Personal rituals to carry us through grief
'Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.'Rabindranath Tagore I hesitated to use the word 'ritual' in this blog post. I've noticed…
How Preparing for Grief and Death Benefit us in Life
Imagine enduring the process of childbirth if you didn’t know you were pregnant and thought you were ill and in a lot of pain. It would be much more frightening…
12 Qualities to Look for in a Funeral Celebrant
1. Open to all beliefs and none, without imposing their own. 2. Understands the emotional journey of a funeral ceremony and can guide you through it. 3. Someone who's grounded…
A Nun with a Sense of Humour
Someone who died local to me earlier this month and whose funeral I led was described as having a 'wicked sense of humour.' She was also someone who was in…
Healthy Grief: How Do You Feel About Bowing to Someone Who’s Died?
Bowing to someone who has died can feel rather unnatural to those of us raised in the West. We’re not used to bowing in daily life. We might associate it…
Your Life in a Song
There are a multitude of ways in which music can be used as part of a funeral ceremony. Playing a significant song is just one of them, and it can…
The Gift of Song
https://youtu.be/nUMg6swWy5U Threshold Choirs were founded in California to sing at the bedside for those who are ill or dying, replicating the experience of a mother singing to her child. It…
Grief: Does Time Really Heal?
Grief can be felt as a wide variety of different bodily and emotional sensations. According to the American psychotherapist, Dave Richo, grief arises from a combination of 3 emotions -…
To Close or Not to Close…the Curtains.
It’s potentially the lowest, saddest point in the funeral ceremony, the crux where we must truly face the inevitable and, having celebrated a life, say our final farewells. Some call…
Renewing: Freeing Ourselves from the Past
Human beings are good at resisting change. This resistance comes from the ego that craves security and sees that in what it thinks should stay just as it is. It…
Sailing Home
I led a funeral yesterday for someone with a strong connection to the ocean. Sailing can be a wonderful metaphor for life and death. It involves working with the elements:…