Last night, I did a "ritual" of sorts, in honor of my uncle. Again, everything I did was in complete silence, no word spoken aloud, and I know that my intent achieved it's purpose. Saying not a single word during that is perfectly fine to me. I feel like it was a great way of honoring the life he led, to say "See you later" (rather than goodbye, because I just can't do that.. it's just not in me).
BUT! What I realize is that perhaps for the purposes of truly embracing solitary work, I may need to put more emphasis on the spoken word. If for no other reason than to gain more confidence in what I'm doing when we are all Circling together. I know I've said that before, but this is a change I actively have to pursue. In addition to that, I left just about everything sitting out on the little end table we're using as a sort of coffee table (since moving in the sectional has eliminated having somewhere to set things nearby when I'm not using them), and that feels great too. I wouldn't call it an altar as such, but just not stashing everything out of sight is a nice change. My next goal is to set up an altar here in the living room that I can use for working/rituals, and leave it set up when it's not in use.
I like to think of every experience like this as a learning one, because at the core of it, everything is about learning and expanding on what works for me and what doesn't. At the end of the day, that's what the whole point of it is, is to be true to myself, and really, learn who I really am at the deepest level. I fully believe that my uncle would have supported that, whether he agreed with my methods or not. If he was nothing else, he was always true to himself and what he believed in, whether anyone agreed with him or not. That, I believe, is the best way of honoring who he was.