Answering the call

When I decided to pursue training to become a Celebrant with the Celebrant Foundation and Institute, I had a choice of which certification course I was going to take (Weddings or Funerals). I decided to focus on Weddings for a very specific, and perhaps unexpected reason.

At that time I had been working as a social worker for 20 plus years. One similiarity between being a social worker and a Celebrant is that in both, you meet people on the cusp or in the midst of life transitions. The difference is that often-times, as a social worker I was meeting people smack in the middle of a difficult or traumatizing life transition. Part ofmy job was to help them navigate the situation with the resources we had at hand and sometimes I was just holding space for them. Either way, it was not usually a joyous place to be in. So, when I was deciding on my certification course, I decided I wanted to meet people in a place of joy and hope and what are one of the times in a person's life that those emotions are so manifested? On their Wedding Day.

With that in mind, I immersed myself in my Weddings course at CF&I, graduating with an an almost perfect score. I was on my way to practicing as a Celebant and looking forward to holding free no-obligation meetings, reviewing questionnairs, crafting the perfect ceremony and declaring the happy couple married with whatever nomenclature they chose.

While I had always planned to go back and get my certification in Funerals, that was on the back burner, some time in the future. Then came an email from the director of CF&I - a literal call for Funeral Celebrants. She said she was getting calls looking for celebrants to perform end of life ceremonies and there weren't enough. Over the course of a couple of weeks, something kept drawing me back to that email. It was like she as speaking directly to me, from the picture that said "if you're looking for sign this is it" to her verbage - "if you have ever cofinsidered, thought about or planned" to take the Funerals certification course. Yup, all of that was me. And, I'm a firm believer in signs, messages from the Universe and that there are no coincidences. Plus the fact that there was such a need for Funeral Celebrants just tugged at my heart strings, for reasons I still can't completely verbalize.

So, I finally responded to her email and said "I'm in".

Yes, Weddings are wonderful and beautiful expressions of the love between two people. They personify joy and hope and everyone deserves to have the wedding day of their dreams, that is true to them as individuals and as a couple. By the same token, when someone passes away, they too deserve to have a ceremony that celebrates who they were, their achievements and contributions and is true to who they were. The bereaved deserve someone who will tell the story of their loved one with authenticity, compassion and respect. Just like weddings are an opportunity for people to witness the love one has for another, so too are end of life ceremonies a chance to witness love in action.

I'm so glad I answered the call and took the Funerals certification course. I'm so grateful that I learned the theories and skills that will enable me to perform end-of-life ceremonies that are whatever those left behind want and need them to be to honor their loved one - celebratory, somber, joyous, sacred, music-filled; any combination of these elements or something else totally. The beauty is there's no proscribed way the ceremony has to be done, as long as the deceased is honored and the living receive some solace in knowing they escorted their loved one from this life in a way that would be pleasing to them.