Status Report on Morning Prayer Video
A video described as seven minutes long has been opened every weekday for three months and completed on eleven occasions.
Field Guide: The Morning Ritual Video Stages of Engagement, with Notes
Stage 0: The Discovery
The subject discovers a video that is described as a morning practice. The description includes words such as grounding, intentional, and seven minutes.
Seven minutes is not a long time. The subject adds the video to a playlist titled "Morning."
The video is now available.
Stage 1: The First Completion
The subject watches the video in full. It is, as described, seven minutes. The subject feels that the morning has begun differently from mornings without the video.
This feeling lasts until approximately ten-fifteen.
The video is rated five stars internally. It is not rated five stars on the platform, as this would take additional time.
Stage 2: The Abbreviated Viewing
The subject opens the video on subsequent mornings. On several mornings, the video is closed after two minutes because something requires attention.
The something that requires attention is email, a notification, or the awareness that the first meeting begins in twelve minutes.
The video closes. The morning continues.
Stage 3: The Open-and-Minimize
The video is opened. It is minimized. The subject intends to return to it after the email is addressed.
The video plays in the background for its full seven minutes. The subject does not watch it. The subject is reading email.
At the end of seven minutes, the playlist advances to the next video, which is forty-three minutes long. The subject closes the browser.
Stage 4: The Diagnostic Phase
The subject notes that the video has been opened on sixty-one occasions and completed on eleven. The subject considers what this pattern means.
It means the video is genuinely appealing. It means the mornings are generally more eventful than seven minutes allows for. It means that seven minutes, as a unit of time, behaves differently at different hours.
The video is always there. The seven minutes are not always available, though the subject has been awake for forty of them.
Field Note
The ritual has not been abandoned. It is in a state of ongoing intention. This is considered a functioning relationship with the practice.