wolven7 | jillesta: Children, Rituals, Spirituality

"How important do you think ritual is in the spiritual growth of children? What is important in spirituality?"

I think the real trick of it is that rituals will be replaced with others, even if we don't call them rituals, even if we sublimate them into something else. Kids will buld their own, if they aren't given models from which to work. What I say is, give the kids models. Let them see beneficial rituals, and teach them how to integrate them in their daily lives. That way they're better prepared, and able to more healthily do what comes naturally.

The rituals don't even have to be spiritual or religious, they simply have to be measured, intricate, and meaningful. That way, the very act of creating the ritual becomes a ritual, itself, and the very drive to create meaning will sustain them, whether they ever choose to find meaning, or not. The choice to create becomes important of itself.

Hope that made some kind of sense.