The importance of family traditions and rituals has long been of special interest to me. Their impact is unmistakable. And their energy is timeless. They honor the family. They create goodwill.

They enable generations of the past to connect with generations of the future.

They also tend to have wonderful healing and nurturing qualities to them that, if nothing else, provide a modicum of comfort in an oftentimes not-so-comfortable world. They enable a sense of place for geographically dispersed or nomadic family members. And they enable a knowing - and showing - of love between and among family members.

In this context, the rituals I speak of are not religious, although many consider them to be quite spiritual. Some are unique while others are more commonplace. No matter, though, because for those who practice them, they’re wonderfully fun-filled! And that’s one of the main reasons why they endure.

I’ve compiled a number of these Family Rituals and Routines into an e-book available at: http://www.ggci.com/familyrituals

As I started gathering these stories, I was repeatedly amazed at how people’s demeanors would soften when sharing their family rituals with me. It was as if they were entering a very special place inside themselves - a place of unending peace, and joy, and beauty, and love. I was (and still am) honored to have been invited to join them all. It awoke a deep, abiding gratitude in me unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.

It’s from this place, then, that I - with the help of some friends, relatives, acquaintances and even a number of people I’ve never even met - created Family Rituals: Fun Things Families Do Together. Give them a look - I trust you’ll find them to be a worthwhile read. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even rediscover - or create anew - a few family rituals of your own.

- Barry Zweibel   
Northbrook, Illinois, U.S.A.
http://www.ggci.com