Birthday Rituals

‪Birthday celebrations, what do you do? How do you honor the passing of the time over such an amazing day in your life? In both your lives, in the life of your family

Today is my son's birthday and we invited a small group of friends.We sat in nature, in a a circle on the grass, near a beach, under the trees.

We could hear the waves, we could feel the wind.We brought birds inside beautiful small Chinese cages made of bamboo.We sat down in a circle and crown our little guests with flower garlands I made earlier in the morning. We all admired the simple beauty of the little birds, we let our children celebrate them, and with their help and enthusiasm we slide the door up... And they flew... Free and beautifully.

This was my gift to my son, creating a life release ritual to share with our loved ones.

What ‪#‎sacredrituals‬ are part of your celebrations? What is the message behind the way you... ‪#‎honoryourstory‬ ?

My son has turned two and I was looking for inspiration for a meaningful ritual he could appreciate, when I found the "Life release". This is a Buddhist tradition of saving the lives of animals, meant to be slaughtered or remain captive, blessing them in their freedom and with that action healing our karma.
I was inspired by the Thai tradition of doing this on your birthday, to bring blessings to your life.

The practice is not only about the act of saving lives but also of the blessing that accompany the life release. And it is beautiful to work on those blessings with your older children, creating messages to use during the ritual.We wrote one line for each bird, inspiring the children to use their purest intentions...

"Be free"
"Let go"
"Trust your wings"
"You can fly"

If you think of doing this there are a few things to follow to make sure we are really helping these birds:
- Release birds that are native to that place (to protect Nature's balance);
- Choose birds that have been captured in the wild and not born captive (cause they would not be able to survive by themselves);
- Perform the fear release ritual in nature, near trees, not in the city. 

Oh please share with us! What rituals INSPIRE you?