As I embark on a Residency in Motherhood in this time of profound isolation and uncertainty I am confronted with questions.

What can I make using the materials I already have?

How can I participate in a community?

What new ways of interacting can we invent?

How the hell do I collaborate with my defiant 6 year old?!

Here is how it goes:

If she knows I am intentionally working towards a goal she will work against it.

If I come at this with a plan, I will want to control it.

If I want to control it, my daughter with sabotage it.

If my daughter sabotages it, I will get frustrated.

If I get frustrated, everyone has a bad day.

The point?

I need to let go of control.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it was that easy though? But it is not. I am a controlling person, this is not going to change.

So I need to balance maintaining control in the small moments available to me and letting go of control when I am with my daughter.

Enter my rituals.

Check back in tomorrow to see documentation of some rituals that keep me sane.