Will Being a Celebrant Make Your Heart Sing? (Or asked another way, “Am I cut out to be a Celebrant?”)

There will never be another you.  The world has never seen anyone quite like you before, nor will it ever find another just like you again.  You are one of a kind and you have something to contribute to this life that the world needs from you.  In fact, my definition of a calling is the intersection where your unique passion meets a deep hunger in the world.  If you are feeling drawn to studying the art of ceremony and you are thinking about entering Celebrant school, this is a perfect time to interview yourself with a few key questions:

·      What kind of people do you enjoy being around? 

·      What are the values, goals and purposes that are important to you?

·      In what kind of working conditions do you do your best work?

·      What values do you want your life to serve while you are here on earth?

All of these questions are important but that last one – answering how you want your life values to serve the world - is the most important.   After all, your life is your creation, a work of art that you will leave behind as your legacy when your journey here on earth is done. 

The next step is understanding that being a Celebrant does not require an extensive list of qualities or specific life experiences; interview 3 celebrants and you will find 3 different personalities and three different life paths that led them to their chosen career.  But being a Celebrant does require that you possess these defining interests/aptitudes:

1.     A fascination with stories.  Celebrants are story tellers; they live and breathe listening to, asking about, talking about and sharing stories.  When they meet new people, they often find themselves soon asking ‘Tell me how you got started in this career’ or ‘How did you two meet?’ and ‘Who influenced you the most when you were growing up?’ Celebrants love stories, and they love telling them to others, at the slightest provocation!!

2.     A deep appreciation for ritual and ceremony, for rites of passage and for acknowledging the ongoing transitions of life.   From the time they are young, celebrants seem to gravitate toward ceremony and rituals of all kinds; they might have played “school” and pretended to be the teacher on opening day, or they might have organized after school parties when they were teens, and played the hostess; or they may have regularly volunteered to be on the Prom Committee, or the New Student Orientation Committee, always eager to participate in life’s passages in one form or another.

3.     A genuine love of serving people, helping them recognize their significant life journeys, talking to them and listening to them about what they need emotionally and spiritually, attending to their needs, celebrating success and joyful events, while also being supportive during difficult transitions.  The goal of their service is not to become wealthy, but to earn a decent living while deeply serving something greater than themselves through work that makes them feel blessed to do it.   For no matter how much money we make, subjectively we’ll be “rich” when we are true to our vocation and “poor” when we betray it, or ignore it. 

So, are you ready to enroll in class and start moving toward your future vocation?  You can contact the Celebrant Foundation & Institute at www.celebrantinstitute.org/

Celebrant Foundation & Institute Blog Editor ~ Elaine Voci, Ph.D.

Elaine is a Certified Life Cycle Celebrant and provides individuals and families in the greater Indianapolis area with personalized and unique ceremonies that mark life’s important transitions. She is also a Life Coach in private practice, specializing in career coaching, in Carmel, Indiana and the author of four inspirational and educational books.  She is proud and happy to be our CF&I Blog editor!  You can reach Elaine at elainevoci@gmail.com.

Please direct all request, comment or concerns about our CF&I Blog to our Social Media Manager ~ Marcia Almeida, Master Life-Cycle Celebrant. at  celebrantsocialmedia@gmail.com
 Or to the Celebrant Foundation & Institute’s director, Charlotte Eulette at:charlotteeulette@celebrantinstitute.org or call us at (973)746-1792.  
Don’t hesitate to visit our website at www.celebrantinstitute.org  

The Celebrant Troubadour

Welcome to the first edition of The Celebrant Troubadour – a modern throwback to the town square where in days of yore the town crier adorned in a red and gold robe, white breeches, black boots and a tri-corner hat would shout out ‘oyez’ or ‘hear ye, hear ye’ and follow that with royal proclamations, the price of sugar, local by-laws and information about market days. That was the way townspeople found out what was happening. Sort of like cable news these days – lots of shouting.

Fast forward from medieval England to our present day global community and more specifically to our celebrant tribe or family where communication is digital, exists virtually on many different platforms at the same time; all while life is moving at an ever increasing speed. We know there is plenty out there in the cosmos vying for your attention other than the moon and the stars; still we hope you’ll spend a few moments with us in our on-line Celebrant Town Square as we impart the news celebrant style. That means we’ll lose the breeches and the robe –have a binder in hand and do it with a flourish, a twirl, and maybe even a ‘happie amp’. Here you can mingle with alumni, current students, future students and all those good people who are interested in the impact that life changing ceremony is having on communities and culture in every town, suburb, city, rural municipality and hamlet near and far.

- Dorry Bless