As a recovering Catholic-cum-Pagan-Atheist, I’m constantly making my own rituals. I feel the need for ritual in my life, but often don’t feel that the rituals of my parents mean anything to me.

A few years ago, I discovered a catalogue that alleged to be filled with products “by women for women”. I’ve gotten some great gifts for people from it, but I also found a datebook that successfully replaced my Palm.

What I like about it is that it takes the emphasis off the dates themselves, although it gives them, and puts it onto what you are doing on those dates. In a sort of cosmic sense. Each year has a theme & each month (which is counted from one new moon to the next) does as well. Since it’s not terribly concerned with the dates, the ‘08 calendar starts on December 21 and the ‘07 one ended on January 11.

Each year, I look forward throughout December to changing my calendar. This year, I didn’t do it until January 11. I sat down with the two calendars and a hole punch, lit a candle in my favorite candle holder, made some tea (it was night, so I made herbal), and closed the door. For a while, it was just me and my calendar; me and the future. I went through last year’s calendar page by page, saving my favorite prayers, poems, and pictures. I punched holes in this year’s calendar and put the pages into the binder that I keep them in. The pages I don’t keep from last year will be contributed to Valentine’s-making for their pictures & poems. The ones I do will be kept in the back of the binder, for future reference.

When I left the room, my tea finished, my candle still burning, and my year laid out before me, filled with possibilities, I felt ready to confront it. This year’s theme is Mending the Web. There is much in my web that needs mending. In a literal sense, I lost the data files to all my homepages, so they need to be recreated one by one. In a much more metaphorical sense, my family is going through some difficult times and realizing the importance of the ties that bind us. So my year started a little late, but it feels like it was started right.