Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Born to Love



Born to Love By Elaine Voci, Life-Cycle Celebrant

Romeo and Juliet. Beyonce and Jay-Z. Oprah and Stedman. Bonnie and Clyde. Some people are just born to be together.  How they find each other and how it all works out…that’s what love stories are about and that’s what we all love about Valentine’s Day.  It gives us a chance to celebrate love and tell each other love stories that fill our craving for tales of passion and love’s triumph over loneliness and despair.


One of the joys of being a celebrant is to tell love stories in wedding ceremonies, in engagement parties, and in other settings where love features as an important element.  For example, last year I performed a new house blessing that included blessing the union of the two home buyers and telling stories about each of the rooms in their former home, and then sharing hopes and dreams for the rooms in their new home.  Some stories were about seeing a child through an illness together; caring for an elderly parent whose last months were supported by hospice nursing care that came to their living room made into a bedroom; and the story of how they found their new home. Their love for one another was celebrated in two identical bracelets I presented to them that symbolized their compassion, affection and shared values as a couple. We celebrated their new home with pastries, sweet wine, hot tea while sitting by the fireplace surrounded by their pet family as rains washed the earth clean outside their windows.


A friend asked me recently about being a celebrant 

and how it was different than being a minister in conducting ceremonies of love, such as weddings or funerals.  I explained that celebrants take the time to get to know their clients, their stories, their wishes and then incorporating them into a personalized service.  Instead of a “cut and dry” affair with “traditional” phrases, a celebrant service is full of lyrical language, poetry, prose, common wisdom, humor and aliveness; this makes each ceremony unique, memorable and unlike any other love story that has been told, yet also powered by universal truths that are part of the human story. When I quote Rumi to wedding attendees, in the presence of the couple standing in front of them, that “Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere, they are in each other all along” heads nod, eyes glisten, and smiles appear on their faces.  They recognize the universal truth in that observation.

So, on this Valentine’s Day, set aside some time to tell your love stories – whether it’s how you met your lover, or your mate, or how you and your dying parent shared a special conversation before death came, or how your grandchild and you expressed love for one another while reading a book, snuggled on a sofa with a quilt over your legs, cuddling in the comfort of your family room. So many stories, so much love! Happy Valentine’s Day! 

By Elaine Voci, Life-Cycle Celebrant




"Celebrants take the time to get to know their clients, their stories, their wishes and then incorporating them into a personalized service." -Elaine Voci





Elaine Voci is a life coach in private practice in Carmel, IN and a graduate of the Celebrant  Foundation & Institute.   Elaine is the Editor of the Celebrant Blog for the Celebrant Foundation & Institute.  Elaine Voci 's NEW BOOK: Resilience Art






"Dr. Elaine Voci's books aren't just books. They are emotional experiences and spiritual journeys. Resilience
Art provides readers with Elaine's personal and professional life lessons combined with modern research to inspire and inform them that grief is highly individual, and that resilience is a part of their natural birthright. They are shown how to use the coloring book and incorporate intentional rituals and a selection of their favorite music to help them grow, and to integrate their loss. Locally, Elaine offers Resilience Art Workshops to accompany her unique book, adding value to and for readers beyond the book." - Erin Albert, MBA, PharmD, JD, PAHM



Celebrant Foundation & Institute

Official Member of the International Federation of Celebrants




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 
call us at (973)746-1792.  Visit us at http://www.celebrantinstitute.org/?p=business Non-profit Educational Organization




Celebrant Foundation & Institute Facebook:   www.facebook.com/CelebrantInst
Blog:  The Celebrant Troubadour:  www.celebrantfoundation.blogspot.com
Magazine Celebrancy Today:
Twitter:  @CelebrantInst


Life-Cycle Ceremonies: A Handbook for Your Whole Life 





How do you commemorate momentous events? Memorialize people who have shaped you?
Draw support from those you hold dear? This primer offers methods for honoring the special occasions in your life with humor and grace. Its ceremonies help ground each day in the wholeness that supports our entire lives. Each ceremony has been vetted by a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® affiliated with the Celebrant Foundation and Institute, which offers training and support for celebrants worldwide. Visit us at www.celebrantInstitute.org.











