then completely forget I have a cup of coffee waiting to be drunk until it is nearly lunch time and I go to take a sip of the now cold drink.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

That's a beautiful ritual complete with iced coffee from the universe. Also, what kind of coffee do you drink?

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Danielle Wong's avatar

I love Kicking Horse, Three Sisters, but I don't have it often; it is a treat for me. Somehow I only have Nescafe or, God forbid, Maxwell House in my cupboards. Maybe that is the underlying cause of forgetting to drink my coffee.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

Haha I've had Kicking Horse once (I think Horse power??) and yes soo good, but definitely not everyday...or at least for me, not sure if they do instant

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Danielle Wong's avatar

Yeah, I don't think they do.

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Ranim.sh's avatar

Amazing writing..I do got some rituals myself...like I look up at the crystal chandelier and just zoom out...it helps me to came up with new ideas of stories.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

oh if I had a crystal chandelier....

wait but how do you "zoom out"?

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Ranim.sh's avatar

I mean I just forgot everything around me....and I just realized it was the wrong term 😅 (English not my first language sometimes my other language slips)

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krys's avatar

have you ever read a beautiful marsupial afternoon by CA Conrad? this reminds me so much of their somatic rituals!

really loved to read this. I kinda needed it, to remind me. thanks, Shannan. <3

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Shannan Mann's avatar

so happy it connected krys! And yes I have read a lot of CA Conrad...really really astute observation/linking there!!

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Ben L.'s avatar

I don't understand the jab at capitalism, it has all the cool stuff!

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Shannan Mann's avatar

Ben, it was not a jab...it was a vampire-blood laced dagger

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Ben L.'s avatar

If you won the lottery you would suddenly love capitalism.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

oh yes inject it into my veins

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APOKRYPHA's avatar

beautiful

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Shannan Mann's avatar

no stop it YOU'RE beautiful

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Coley's avatar

Tell me more about this instant coffee.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

you're asking me to do product placement in my clearly anti-capitalist post? no problem, it's "Dolce Superfoods Organic Instant Coffee – USDA Certified, Bold & Smooth Flavor, 14oz Travel-Friendly, No Additives, Non-GMO" 🤎

THE BEST EVER sry not sry

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Coley's avatar

🤣🤣 I just didn’t know instant coffee was a thing outside for the Folgers crystals my grandparents kept on their kitchen table at all times and is now going to be a poem.

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Shannan Mann's avatar

folgers can't match my aesthetic

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Jason Gael's avatar

You’re trippy… I deleted the word ‘kinda’ from the middle. My rituals are (in any order) play practice games of 9-ball pool, throwing darts, playing guitar, and drawing comics for graphic novel anthologies

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StanleydelGozo's avatar

playing crystal bowls, sunrise sunset walking labyrinths dancing singing

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StanleydelGozo's avatar

wishing y nn key wasn't stuck...

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