I am a Life Cycle Celebrant.

I compose and lead celebrations for a full spectrum of major life events. We are all familiar with the ‘big three’: birth, marriage and death. Pause for a second though – to ponder the other major events we may experience. Just to name a few: adopting a child, empty nesting, surviving illness, aging or moving an elderly parent into a care facility. Traditionally, our culture does not recognize these passages with either ritual or ceremony. We usually go through the motions, just suck it up and get ready for the next day of work.

Alternatively, we can choose to acknowledge events outside the ‘big three’ with meaningful ceremonies, to simply help us grasp what is truly happening. In some instances, this may occur within spiritual communities or churches, like the story below . If you do not participate in either, you might consider creating a customized celebration with Sweetgrass Ceremonies. (Yes. ;~D A shameless little nudge in a creative direction!)

Take an adoption blessing for example, where parents of a newly adopted child mark their transition into family status. Actress Nia Vardalos wrote a heart felt post about her own experience with her newly formed family and adopted daughter. I love Nia’s concluding words:

“Curiously, we humans seem to need these rituals to get things into our skulls. There isn’t just one reason we need these rites. Sometimes we need to witness, sometimes we need the catharsis. That ceremony on that day was healing and more importantly, helped it sink in that I am a parent, no matter how my child came to me.”

Good food for thought on a few levels!

Kristine