Favorite rituals

What are your rituals during the day or week? By rituals, I'm not talking about obligations or routines (like going to work every day), but those brief moments that you look forward to for one reason or another. For instance, I have a long commute, so my first cup of coffee is brewed while I'm in the shower and drunk on the drive. But it's my second cup of coffee that I enjoy most, because I get it after I finish my morning's work, then walk to the coffee shop about a half-mile away, along a river walk and a bike path, where I've seen osprey, great blue herons, muskrat, beaver, huge snakes, deer and a variety of iridescent blue, green or red dragonflies. It's a small thing, but somehow vitally important in the context of a day.

During the week, I make sure to take a lunchtime walk at least once with my friend Gavin, who is hobbling like I am due to various ailments, preventing us from running. But the walk, usually along the sea wall and beach in Narragansett, or else on the bike path through the Great Swamp, at least gives us a chance to have better discussions than we could have when we were jogging. I've also enjoyed meeting Tom, Emlyn and Em's friend Steve for golf on Wednesday evenings - at least when the golf course has been open. On Saturday, when I'm in Rhode Island, there's the ritual pub lunch and catching up with my friends there. Sundays I put an hour or so into the garden. And every night that I'm home, I usually work on the laptop with the Red Sox game playing on TV.