reexamining ritual

I built an altar for the new year, arranging photographs and precious stones around each other until they sat just right before me.

It’s the end of another hard year, and everyone’s instinct (including my own) is to create a new map of who they want to be in 2026 – something to quantify and grade our lives with like a math test. I’m not really into resolutions anymore. Enough of my time is already spent holding myself to unattainable, ever-changing standards. More than anything, I’ve been craving the quiet, steady pulse of life, only audible if you sit and listen for it.

Altar building is one of my favorite ways to tap into that heartbeat. As I light an incense and sit on a pillow in front of the little shrine, my eyes linger over every item and create a place for myself to dwell in, outside of the constraints of time or busyness or self-imposed expectations. I imprint the images onto my memory:

Pine and cedar for renewal, strength
Clementines and rice for prosperity, abundance
A Palestinian poem for peace
Family jewelry for my ancestors
A little jester toy for playfulness, for my inner child

Intuitively, I think we seek sacredness in our lives more than we realize. I see “altars” in everything now. On bedside tables and bountiful dinner spreads. In pedalboards situated at guitarists’ feet and artist workstations. The important parts to me are a connection to the present moment and, oftentimes, loved ones around us to share it with.

An element of altar building that aligns itself against the western world’s optimization obsession, is the practice of remembering, instilling. Sacred spaces and practices ask us to carve deeper into the preexisting indentations of our lives. We don’t have to reset ourselves like an outdated phone. Noticing, revisiting the patterns of our lives allow for building atop of what’s already there.

While I don’t subscribe to fickle resolutions anymore, I do like to set intentions for the new year. Things to watch for and let life take care of. In 2026, I hope that rituals return to my life, and that their branches stretch out into presence, connection, and gratitude.

Write me letters and make me mixtapes and send me pics of your own sacred spaces this year !!!!

xoxo

Sky

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For further reading:

Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines Into Your Everyday Life by Denise Linn

“the disappearance of rituals and the exhaustion of constantly becoming” by Nina Montagne