Childhood Rituals

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I was a fearful child. I think most childen are.

Imagination was different back then. It was an active part of reality. If I thought hard enough about something I could usually see a shadow of that thing on a noisy surface, like a carpeted wall or even in the visual noise I saw when I closed my eyes. Imagination made things real enough to act on. I once had a panic attack because I thought the house was going to burn down after conjuring a vivid image of a sailor man engulfed by flames in the hallway leading to my room. I ran out in the garden and refused to go inside for a long time.

Fear was different back then. The terrors were at the same time unreal and way too real. On some level I knew it was bullshit but on another level it was just so real, so imminent. The sailor man would bring fire to our house.

The sheer power that imagination has on a child's mind is enough to make the threat of those terrors unbearable. And you're just a child, so there's not much you can do, you would be helpless against them if they were to materialize.

So we made rituals. Big and small, simple and elaborate, to keep the terrors from materializing. Doesn't matter as long as they gave us some sense of control.

A classic example is checking under the bed for the monster before going to sleep. Maybe a particular parent had to do it.

So I invite you to share your rituals from when you were a child that protected you from the terrors, if you can remember them.