Monday, January 15, 2018

 


Three Practices for the New Year: Remembering, Prayer and Love

The start of a New Year always draws us into a time of remembering the year that has just passed.  We consider the goals we set and if we accomplished them during the year.  We think about people we love, friends and family that we may have lost during the year and we remember our many shared experiences.  Some of us who are writers may look back at the blog posts we wrote during the year, and we remember the feelings we had and our circumstances when we wrote them. 

Memories are released and we reflect on them and find insights and new awareness of ourselves and how we wish to live.  It is good to remember; to bring back for review various times in our lives.  I was on a radio show interview recently and the host and I talked about shared memories of our careers and how each chapter of our lives seems to have built on the others, creating steps that carried us to our current roles.  What we remember is what we learn from and that is a gift worth honoring.

Prayer is another healthy and healing practice for our lives; it comforts us in times of challenge when we pray for strength and courage; and it lightens our heart in times of joy when our prayers are prayers of gratitude. But regardless of the circumstances, prayer is a good companion to have with us on the journey of life. It is food for the soul, it nourishes our spirit and encourages our hearts to connect, to reach out to help others, and to bring peaceful energy to the world. A prayer does not have to be a religious act it can be words or thoughts from your inner being that are expressed.

At the heart of our lives is the practice of love, the central core element that makes us human. Love is what saves us from our harsher instincts; love draws strangers together in times of common dangers, as we witnessed so often in 2017, to serve, protect, and comfort one another.  We are inspired by love, especially selfless love, and the examples we witness call us to our best selves. 
I wish these three practices for you as you move forward into your personal future, and into our shared future as members of the global community.  We live in a world that keeps getting smaller and we are connected through a web of life that joins our humanity.  We need remembering, prayer or casting our intentions, and love to sustain us, nourish us, and to wind around us as an invisible cloak that circles the earth and each of us upon it.  Happy New Year!





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 
call us at (973)746-1792.  Visit us at http://www.celebrantinstitute.org/?p=business
Non-profit Educational Organization

Celebrant Foundation & Institute

Official Member of the International Federation of Celebrants



Celebrant Foundation & Institute Facebook:   www.facebook.com/CelebrantInst
Blog:  The Celebrant Troubadour:  www.celebrantfoundation.blogspot.com
Magazine Celebrancy Today:
Twitter:  @CelebrantInst


Life-Cycle Ceremonies: A Handbook for Your Whole Life 



How do you commemorate momentous events? Memorialize people who have shaped you?
Draw support from those you hold dear? This primer offers methods for honoring the special occasions in your life with humor and grace. Its ceremonies help ground each day in the wholeness that supports our entire lives. Each ceremony has been vetted by a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant® affiliated with the Celebrant Foundation and Institute, which offers training and support for celebrants worldwide. Visit us at www.celebrantInstitute.org.











Elaine Voci is a life coach in private practice in Carmel, IN and a graduate of the Celebrant  Foundation & Institute.   Elaine is the Editor of the Celebrant Blog for the Celebrant Foundation & Institute.

Elaine Voci 's NEW BOOK: Resilience Art


"Dr. Elaine Voci's books aren't just books. They are emotional experiences and spiritual journeys. Resilience

Art provides readers with Elaine's personal and professional life lessons combined with modern research to inspire and inform them that grief is highly individual, and that resilience is a part of their natural birthright. They are shown how to use the coloring book and incorporate intentional rituals and a selection of their favorite music to help them grow, and to integrate their loss. Locally, Elaine offers Resilience Art Workshops to accompany her unique book, adding value to and for readers beyond the boo"k. - Erin Albert, MBA, PharmD, JD, PAHM is an author of 13 books, entrepreneur, pharmacist, podcaster, women’s advocate, and preceptor in the Indianapolis, IN area.






Coloring Book Using Ritual and Music to Help You Grow is published by Mascot Books. During December, you can pre-order a copy and save 20%! The discount code is "coloring book To order go here: https://
"Dr. Elaine Voci's books aren't just books. They are emotional experiences and spiritual journeys. Resilience Art provides readers with Elaine's personal and professional life lessons combined with modern research to inspire and inform them that grief is highly individual, and that resilience is a part of their natural birthright. They are shown how to use the coloring book and incorporate intentional rituals and a selection of their favorite music to help them grow, and to integrate their loss. Locally, Elaine offers Resilience Art Workshops to accompany her unique book, adding value to and for readers beyond the boo"k.
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