we do what we can.
I am interested in routines.
For instance, every Sunday I send a newsletter. Sometimes — rarely — something goes sufficiently awry that I can’t complete that particular routine. In this case, getting an error message when I tried to login that didn’t resolve in the window I’d scheduled to be able to send it. But the other parts leading up to that — selecting the poem, for instance — were unaffected.
Some routines are resilient — they adapt to changing circumstances. In the very early days of what would become integral to my Sunday routine, I could just stick people’ vermas addresses into BCC if TinyLetter or Mailchimp fell over. Whenever I travel, whether it’s an overnight to an adjacent state or a multi-week, multi-country itinerary, I always unpack as soon as I get to the hotel.
There are some routines that are so well worn (which is not the same thing is mindless!) and so meaningful that they become ritual. Some rituals are handed down over generations, enduring for centuries.
Rituals of survival and of resilience, rituals for survival and for resilience.
Attribution
Brown love is your tired cousin who prays you all the way home from when you get on the subway to when you land and get on another. This is what we have we do what we can. — from Brown Love by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha