Podcasts about life cycle celebrant

Originally Published August 29, 2022. Ingrid Deringer shares her journey from working in the health field for over 25 years to becoming a writer following the tragic deaths of her sister and ex-husband. Starting with a short story that gained positive feedback, she transitioned into writing novels, including her recent release For Love and Mercy. Ingrid discusses how her life experiences, especially her connection with people, inspire her fiction. She also highlights the importance of living authentically, following one's passions, and trusting oneself through life's challenges. Tune in and enjoy a heartwarming episode filled with insights on writing, personal growth, and finding meaning in life.   Charlotte Ingrid Deringer, born in Saskatchewan, Canada, has lived coast to coast across the country. Her family's love of music, dance, and humor shaped her, but it was her adventurous spirit that led her to embrace life fully. In her 50s, Ingrid's passion for writing fiction blossomed. She holds a BA in Psychology, an MA in Women's Studies, and is a certified Acupuncturist, Shiatsu Therapist, Life Cycle Celebrant, and Meditation Teacher. With over 25 years of experience in health and wellness, she specializes in treating chronic pain and illness. Ingrid hopes her writing will awaken readers to life's mysteries. Now semi-retired, she enjoys writing, spending time with her grandchildren, and escaping to warm climates in winter.   Social Media: https://www.ingridderinger.com  https://www.instagram.com/ingideringer/  https://www.facebook.com/ingideringer/    Thanks for listening to the show! It means so much to us that you listened to our podcast! If you would like to continue the conversation, please email me at allen@drallenlycka.com or visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/drallenlycka. We would love to have you join us there, and welcome your messages. We check our Messenger often.   This show is built on “The Secrets to Living A Fantastic Life.” Get your copy by visiting: https://secretsbook.now.site/home   We are building a community of like-minded people in the personal development/self-help/professional development industries, and are always looking for wonderful guests for our show. If you have any recommendations, please email us!   Dr. Allen Lycka's Social Media Links Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drallenlycka Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_allen_lycka/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/drallenlycka LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allenlycka YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/c/drallenlycka   Subscribe to the show. We would be honored to have you subscribe to the show - you can subscribe on the podcast app on your mobile device

What is a Life Celebrant?  Join our journey of discovery with Theresa Crisci as we explore the art of Life Celebrants and the significance of rituals like Hand Fasting and Tying The Knot in wedding ceremonies.   This podcast is for engaged couples who are stressed out with wedding planning and family expectations but want a fun wedding day.   In today's edition, our guest, Theresa Crisci from TLC Ceremonies, an ordained interfaith and inter-spiritual minister and a wedding officiant life celebrant, shares valuable insights on creating truly meaningful and unforgettable wedding ceremony experiences.   Theresa explains the differences between life celebrants and other officiants, discusses the need to ask questions and the importance of selecting an officiant, and provides details on the various rituals and ceremonies she can incorporate into wedding ceremonies.   Most importantly, the conversation covers topics such as the time officiants and life celebrants need to prepare for a ceremony, the cost of services, geographic limitations, and the importance of finding the right officiant. Plus, the significance of tailoring and personalizing wedding ceremonies, the need for early planning in hiring an officiant or life celebrant, and the considerations regarding backup plans and first-time officiant coaching.   The Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast #90 - Exploring the Unique Voices of Wedding Ceremonies with A Wedding Officiant/Life Celebrant Host: Sal & Sam Music: "Sam's Tune" by Rick Anthony Guest: Theresa Crisci from TLC Ceremonies   TIMESTAMP 00:00 Introduction to Exploring The Unique Voices of Wedding Ceremonies with A Wedding Officiant/Life Celebrant 02:53 The life celebrant celebrates other things 03:30 Questions you must ask about wedding transportation. 04:30 The benefit of having a Life Cycle Celebrant 05:30 Couple's feedback 05:45 Pre Wedding Counseling 06:45 Cost Estimates 07:30 Geographic Limitations 09:00 Experience 10:00 Theresa Crisci contact and social media 11:00 Wedding Tips Wednesday 14:30 Ceremonial Rituals - Jumping The Broom 15:00 Unity Candle 15:45 Sand Ceremony 16:15 Hand Ceremony 16:30 Hand Fasting  17:45 Ring Warming 18:15 Working with other Officiants 19:30 How to select the right Officiant for your ceremony 20:30 Back-up Plans 21:00 Book Early 21:45 Photobombing the First Kiss 22:30 Theresa Crisci contact and social media 23:00 Final Thoughts and Podcast Wrap-up 24:45 Close   Get your FREE no-obligation report TODAY: "8 QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK A WEDDING PROFESSIONAL BEFORE BOOKING THEM" http://forms.aweber.com/form/55/756659955.htm Music List Giveaway  https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com/guestcontact *** Join us in the Stress-free Wedding Planning Facebook group https://urlgeni.us/facebook/stress-free-wedding-planning Sponsored in part by Clear Vision Productions and the Wedding Styles of CT Wedding Shows.   https://www.weddingstylesofct.com/   https://www.theclearvisionagency.com/ Wedding Tip Wednesday on the Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast is sponsored by EMERGE Cosmetics – 10% OFF promo code: SF1 https://shopemergecosmetics.com/ Copyright © 2024 Atmosphere Productions LLC All Rights Reserved. Produced By Atmosphere Productions in association with After Hours Events of New England https://atmosphere-productions.com https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com #stressfreeweddingplanning #stressfreeweddingplanningpodcast #ctweddingdj #atmosphereproductions #afterhourseventsofne #cvpevents #clearvisionproductions #theclearvisionagency #dreamwedding #WalkDownTheAisle

What is a Life Celebrant?  Join our journey of discovery with Theresa Crisci as we explore the art of Life Celebrants and the significance of rituals like Hand Fasting and Tying The Knot in wedding ceremonies.   This podcast is for engaged couples who are stressed out with wedding planning and family expectations but want a fun wedding day.   In today's edition, our guest, Theresa Crisci from TLC Ceremonies, an ordained interfaith and inter-spiritual minister and a wedding officiant life celebrant, shares valuable insights on creating truly meaningful and unforgettable wedding ceremony experiences.   Theresa explains the differences between life celebrants and other officiants, discusses the need to ask questions and the importance of selecting an officiant, and provides details on the various rituals and ceremonies she can incorporate into wedding ceremonies.   Most importantly, the conversation covers topics such as the time officiants and life celebrants need to prepare for a ceremony, the cost of services, geographic limitations, and the importance of finding the right officiant. Plus, the significance of tailoring and personalizing wedding ceremonies, the need for early planning in hiring an officiant or life celebrant, and the considerations regarding backup plans and first-time officiant coaching.   The Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast #90 - Exploring the Unique Voices of Wedding Ceremonies with A Wedding Officiant/Life Celebrant Host: Sal & Sam Music: "Sam's Tune" by Rick Anthony Guest: Theresa Crisci from TLC Ceremonies   TIMESTAMP 00:00 Introduction to Exploring The Unique Voices of Wedding Ceremonies with A Wedding Officiant/Life Celebrant 02:53 The life celebrant celebrates other things 03:30 Questions you must ask about wedding transportation. 04:30 The benefit of having a Life Cycle Celebrant 05:30 Couple's feedback 05:45 Pre Wedding Counseling 06:45 Cost Estimates 07:30 Geographic Limitations 09:00 Experience 10:00 Theresa Crisci contact and social media 11:00 Wedding Tips Wednesday 14:30 Ceremonial Rituals - Jumping The Broom 15:00 Unity Candle 15:45 Sand Ceremony 16:15 Hand Ceremony 16:30 Hand Fasting  17:45 Ring Warming 18:15 Working with other Officiants 19:30 How to select the right Officiant for your ceremony 20:30 Back-up Plans 21:00 Book Early 21:45 Photobombing the First Kiss 22:30 Theresa Crisci contact and social media 23:00 Final Thoughts and Podcast Wrap-up 24:45 Close   Get your FREE no-obligation report TODAY: "8 QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK A WEDDING PROFESSIONAL BEFORE BOOKING THEM" http://forms.aweber.com/form/55/756659955.htm Music List Giveaway  https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com/guestcontact *** Join us in the Stress-free Wedding Planning Facebook group https://urlgeni.us/facebook/stress-free-wedding-planning Sponsored in part by Clear Vision Productions and the Wedding Styles of CT Wedding Shows.   https://www.weddingstylesofct.com/   https://www.theclearvisionagency.com/ Wedding Tip Wednesday on the Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast is sponsored by EMERGE Cosmetics – 10% OFF promo code: SF1 https://shopemergecosmetics.com/ Copyright © 2024 Atmosphere Productions LLC All Rights Reserved. Produced By Atmosphere Productions in association with After Hours Events of New England https://atmosphere-productions.com https://www.afterhourseventsofne.com #stressfreeweddingplanning #stressfreeweddingplanningpodcast #ctweddingdj #atmosphereproductions #afterhourseventsofne #cvpevents #clearvisionproductions #theclearvisionagency #dreamwedding #WalkDownTheAisle

Mary Toland Shaw is a certified Spiritual Life Coach, a HeartMath Resilience Mentor, a Healing Touch Practitioner, a Life-Cycle Celebrant, and soon to be ordained Interfaith Minister. Her second son, Michael John, transitioned from life, 38 weeks in the womb in July of 1991. Mary also experienced 3 miscarriages at between 3-4 months in the womb. Mary has 3 wonderful adult living children, and a stepdaughter. No stranger to the pain experienced by infant losses, Mary's passion is to help others find comfort and healing through compassionate, personalized ceremonies and meaningful rituals that honor their beloved child(ren). Mary also helps women who are experiencing any kind of inner turmoil, owing to relationship heartache, to recapture their sense of joy, meaning and connection to the Divine (her website is www.sacred relationship.com). She resides in Chattanooga, TN with her husband Mike and their maltipoo, Gracie. @marytolandshaw

Anne-Marie's is the founder of Village Deathcare 501c3 whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into community. Of Irish Celtic and Finnish Sámi (indigenous Finno-Ugric) roots, she draws from her work as a death doula, a nurse assistant, life-long meditator, Reiki Master Teacher and mother of three. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons facilitator, Life Cycle Celebrant (certificate in funerals) and trained Home Funeral Guide. She is a core designer and advisor to a virtual reality therapeutics company developing a program for those working through end-of-life challenges. She lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where she practices magic, community deathcare, trains her Siberian Husky and delights in her family's love. Anne-Marie's first book Death Nesting which was self-published in 2019 won an Independent Publisher Book Award. Death Nesting was picked up by the publishing house Inner Traditions and will be release in 2023. She is a Reiki Master Teacher, meditation and basic goodness instructor and has nearly two decades of training in Shambhala Buddhist teachings and working with children and teens (ages 3-18) as a teacher at Karmê Chöling Meditation Center. She has completed Dying With Confidence training in Phowa with Anyen Rinpoche, “This Sacred Journey: Living Purposefully and Dying Fearlessly” with Pema Chodron, is a Chöd practioner, and is certified through Lama Tsultrim Allione as a facilitator in the Buddhist track of Feeding Your Demons, where her focus is on opening conversations with death. Anne-Marie has passed the National Home Funeral Alliance proficiency test, and regularly supports families through Family Directed funerals, home burial and green burial. https://www.annemariekeppel.com/bio/ #death #doulas #spirits #guides #heaven YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheLiberatedHealer IG: theliberatedhealer IG: Gina Cavalier Website: www.theliberatedhealer.com Facebook: @theliberatedhealer Linked-IN: @theliberatedhealer Tiktoq: ginacavalier_Liberated Twitter: GinaMCavalier Rumble: TheLiberatedHealer Link Tree: linktr.ee/gina_the_liberated_healer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the ocean in a drop”. ~ Rumi Guest Introduction:  Hello and a warm welcome, friends, to another episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast! I'm your host, Cindy MacMillan, and I hope you're finding inspiration and connection in our new podcast series – Holistic Living: Embracing Wholeness In Everyday Life. And if you happen to be joining us for the first time, a heartfelt welcome to you, new friends. Holistic living—it's not just a fancy buzzword. Think of it as returning to the very essence of yourself – your body, mind, heart, and soul. Picture a world where you show up for yourself in every way imaginable, like you're your own best friend, chef, and personal cheerleader. It's about nurturing all those beautiful facets of you that make you, well, uniquely you. But here's where the magic truly begins – wholeness.  It's embracing your stories, your scars, your stumbles, and your soaring moments, and realizing they're all essential brushstrokes that create your masterpiece. You're not a puzzle with pieces missing; you're a tapestry woven from the threads of your experiences. Grab your favorite cozy beverage, find a comfy spot to sit back and relax, because we're about to dive deep into a truly inspiring conversation. Stacy Mitchell has been a Life-Cycle Celebrant® since 2005, co-creating and officiating meaningful ceremonies across the life-cycle based on the beliefs and values of her clients. She is also a Reiki Master/Teacher, certified Soul Realignment advanced practitioner and Soul Regression therapist. Her goal is to provide others with the tools and knowledge they need for self-empowerment and self-healing through the weaving together of these offerings.  Here's a glimpse of our conversation: Welcome to the podcast, Stacy. Stacy: “In Hinduism, there is an understanding that the cycles of life are birth, life, death, and rebirth and in the Western world, we tend to stop with just death, right?  Not that rebirth part; but it's not a full cycle if we don't have that fourth.”  Stacy: “For me, life isn't about exploring cycles. It's about living into each season and cycle.”  Stacy: “I think as time goes on, we really begin to understand that we are a part of the cycle, and so we are living the cycle, whatever, that cycle that we're in is in that moment.  And really, that's the key to integration, I guess, is that that ability to just live the cycle rather than  peering in from the outside and say, oh, what's this?”  Stacy: “In the ceremony co creation process or the healing process, as a practitioner, the most important thing for me is to be an active listener.  Active listening requires you to lay down any preconceived ideas or agendas about the work, or the people that you are speaking with.  And it also requires a presencing in the moment,  to be fully there in that moment, and not  thinking in the before time, thinking into whatever's in the future,  not jumping ahead mentally or even verbally,  but to really just take in what is said  to marinate in those words  and the emotions that the words invoke  and to listen  between the lines  in order to hear what the silence is saying.” Stacy: “It can really be eye opening to, to see, like your friend, you know, to see how other cultures treat food and treat the sharing of food. And I'm sure you're aware that even in the West, sharing food after a ceremony, especially a funeral, is, like, one of the most important parts of the experience. So, it's not just, what happens within the ceremony itself, but that moment of breaking bread together, that moment of being...In community and feeding each other and in some circles would be called feeding the soul, right?”  You can find Stacy Mitchell at: Honor Your Voice Holistic Living: Embracing Wholeness In Everyday Life Series The Healing Power of Sound Baths with Stephanie Weber Trust in Your Soul with Sonee Singh Empowering Your Inner Wellness Warrior: Insights from Joyce Jimenez Journey of Healing with Alana Keddie Conversation with Julie Jancius: The Angel Medium

Renowned Death Doula Anne-Marie Keppel joins me in this episode to discuss her new book, Death Nesting: The Heart-Centered Practices of a Death Doula. Anne-Marie brings new-age spiritual aspects and practices to support the modern death doula. She founded Village Deathcare, whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into the community. Her book contains advice and experiences from various spiritual and religious traditions like Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, and Catholicism. It also includes support for people working as, or thinking about becoming a death doula, plus invaluable advice and mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality. Anne-Marie explains: What exactly does a death doula do? Anne-Marie explains what the word doula means. Why talking about death is essential for vital people. Differences between Ancient and Modern Death Doulas. Mindfulness practices for contemplating your own mortality. And why it is important to do this. Death douling for our animals and pets.   If you loved this episode, please subscribe to my podcast, write a review and follow me on Instagram. You can find me online at tatyannawright.com and theconsciousdiva.com  You can also find everything we discuss in this episode on the show page notes.  Thank you very much for listening. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you.   More about Anne-Marie Keppel: https://www.annemariekeppel.com BIO: Anne-Marie Keppel is the founder of Village Deathcare 501c3 whose inspiration and purpose is incorporating deathcare into the community. Of Irish Celtic and Finnish Sámi (indigenous Finno-Ugric) roots, she draws from her work as a death doula, a nurse assistant, a life-long meditator, Reiki Master Teacher and mother of three. She is a certified Feeding Your Demons facilitator, Life Cycle Celebrant (certificate in funerals) and trained Home Funeral Guide. Anne-Marie has passed the National Home Funeral Alliance proficiency test and regularly supports families through Family Directed funerals, home burial and green burial. 

I am grateful for this deep dive into the heart, with Life Cycle Celebrant and Metaphysical Minister Jessie Brandon. Today I was feeling wrung out after a morning of intense and necessary learning. Through the learning I realized that even though I thought I was showing up as my full self, I have continued to hide behind the carefully crafted shell I have created around the most vulnerable part of my soul. This conversation was medicine for the part of me that continues to abandon the truth of who I am. The deep knowing that I am spirit, that connection with energy and source is real and that is the beating heart of my identity. Trigger warning - there is discussion of personal experiences of sexual violence. Take a listen to this conversation with an open heart and mind. It shifted something in my, I hope you can feel your own shift through these words. Thank you Jessie, I'm grateful for this connection. As always, where you can find me: ⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Free Guide and join mailing list⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook Group Where you can find Jesse: Facebook --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lisa-boate/message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In those significant life changing moments, like becoming a parent or losing a parent, it's easy to feel lost, ungrounded. We might think to ourselves, “Yeah, ceremony could maybe be a useful thing right now, but where do I start?” Well, there's an app for that and it's beautiful!   Music by Terry Hughes   Notes: Be Ceremonial App (App Store) Be Ceremonial App (Google Play) Be Ceremonial Daily Magic for Peace   Rate This Podcast Also Check Out: I Want to Have a Ceremony with You The Programming Language of the Soul Full Transcript Sheldon: Here's a wedding ceremony and you follow it step by step and here's a funeral ceremony… and I wanted to blow that out of the water. And so it's like a choose your own adventure experience where… here's a bunch of things to inspire you. Pick and choose the ones that you like and then change them if you want.  In those significant life-changing moments, like becoming a parent or losing a parent, it's very easy to feel lost and ungrounded. We might think to ourselves, “Ceremony could maybe be a useful thing right now, but where do I start?” As the saying goes, there's an app for that and it's beautiful.  This is Shame Piñata. I'm Colleen Thomas. Welcome to Shame Piñata, where we talk about creating rites of passage for real-life transitions. Today I'm excited to invite you to join me on a behind-the-scenes look into Be Ceremonial, the world's first ceremony creation platform. It's an app you can download from the App or the Google Play Store and it lets you build simple, customizable ceremonies for any purpose.  Just to give you a sense of how it works, I'm going to open the app on my phone right now and tell you what I see. So on the homescreen is a list of latest offerings including new ceremonies and free virtual workshops. If I click on the “Create” button, I can open a free sample ceremony and customize that or I can choose from a list of ceremonies with a defined topic, including trying to conceive, mother blessing, miscarriage, abortion, wedding, divorce, terminal diagnosis, or sitting vigil - and that's only a partial list.  Okay, so here's how building a ceremony works. If I click into the free sample ceremony, I'm asked to choose if this ceremony will be for me or for someone else (I think it's cool that you can actually gift a ceremony to a friend). Then I'm asked to choose if it will be me doing it alone, with other people, or virtually. And then I can begin building my ceremony which is structured in 5 parts: opening, past, present, future, and closing. For the opening, the app gives me three choices: Opening Space, Candle Lighting, and Three Breaths. I can click into any of these to see what they're about, what materials and preparation I'd need to do them, and a list of steps to follow. And I can look through all of the offerings until I've found the flow that works best for me. For example, I might choose to take 3 breaths to open my ceremony, release the past with a fire release ritual, take a ritual walk to honor the present, and then ceremonially cross a threshold to step into my new future, and finally close with a water ceremony. Once I've chosen all of the components, they will be available as a step-by-step list that I can have with me as I prepare and actually hold the ceremony. It's actually very cool and user friendly. And it takes some of the guesswork (and groundwork, really) out of building a ceremony so that I can really focus on what is moving in me and choose ritual components that match that flow.  Now that we've taken a deep dive into the app itself, let's come back out to the bigger picture so I can bring you into a conversation I had last spring with Megan Sheldon, the co-founder and CEO of Be Ceremonial. Here's a listen. Thomas: I'm curious, how did you find your way to ceremony in life? Sheldon: I've always been a community seeker, a connector, a convener. I was recently at a retreat that I was hosting around ritual and a girlfriend of mine from high school was telling me about these, you know, we didn't… we didn't call it ceremonies then. But she's like, “You would host these gatherings and you were so intentional in the questions you would ask and the way you would bring people together.” She was the first of any of my friends to have a baby. And she remembers, I had forgotten about this, but she remembered I gathered all of her girlfriends around in the room and I'd found this little owl shaker and I passed it around and asked everybody to infuse it with, well, you know, wishes and blessings for her. And that was, you know, 12 or 13 years ago. So I'm constantly reminded that this path hasn't been an A to B kind of path, it's been an unfolding.  When I was 20 years old, my mom went through breast cancer. And my mom and I are very close. And I was living in Montreal and she was here in Vancouver. And I remember getting the phone call from her and just like every instinct in me wanted to just get on a plane and come home and be with her. But she didn't want that. She… I was in the middle of exams and she really needed me to stay where I was, so she could focus on herself. But what she ended up doing, I now see as ritual, is she would find these books, and she was introduced to Yungian kind of theory and Marion Woodman and Women who Run with the Wolves and all of these books that, you know, she was just discovering, and she would buy two copies, and she would send me one in Montreal, and I remember I'd get these books and I would be reading them at the same time she was reading them on the other coast of Canada. And opening up this kind of world of the Divine Feminine and what it means to connect with your Ancestors and your roots and your heritage. And I'm… a white settler stolen lands here in Canada and I have really struggled with my place in this… in this part of the world. And where do I fit? Where do I belong? I think that need for belonging has been a huge theme in my life. And these books kind of taught me how to connect with that part of myself. And with my mom and with her mom and with her mother's mother and this beautiful lineage of women and men. So it's a tricky question and one that continues to evolve. But if I am being completely honest with myself, I have always been ceremonial, I just was never given the language or the permission to kind of see myself that way. So I've had to really come into it on my own and reclaim that space in a way that feels like me. Megan echoed one of my own ideas about ritual, that of it be self-organizing. That we know how do ritual together, it is one of our inherent gifts. We might have just forgotten. Sheldon: It's so interesting because people always say to me, “Oh, I could never do what you do. I could never do this!” And I think, “Do what? This was just like… I'm actually not doing…” I always say to people, “I'm actually not doing this, I'm setting the container, you know, I'm offering the invite...” I've studied a lot under the Art of Hosting - I don't know if you know it - it's like a global-wide kind of way of gathering people and their philosophy is like, the invitation is everything. If you can send out an invite and let people know what to expect and what to prepare and how to feel empowered in the space so that they're not having to look for the leader like, “Who's in charge?” Like, that's… that's one of the worst ways to convene is to have that hierarchy. So the idea of the Circle Way of having everybody step in and be responsible for co-creating the ceremony, the ritual environment has always guided me. And I'm a firm believer, and I say that every time I can be in a ceremony or a retreat, or rituals with friends, I, you know, I focus on the invitation, and I say, we were all stepped into this and we are now going to co-create this space together. And if you need to be quiet, if you need to walk away, if you need to scream, if you need to do anything that is okay. Like this is you're making your own experience. And I think that's just a way of thinking that we haven't really been taught in our capitalistic patriarchal culture of, you know, the top-down, right? This feels rebellious for a lot of people so yeah… Thomas: And it's kind of the same principle with the app, right? Because you've created this technology that people can... there's tools, there's framework, there's structure, there's examples, there's ideas, all this kind of thing…. But you're not there helping somebody in person, helping somebody create a ceremony and they can create a ceremony… Like, I created two today that are really important to me but I'm not ready to do them yet but I have the framework set for when I'm ready to step into them. And so you won't be with me when I do them. I mean, unless I could call you later and talk to me because I know you… Sheldon: Please! Thomas: …but like, you won't really be there with me. But yeah… you've created the… you've given the invitation and you've created the container. Sheldon: Yeah, and it took me a long time to see how ritual and ceremony, which for me is so sacred and so precious and so important in my life and in the lives of those that I serve and that I work with to see it as, you know, bridging with technology. So backtrack a little bit, my husband and I decided to get married eight or nine years ago now and we looked at the wedding kind of template that was in front of us and we've been to so many weddings before, and they were so lovely and so wonderful. And they weren't us. I never was like… oh… this felt exactly like me because it was exactly like my friend or my family member. So I really wanted to learn how to intentionally craft a wedding that represented our values. So that was our first ceremony to co-create together and I think we did a really wonderful job. And shortly after our wedding, we tried to get pregnant and we did. And, you know, seven weeks later, we miscarried. And then we got pregnant again and miscarried. And a third time, miscarried. And each time it was like this invisible loss that nobody knew. It was just, I mean… this was seven years ago. So it was just starting to kind of get a little bit more traction in terms of the media and people talking about it a little bit more, but nobody was talking about a ceremony where I could honor and say goodbye. I was never even offered any of the remains from the hospitals after my DNC procedures. It just… I know now I could have asked for it and they would have had to have given it to me. I didn't know that then. I didn't know my… what I was allowed to do. Everything felt so kind of, you know, the health care system owned everything, right? You don't ever think of it as being something there that you can challenge or that you can confront.  Thomas: Yeah. Sheldon: So I started to create my own rituals around my loss. And my husband, Johan and I, we created our own rituals and ceremonies to acknowledge not only the loss of life, but also the loss of the stories we'd started to tell ourselves. I had a lot of growing anxiety. What was happening? Why was my body doing this? Will I ever get pregnant? You know, it was in my mid to late 30s at that point, so that… you know, there was this time pressure that was both external and internal. Yeah, I think that time for me it was really about learning how these things that I naturally wanted and needed did in my life were rituals. It was ceremony. It was, you know… I wanted to sit with my girlfriends and not only share my story, but hear their story. I wanted to, you know, every year on a due date or on a loss date, I wanted to have something that I could do that would connect me so that I wouldn't forget that I wouldn't grow… grow further away from it.  Thomas: At the same time that Megan and Johan were dealing with pregnancy loss, they were also losing Johan's father to ALS.    Sheldon: There were so many invisible moments along that journey that we did not know how to recognize. You know, a diagnosis when you first… when he first received it, but when he first told us like, what do you do in those moments? How do you bring ritual and bring ceremony to that moment when the floor comes crashing out from underneath you? And then over the next, you know, six months and year and two years as he started to lose his capacities and we started to lose that kind of feeling of hope for the future and…  There were so many of those moments that I did not know, at the time I could have brought ritual into, I could have been kind of slowly building out that kind of legacy. So we went through that experience. And then when the pandemic hit and my husband was, you know, found himself at home, and I really wanted to imagine something new. He's a problem solver. He's like, “I just want to build something that will help people.” That's just has been his driver. It has been a really interesting experience to bridge ceremony with technology and one that I continue to learn about. But I'll get emails from people on a weekly basis about how, you know, they were gifted something through this experience, or they discovered something. They were able to honor, you know, a death anniversary in a way that they never thought was possible. And I know for 100% of… I know without a doubt that I would never have crossed paths with that person had it not been through technology. You know, they'll be in Australia, or Belgium, or St. Louis and they'll be reaching out because this app touched them in a certain way, it impacted their experience. So yeah. Thomas: Wow, you're inspiring me now. I'm thinking I have a lot of my good friends, I have their death anniversaries on my calendar so I remember to reach out to them. I would love to share your app with them.  [MUSIC Thomas: So as people check out the app and they get started with it, do you have any guidance for them on how to start the process? Sheldon: Yeah. So the app is Be Ceremonial and you are invited in and there's two pillars that make up the app environment. And one is the ability to create your own ceremony, like a DIY approach. And we started with the birth and death aspects, the two areas of life, because they're the two thresholds. They're usually the places where people are seeking ceremony the most. They… you know, they have a miscarriage or they find out they're pregnant, or they, you know, they want to honor, you know, the end of their breastfeeding journey. There's something that happened in that kind of beginning of life stage or the end of life. You know, they lost a parent, or a death anniversary's coming up, or they have been hanging on to these ashes from a cremation and they don't know what to do with them. So we really started to populate the app with these ceremonies that you could create for yourself around birth and death. And we are now in the midst of bridging out the life cycle. So, I am a Life Cycle Celebrant. I work with people on ceremonies around mastectomies and hysterectomies. Ceremonies around moving into a new home or leaving a childhood home. I've worked with people who have been fired and lost a job and they wanted to create a ceremony to kind of honor what that job brought them and also kind of burn in the fire the things that they wanted to never do again. There are so many points along the lifecycle, both visible and invisible, that deserve to be ritualized. They deserve to have that kind of ceremonial intention built into it. So that's, that's the pillar one that's like one side of the app experience is to be able to create your ceremonies and some people might come in and know exactly what they want and they just want to create a ceremony around a death anniversary, and they can just, you know, pay per use so it's a single-time purchase that they want.  And then other people are really seeking something more. They're really wanting to understand their own relationship with ritual and ceremony. Or they're a care provider. We've got a lot of death doulas and birth doulas and hospice volunteers, midwives, naturopath counselors using our app and they create ceremonies for their clients and their patients. So they're using this as a tool that they can kind of bring to the people that they work with. I've also got a lot of celebrants using this, so there's a wedding ceremony in there and if you are, celebrate, and you've got a new client, and you want to kind of give them some ideas as to what's possible in terms of ritual, you can create a wedding ceremony that you then send to them and they can pick and choose rituals they like. You can then add new ones, you can create your own, you can draw… You know, it's the biggest thing to remind yourself there is that it's you know, you don't need to follow this word for word. It's just a guide to inspire you. I think of it like a blueprint.  The other side… the other pillar of the app which we're really starting to build out this year is the learning environment. So I've hosted tons of online workshops and courses I ran last year, had about 120 students come through a six week training that we offered around end-of-life rituals. And I want to take all of those little mini workshops and build them into the app environment. So for the people that are the members, the subscribers (you can have a monthly or yearly subscription), I want there to be a place where they can go and think, “Oh, gosh, if a client just reached out, reached out or a friend reached out, and you know, they have a child who died.” And they really want to acknowledge the you know, the grief that the family and the friends might be holding. And I want to be able to create a ceremony workshop that explores kids' relationship with grief, and how to explore that.” You know, on the other side of it, maybe there's something around, you know, I've hosted a lot of divorce ceremonies, which has been really interesting for people. And everybody's always like, “Oh, I want to know more, I want to know what what else I can learn about this and how else this can be done and where the, you know, what other cultures are doing” So being able to look at the… the learning environment as a place to have that, that ability to go deeper if and when you choose. I think is really exciting for me, and for a lot of the people that have reached out because I think that there's, you know, the people that come in, and they just want something quick and they want something now and they know, you know, they don't need a whole lot of hand holding. And then there's the people that really want to build a community here and they want to share back their story after they created a ceremony so that it might inspire someone else. And that's my big hope with where Be Ceremonial can grow is that it will become, you know, “This is us. This is our invitation. We've been a catalyst, we've created this framework. Now let's let the community populate it. Let's let people step up and make this their own space. Let's allow this to be a place that connects us and inspires us when we hear stories from people around the world and how they took the same five rituals that I took and yet their ceremony turned out so differently. That's so interesting. I want to hear about that…” And that's the storyteller in me is just wanting to create a space where those stories can be celebrated and witnessed. Thomas: That's wonderful. Well, I feel like what you've created with this, the two of you, it's just such a gift. So on behalf of, I don't know, everybody everywhere, I just want to thank you so much. And I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to join me in this exploration of Megan and Johan's work at Be Ceremonial. I hope that a piece of Megan's story, either a moment of creating ritual to honor a life transition or her overall entrepreneurial spirit has inspired you as it has inspired me. Megan will be back soon to speak more about slow technology and how she is using ritual to transition from pandemic to endemic.  Megan Sheldon is a Cultural Mythologist, End of Life Storyteller, and a Celebrant. She is also the co-founder of Be Ceremonial, the world's first ceremony creation platform, giving you the ritual tools you need to create your own ceremony. You can sign up for a free account at www.beceremonial.com or download the App in the App Store. Our music is by Terry Hughes. Find us on IG and Twitter at shamepinata, reach us through our website, shamepinata.com. And subscribe to the show on your favorite player. Also be sure to check out our second show, Daily Magic for Peace, supporting you as you support Ukraine. I'm Colleen Thomas. Thanks for listening.  

Summary:The title of death doula may not be familiar to many of us, yet the presence of one may be invaluable as a loved one transitions. Anne-Marie gives us a touching perspective as a death doula herself. Notes:Of Irish Celtic and Finnish Sámi (Indigenous European) descent, Anne-Marie is a community deathcare educator, lead teacher of the death doula training Village Deathcare Citizen and founder of the nonprofit Village Deathcare. A national award-winning author from her book “Death Nesting: Ancient & Modern Death Doula Techniques, Mindfulness Practices and Herbal Care”, she draws from her work as a doula, nurse assistant, life-long meditator, Reiki Master Teacher and mother of three. She is a certified facilitator in the Buddhist path of Feeding Your Demons®, is a Life-Cycle Celebrant® and trained home funeral guide with a focus on Vermont Family Directed funerals. She lives with her family in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.Contact:www.asiliveandgrieve.cominfo@asiliveandgrieve.com Facebook:  As I Live and Grieve Instagram:  @asiliveandgrieve To Reach Anne-Marie:Website: www.annemariekeppel.comCredits: Music by Kevin MacLeod 

Steve Harper Interviews Lisa Davila Life-Cycle Celebrant and Energy Healer -- www.celebrantlisa.comhttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network

Steve Harper Interviews Lisa Davila Life-Cycle Celebrant and Energy Healer -- www.celebrantlisa.comhttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network

Steve Harper Interviews Lisa Davila Life-Cycle Celebrant and Energy Healer -- www.celebrantlisa.comhttps://onlineradiobox.com/search?cs=us.pbnnetwork1&q=podcast%20business%20news%20network&c=ushttps://mytuner-radio.com/search/?q=business+news+networkhttps://streema.com/radios/search/?q=podcast+business+news+network 

Valenca Valenzuela (she/her/ella) has her Master's in Social Work and has been holding space for people in grief and end-of-life since 2007. Valenca is the owner of Raven & Rose, a Grief Counseling, Death Doula, and Life-Cycle Celebrant business in Portland, OR. Additionally, she currently works at a national center for grieving children & families. Valenca was born on Día de los Muertos, so it was in the stars that Valenca would work with Death, Grief, and Ancestral Healing. Valenca believes that the life-cycle is our greatest teacher and we can change the way we live by changing our connection to how we die.In this episode, Emily and Valenca discuss death as a part of the life cycle, how the world could provide better end of life care, allowing grief as a natural experience, and continuing bonds with ancestors.You can follow along with Valenca on Instagram or find her programs at her website.You can find full transcripts, links, and other information on our website.

From the time my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, my goal was to care for him at home. He died last month, at home, in my arms. This episode shares deeply personal details about the changes in our relationship, the loss of physical intimacy, the physical realities of death, the practical considerations of a funeral, and more. Mentioned:  https://www.myspousehasdementia.com  https://www.celebrantinstitute.org (Find a Life-Cycle Celebrant) https://www.marycoburn.com (Life-Cycle Celebrant) https://dinastander.com (Death Doula and Life-Cycle Celebrant) https://www.carmonfuneralhome.com (CT - green funerals)    

It's the 21st Century, so why are funerals still so religious and downbeat? If only there was an alternative… some sort of Life Cycle Celebrant? You're in luck! Gone are the stuffy old preachers, and in comes the secular master of ceremonies, Linda Stuart. Linda creates meaningful ceremonies to help people honour the difficult changes in life and to also celebrate the joyful ones. We'll discuss what she does, the myth of closure, the Welsh word to describe a grieving “homesickness for something to which you cannot return,” and even toxic positivity (Ammo rant detected!)  Join us and see why cold, dusty churches don't always have to be written into your final chapter. Show notes: Check out Linda Stuart's work What is Toxic Positivity? Via Very Well Mind The Myth of Closure: Why Experts Say It Doesn't Exist via How Stuff Works  Welsh word: Hiraeth - Philotimo Life is produced and recorded by Maria Vassiliou and Ammo Somal in Toronto, Ontario. Audio by Stacie Hunter. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook!

Neil Gaiman wrote, “Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks..... But some stories, small, simple ones …… have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created.” Each Chosen Story podcast highlights a particular love story. As a Life-Cycle Celebrant, I write and officiate weddings for couples looking for more than the traditional "I do." You'll hear one couple's story every episode and learn what drew them together. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chosen-stories/id1513771275 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/journeytoentrepreneurship/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/journeytoentrepreneurship/support

Guest Introduction: This is Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast episode 27. I’m Cindy MacMillan and today’s guest is Zita Christian. Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. Each week, join Cindy MacMillan as she interviews coaches, spiritual explorers and celebrants from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.  Zita Christian writes fiction and nonfiction, hosts the podcast Ritual Recipes, and serves her community as a Life-Cycle Celebrant. She officiates weddings, baby blessings, vow renewals, funerals and memorials. Several times a year, she leads public rituals to celebrate the cycles of nature. She believes in the power of personal story.   Here’s a glimpse of our conversation: (03:32) To me, it means that I am part of nature. It's not merely that I love nature, that I want to protect nature. That it means I am part of it. I vibrate to the same rhythms about waxing and waning about light and day, about growing and about shrinking, about birthing, about dying and those, those concepts. (08:07) And you get to the end and it's, you know, that the end and there's a happily ever after of some kind. And I thought weddings would be happily ever after come to life. So, I took the foundations course and then I took the weddings course and that opened up a whole new world. And that wheel, I was on went up, up through the mud and up, back up to the top and, and you know, after 150 weddings and vows and baby blessings, more than that, I had that beautiful feeling that I've found what it is that I'm supposed to do. (10:40) So he was telling me that he had grown up in Ireland at a time when marriage equality was simply unthinkable, for young people today, you know they can't fathom that, but that is how it was. And his mother, his mother would often tell him that she hoped to live to see the day when Michael could marry Steven. (20:25) So I want to show that, you know, when you care a lot about someone so deeply that you're using the L word, you put forth a whole different effort in order to make things work. And that's what you see in a romance novel. So that's what I want to bring into the love story. And that's why I think the love story is a gift to the guests. (23:52) The reason I wanted to do the Ritual Recipes Podcast now is that there are changes going on in my life. My husband's not well and I've made the decision not to go out and do any ceremonies. So, the podcast allows me to connect with the world, to offer what I know about weddings and rituals and funerals, and provide that information to people through the podcast, which is free. Resources Mentioned: Ritual Recipes Podcast Celebrant Foundation & Institute The Book of the Moon: Discovering Astrology's Lost Dimension by Steven Forrest You can find Zita Christian at: Website | Facebook Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life and my conversation with Zita Christian. I continue to be so grateful for your support and feedback, and I truly love hearing from you! You can reach me via the website CynthiaMacMillan.com or email me at Cindy@CynthiaMacMillan.com. Sign up for our monthly newsletter and we'll let you know what we're working on, as well as what we're reading and listening to in regards to beginnings, endings + the messy bits in-between. Until next time, live inspired!  If you enjoyed this conversation with Zita Christian, you might also enjoy these other episodes: Gardening, Handwritten Letters, and Pet Memorials with Rev. Julie Petroski Reimagining the Possible with Cancer Coach, Marisa Harris Beauty in Every Season with Debra Healey

Cindy MacMillan: (00:00) This is Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast episode 17. I’m Cindy MacMillan and today’s guest is Lynn Principe Golden. Welcome to Exploring the Seasons of Life, a podcast for women with a big heart on a spiritual journey. Each week, join Cindy MacMillan as she interviews coaches, spiritual explorers and celebrants from all walks of life about beginnings, endings and the messy bits in-between. Self-love, well-being, and mindset are at the heart of our conversations because once you change the inside, the outside will begin to change as well.  Cindy MacMillan: (00:00) Welcome back to Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. Thank you for listening and get ready...it's time to hear some words of wisdom from today's guest. Cindy MacMillan: (00:00) Lynn Principe Golden is an End of Life Doula, Hospice volunteer and Life-Cycle Celebrant. She is the owner of Dearly Beloved Life LLC and is passionate about rites of passage, and believes that like birth, death should be held as a sacred event. She is certified through the Conscious Dying Institute where she is currently working towards being a Conscious Dying Educator. She lives in Dunedin, Florida with her 2 teenagers. Lynn Principe Golden: (01:23) Thank you so much, Cindy. I'm very excited to be here. Cindy MacMillan: (01:27) This is a really interesting subject to me, so yes, I'm excited to have you here, but I do want to start off with my signature question and that is what does exploring the seasons of life mean to you personally or in your business? Lynn Principe Golden: (01:43) That's a great question, where I stand now, I'm entering a new phase in my life and I'm nearing 50. I'm newly divorced, and I have children that are mostly grown. And what I realized is I'm becoming more clear about who I am and what matters most to me. And what I know is that I no longer have an end game. I don't have a place where I feel like, you know, when I think as young women, when we're in our twenties, we think, well, by 30, I want to be married or we have all of these to-do lists and I feel free because I no longer have those. So I'm in this space where I'm becoming more present and I'm living a life for myself rather than the one that I perceived was meant for me. So that's been very freeing. And as far as being an end of life doula exploring the seasons of life is really vital to our work. Lynn Principe Golden: (02:31) And I feel strongly that our dying is a rite of passage. Like you said, like birth, and it's a sacred event. It's a time to ask yourself different questions like what's given my life meaning or who do I need to forgive in order to feel more at peace? How do I want to be remembered? And these are conversations that are important to have simply because we're not guaranteed to live a long life into old age. So it's a great question. And believe me, I am a lot of fun to have at dinner parties because I love to get deep into these, these questions that you're asking. Cindy MacMillan: (03:04) That was a beautiful way of explaining the seasons. So thank you. And I really do want to hear about your journey of becoming an end of life doula. But first, can you just tell us what is an end of life doula? Lynn Principe Golden: (03:18) I would love to, it's not a simple answer because it does encompass a few things. So an end of life doula provides non-medical support and comfort to a dying person and their families; so much like a birth doula provides at the time leading up to birth and during the birth process. We advocate for the needs and wishes of our dying patients. An end of life doula provides education and guidance as well as spiritual, emotional and practical care from as early as initial terminal diagnosis through bereavement. So within the diagnosis through bereavement, there are many steps that we'll walk alongside you with. And the three main aspects of the doulas role are before death planning, bedside vigil and after death care. And the planning phase I'll work with my clients to identify their vision for what they want their last months, weeks, and days to be like we take into account their current reality. Lynn Principe Golden: (04:15) And then together we create action steps. So that practical, emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental directives are in place. So it's not just the advanced directives that we're used to, you know, going to the lawyer and who gets what; it goes a lot deeper than that. And the second aspect of my work, and to me, the most sacred part is sitting bedside during active and imminent death. This can be done alongside family members and friends, or to give them a rest. And these visits can include prayerful companionship, touch, the easing of breath, relaxation, forgiveness. And lastly, an end of life doula can help with after-death body care and rituals according to their care plan and their values, many wish to die at home. And all over the country, people are starting to change that conversation and become more interested in green burials, home funerals, and a lot of alternatives out there, and we can help provide information and support so that those things are possible. Cindy MacMillan: (05:14) Thank you, Lynn, when you were talking about talking with your clients about the last few months of their life, you're not necessarily talking about what their ideas for a funeral per se, but it's really about what those last few months are going to look like in terms of that holistic look. Right? Lynn Principe Golden: (05:34) Exactly. And that can include the funeral planning and that's something that I'm also a Life-Cycle Celebrant, so I can have those conversations, but that may, under the realm of the spiritual, that may be something that they want to make sure it's included. Maybe there are certain prayers or songs that are really meaningful to them. And those are the times we'd have those conversations. And that way the people that need to know the information we'll have that before the time comes. Cindy MacMillan: (06:01) Yeah, I was going to ask you a little bit later, but maybe right now is a good time. I had read, a survey, that said that 92% of Americans say it's important to discuss their wishes for end of life care. And only 32% have had that conversation. So how do you start that conversation? And I'm assuming you start that conversation, not necessarily with the client, but their family, or would it be with a client? Lynn Principe Golden: (06:30) Well that's actually a really hard question. I want to back up a little bit. I think that we live in a death-denying culture and I hear people say things like if I die one day, rather than when I die. and part of the issue is, Stephen Jenkinson wrote a book called Die Wise, which I love, he talks about death as being treated as a failure of medicine rather than of a sacred rite of passage. And so we've turned over, what's been innate in all of us and knowing how to care for our dying and respecting the cycle of life. We've turned it over to science. And so the medical model is greatly built to treat and save and cure, which is wonderful. And they do amazing things. But sometimes at the expense of providing curative treatments that can greatly decrease a patient's quality of life and the time that they have left. Lynn Principe Golden: (07:19) And so back to your question, it should be happening more often in the medical training that doctors and nurses receive. That's first of all, another piece of this is examining our language around illness. You know, often we refer to people who have a terminal illness and are being treated, especially with cancer patients, we use the words fighting. So these patients are fighting cancer as if only the brave and the best fighters can win. So we set them up to either succeed or fail. I mean, you know, that cancer does not fight fair. And so we put judgment on someone who's dying and expecting them to fight harder or not give up. When we set them up, we feel, they feel they've disappointed us somehow, if they lose the battle, quote, unquote, Stephen Jenkinson also talks about the idea that at the end of life, people are willing to do a lot of treatment that may be harmful because they want "More Time". Lynn Principe Golden: (08:13) And he uses the words that are "More Time is now". And I think about that a lot, you know, he asks the question, what are you going to do with your More Time? And so back to what you asked me, I think that those conversations can start really simply you can be asking, you know, where would you like to be buried? Or who do you want there at your bedside? Or where, where do you see yourself dying are simple questions that can start the conversation. And another thing that I think is really important, especially if we have elders that are still in our lives is to ask them a lot of questions, have them tell and retell their stories, ask them what do they regret? And what's given their life meaning so that we do have those deeper conversations and the doors opened. So they feel like the conversations are possible. Cindy MacMillan: (09:02) Thank you for going through that I really and truly feel those conversations are needed. Maybe even before we get to the end of our lives. Lynn Principe Golden: (09:13) I think we should talk about them with our children. Yes. Cindy MacMillan: (09:18) Can you share your story on how you became an end of life doula? Lynn Principe Golden: (09:23) I'd be glad to, it's a winding road, as most of our stories are. So I come from a large close-knit family and I grew up in the Maryland DC area. And to us family was everything. Our gatherings were large and multi-generational often including great aunts and uncles, cousins, all of our grandparents. So it wasn't until, so it wasn't unusual, I should say that when I moved to Florida 16 years ago, I had a great aunt and uncle that lived here. I moved here with my then-husband and my two young children. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank never had children so I started visiting with them. They lived in a condo in St. Pete; it was a tidy and perfectly preserved 1960s condo. Mary, she was a sweet Italian woman, she doted on my children, filled them with sweets. Lynn Principe Golden: (10:16) And then there was her husband, Uncle Frank, and he barely concealed his irritation with my rambunctious children. And they had been married for many years and I can say that Mary was truly a Saint. Mary's health began to fade she was admitted to a hospital, then rehab center. I started visiting more often with the purpose of reporting back to my family up North, about how she was doing. And we became really close in those last weeks. It was really the first time I'd been close to the dying process and she let me in and she let me accompany her on that path. She shared with me the mysteries that she was experiencing, the relief of never having to cook for Frank again, the pain that she was experiencing. And it was a really beautiful and profound experience to be there with her. Lynn Principe Golden: (11:09) I was inspired to become a hospice volunteer and a Reiki practitioner. And after Aunt Mary died, I inherited Uncle Frank. So, sharing all of the stories and challenges of being the caretaker to my Uncle Frank would be a whole nother podcast. Cindy MacMillan: (11:24) Okay. We'll have you back for that. Lynn Principe Golden: (11:27) Some good stories for sure. I will give you my short version. I cared for him for the next seven years until his death at the age of 94. And he was an intense and complicated man. He was sharp-minded, sharp-tongued, and he demanded that he make his own decisions. At one point, I had convinced him to move into assisted living because he had fallen a few times. He hated every minute of it and he said to me the words, I'll never forget, Lynn, I'm being treated like a potted plant. Cindy MacMillan: (12:02) Hmm. Lynn Principe Golden: (12:04) So caring for him, it asked a lot of me, but he taught me what dying with dignity meant. He loved me deeply, which I know then, and I know now, and I credit him for showing me what I'm capable of doing. That I'm capable of doing hard things. And he often said to me, Lynn, you've got grit kid. And ultimately this work found me. I believe I had the opportunity to plan a few funerals for family members and was deeply interested in the power of words and rituals. And a few years after Frank's death, I came across the work of Alua Arthur. She's an end of life doula. And I remember thinking, is this really a thing? It was like I made it up. It was so perfect. And I found the Conscious Dying Institute out of Boulder, Colorado. And I became a Certified End of Life Doula. I founded Dearly Beloved Life and became a Life-Cycle Celebrant. Cindy MacMillan: (12:58) Your words of what you said, he said to you I'm being treated like a potted plant. That's that went right to my, to my heart. Yeah. Lynn Principe Golden: (13:08) Yes. I mean, if you've ever been into nursing homes and assisted living facilities, you understand what I mean? Cindy MacMillan: (13:15) You mentioned being a hospice volunteer. What is the difference between an end of life doula and a hospice volunteer? And I know that you can really just speak to this from your experience, but could you talk about that? Lynn Principe Golden: (13:27) I love that. Yes, absolutely. So, I'm a hospice volunteer. I started about 13 years ago. I'm what you call a transitions volunteer and transitions are volunteers that come in at the very end of life as they're transitioning into, into the dying process. And sometimes they have only days or hours left to live and oftentimes they are alone or their family's not in town. So when I come into the space as a hospice volunteer, I don't know anything about them. I may know just their name, their diagnosis, and their age. I sit with them for two hours at a time. And I try to make those two hours as calming and meaningful as I can. I'll often read to them or play music. And again, I don't know anything about them. Sometimes I can get some clues as to what I see hanging in their rooms. Lynn Principe Golden: (14:20) Maybe if there's a crucifix, I'll pray or I'll play certain music that I think they may like. And I feel like we provide a very needed service as hospice volunteers. And I've learned so much during those visits, but what I feel like I can, what I can offer as an end of life doula, it goes a bit deeper. I want to give you an example of a doula patient I had recently, he was a 44-year-old man. He was dying of a brain tumor. His wife contacted me and she had never heard of what an end of life doula was but what she felt was missing from his hospice care was the emotional and spiritual support that they both needed during his dying process. So the first visit, when I went to see him, I talked to her for a long time about who he was and what mattered to him. Lynn Principe Golden: (15:06) We played music that he loved. I read to him his favorite stories. We saged the room. We lit candles. And I got to know who he was and what mattered to them. And then when I was there, when he passed his two young children were home, they were five and eight years old. And together we did some rituals that I think were very comforting and that's not even a good enough word, but I'll say comforting. We were able to anoint his body together with the children. They surrounded him with flowers and there was an ease that they had. They were able to come in and out of the room and love on him. And I became really close with the family. And in fact, I provided his funeral services the week later. And what I want to speak to about the difference to me, it's one word it's intimacy. Lynn Principe Golden: (15:55) I was able to connect on a deeper level in the way that his wife especially what she really needed and what she felt was missing. And I do want to say he got great care from hospice; they were there and they made sure he had everything he needed. But what he needed, what they all needed from me was something different. And that was the bridge that I feel like a doula can provide. And as of right now, at least here, hospices are not hiring end of life doulas. And I really hope that that will change. And I want to be a part of that change because I can see having doulas on every hospice team, how we can provide a bridge from the physical, to the spiritual and emotional and more of the comfort care that I feel like is missing. Cindy MacMillan: (16:37) Since you do both. I can see as you're talking and you're talking about that intimacy, how that would be a great addition to that hospice team. I read this quote and I want to read it to you. And it's from psychotherapist and author Francis Weller and he wrote; “Bringing grief and death out of the shadow is our spiritual responsibility, our sacred duty.” That almost sounds like what a doula does. Lynn Principe Golden: (17:09) Absolutely. I love his work, especially his work and his writings around grief. They're so inspiring to me and beautiful. And he talks about the different kinds of grief; we are grieving things that we, I don't think we ever named as grief, but he describes it perfectly and he is so profound. Cindy MacMillan: (17:27) Yeah, and I had not read any of his work. And when I was researching for this podcast episode, I found that quote and I felt like it was just perfect for me to read right now. Lynn Principe Golden: (17:39) Right. And what I tell people is that grief is a winding road and there's no one way that grief is supposed to look; it's different for all of us and some days are than others. I don't think that grief ends. I do think that we're forever changed by it because we do love deeply. And that's our birthright. If you love someone and care about them deeply, why would you want to forget them? So I think that it's just a matter of incorporating that into our lives and allowing the wisdom that that person had to continue to inform us even long after they're gone. And Francis Weller has some great talks and you can find him on YouTube. And he has one, I think it's called the Five Gates of Grief (2013). I don't know if I have that right, but it's definitely worth listening to. Cindy MacMillan: (18:22) I will go out and look for that and put it in the show notes. So what is the most rewarding part of your job other than everything? Lynn Principe Golden: (18:30) That's a great question because these are hard conversations to have. And like I said, you know, the dinner party people say, well, what do you do? And I think, hmm, like how much do I really want to say right now? Because you know, I get the blank stare. They, you know, the blinking eyes, but one of the things that most people say is, wow, that must be really depressing and that couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, there are moments of sadness, of course, and I do allow myself to feel those. To be selfish for a moment I feel that having death as my teacher has taught me so much about life. I've recently experienced my own heartbreak and a huge life change. And being with death reminds me of what really matters. It's given me so many gifts. I feel that I've witnessed so much magic being with those walking between the worlds I get to see through their eyes. Lynn Principe Golden: (19:19) And the first time was with Aunt Mary and when the last thing she said to me was Lynn everything's going to work out for you. And that was such a beautiful gift. And I laugh about it now, because I think I should have asked her to be more specific, but I've witnessed the healing of relationships and such deep love and forgiveness. And of course, there is suffering too, as I said, but that's taught me to be humble. And sometimes all I can offer is a hand to hold and a blessing on their journey. So those are the gifts that I receive from being a doula. Cindy MacMillan: (19:53) You talked about rituals a little earlier, and I just want to talk about that a little bit deeper. What is the role of rituals at the end of life? And can you give us an example maybe of one of your favorite rituals? Lynn Principe Golden: (20:07) I love to, I love to talk about this. My favorite ritual that I do and I do this one very often is the anointing ritual. The anointing ritual that I use was developed by my friend and mentor End of Life Doula, Trish Rux. I will do this anointing sometimes before death and sometimes after, depending, and depending on what the patient or the family wants. And I found that when I include the family members in the ritual, that it gives a sense of healing and calm to everyone that's present. I want to give a couple of examples; I had a doula patient last year who had two daughters by two different women and these women, they were grown, but they'd always lived their lives in competition with one another. And there was a lot of resentment and his dying wish was to have them both there by his side. Lynn Principe Golden: (20:58) And you can imagine that there was a lot of tension. And especially when the emotions are so high, the death of their father, who they both adored. When I did the anointing ritual, I gave them each a handful of essential oils and they stood on each side of his bed. And as I read through the ritual, they together anointed their father's body and the room was silent. And there was such a peaceful presence at that time. And when I left that day, after I said, my goodbyes, the two of the sisters were in the kitchen, sobbing in each other's arms. And I felt that the healing that was provided through that ritual was more than I could have ever expected. And I know that he felt that too. I've also used this ritual, as I mentioned with the gentleman who was 44, who died recently, his five and eight-year-old children anointed his body. Lynn Principe Golden: (21:49) And they loved being able to be part of that. It's a way of honoring the body and thanking it for carrying us through and sank goodbye. And if you don't mind, I would love to read you this ritual that my friend Trish wrote. Cindy MacMillan: (22:02) I would love that. Lynn Principe Golden: (22:03) Okay. Perfect. Is this a good time? Cindy MacMillan: (22:05) Yes. Lynn Principe Golden: (22:06) As your body is outwardly anointed with this oil. So may you be filled with love, may you be held in a state of grace, affirmed in all your goodness and may you have eternal peace of mind, body, and spirit. We start with the forehead: We anoint this body, that his journey through this life on earth. May you rest in peace. We anoint these eyes that have seen so much. May you rest in peace. We anoint this mouth that has spoken truth and love. May you rest in peace? We anoint these shoulders that have borne many burdens. May you rest in peace. We anoint this heart that has loved so well. May you rest in peace? We anoint these hands that have worked so hard. May you rest in peace? We anoint these feet that have travelled so far. May you rest in peace? Cindy MacMillan: (22:53) I can see where that would be so healing, just to have those words read with the family, there doing the anointing. Lynn Principe Golden: (23:02) Right, and I think that when we talk about the word healing; healing, doesn't always mean that the person is going to be cured and live. It's a different type of healing and it's available for all who are present at the time of death. Cindy MacMillan: (23:14) Thank you, for kind of clarifying that because yes, the healing and I almost want to use the word as you used earlier the intimacy of that ritual is, is more what I was talking about with that healing. Just feeling just a sense of peace. That was beautiful. Lynn Principe Golden: (23:35) It is profound. Cindy MacMillan: (23:38) End of life doulas can provide several services and you've really gone through a lot of those and Lynn the time has just absolutely flown by. Can you talk a little bit about your services and how people can follow you on your journey? And is there anything that I should have asked you that I didn't? Lynn Principe Golden: (24:02) No, I feel like you gave me the opportunity to talk about what really drives me and what I'm passionate about. And in terms of the services I provide, I talked a little bit about the planning, the bedside vigil and the after death care. I want to go into a little bit of detail if I can, about the planning phase and the services that I learned through Conscious Dying Institute. They were created by our founder, Tarron Estes; we call them the Best Three Months. It's a planning tool that she developed that goes way beyond advanced directives and includes the five domains of life that I mentioned, spiritual, practical, physical, emotional, and mental. And so with each domain, I'll ask questions that about what feels unfinished or not yet put in place or communicated. And together, we create a vision of what we could provide for them, how we could provide the best outcome and create action steps so that their vision becomes a reality. Lynn Principe Golden: (24:57) And a few quick examples: spiritually you could ask if they're interested in having a last confession or they want to go deeper into the study of a spiritual practice, that's always interested them? Practically ask, do they want to die at home? And what would you need to do in order to make that possible? Or perhaps you want your ashes to become part of a coral reef? Who do we need to talk to, to make that happen? In the mental domain asking what their legacy is and what projects feel incomplete? Physically, how much pain are you okay with tolerating in order to stay present with your loved ones? Are there alternative techniques that interest you? Emotionally - and this is a big one for most of us is what's been unsaid? And who do you need to ask forgiveness of? And who do you want to forgive? Lynn Principe Golden: (25:46) And who would you want by your bedside? And who do you want to say goodbye to? I offer the Best Three Months I can come together with groups or I'm offering a free online six week, Best Three Months course. And you don't have to be actively dying in order to create your vision of your Best Three Months. I've created my own and done so with some family members and it really is eye-opening, and it helps us understand what feels unfinished for us, what we can do to have those conversations so that our family knows exactly what our wishes are. And if anyone's interested in getting more information about practicing the Best Three Months with me, or have a group that they want me to address this with them, they can email me at lynngoldenlife@gmail.com or they can check out my website dearlybelovedlife.com for more information. And the most important part of this I want to say is after you make these decisions and really get clear about what your vision is, is share the information. Lynn Principe Golden: (26:44) Because it doesn't do any good if no one knows exactly what you want. Cindy MacMillan: (26:47) Absolutely. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation 60% report that their loved one has a document describing their wishes for medical care. But what surprised me out of that 60%, only 48% knew where it was. So that's kind of like a little bit what you're talking about. Thank you. Thank you, for being here and going over everything. It just is, sounds so rewarding to me and I really appreciate you being here. But the last question I have for you is if you could turn back time and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell her about the season of life that you're in right now? Lynn Principe Golden: (27:30) That's a great question. And I'm not one that lives with alot of regret because I can see in hindsight when each the challenge has taught me, but I think that as an 18-year-old young woman, I would remind myself to not be afraid to use my voice. Lynn Principe Golden: (27:48) And I think that's a big one for me. Cindy MacMillan: (27:50) Perfect. That is a perfect place for us to end. Thank you so much for being here. (27:55) Thank you so much, Cindy. I had a blast. Cindy MacMillan: (27:57) Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of Exploring the Seasons of Life podcast. I really enjoyed talking to Lynn Principe Golden about her journey to becoming an end of life doula and I would love for you to share this episode with your friends and family. Visit our website, CynthiaMacMillan.com, and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Until next time, live inspired!

How does a daily duel with Death change the way you live? My guest on this episode, Lise Leroux, is an author, skydiver, globetrotter, and life cycle celebrant. More than three decades ago, she received a terminal diagnosis. Then just five years ago, her story took a mind-blowing turn.  Lise's story will strengthen your resolve to live with even more guts and gusto and abandon right now. Listen for how Lise's story has led her to her unique purpose in life. In episode 3, How to Turn Your Imperfections into Superpowers, I pointed out that our story and our unique purpose are inseparable, and Lise is a perfect example of that. I hope her example will help you connect the dots between your story and your purpose even more clearly. Her story is also a powerful example and affirmation of the big idea in episode 5, How to Become the Boss of Your Fear.    No One Believes Me Between the ages of 15 and 25, Lise knew something was wrong. Countless doctors and specialists looked at her case, and one by one, they found nothing. Eventually, it was chalked up to hypochondria. As much as they wanted to believe her, even Lise’s own parents ultimately sided with the “experts” rather than with Lise. But by 25, Lise knew deeply within herself that something was terribly wrong, and her time on earth was quickly drawing to a close.    Vindication Finally, at 25 and with nothing more to lose, Lise packed up all her stuff in a UHaul trailer and headed to a facility in Montreal that could do MRIs--in 1985, a groundbreaking technology. Here, she received confirmation of what she’d known deep-down for a decade: Something really was wrong. It had a name...and a terminal prognosis. Tune into the full episode to hear how this news affected Lise. It wasn’t how you might have expected.    Six Months to Live...For More Than Three Decades This began an anger-fueled, danger-seeking, fear-conquering, globetrotting chapter of Lise’s life. She was a woman on the run, living every day as if it could be her last, forming few meaningful attachments, dueling with the spectre of Death day-in and day-out. In one harrowing episode, she fell through the upper level of her home onto the stone floor below--where she remained for three days, unable to move, and accompanied only by her two dogs. Then five years ago, a routine--albeit very thorough--medical examination for her job changed her life dramatically again. Tune in for details. The truth really is stranger than fiction; you can’t make this stuff up.    What Does Lise’s Story Mean for Us? Lise's story is like a sadistic experiment designed by a mad scientist. And the question posed by the experiment was, "What does the expectation of imminent death do to a person?" If there was any remaining doubt that Mortality is the most powerful motivator in life, then Lise's story helps put that doubt to rest. Even though she has regret over things she missed--investing more in intimate relationships and having kids, for example--she nevertheless is grateful overall for how Death caused her to live. So much so that she is carrying those lessons forward into the new chapter of her story. And one idea sticks out to me especially: That even though there's no guarantee of another day, we DO have a choice about how we live right NOW. In Lise's case, she chose to go for it rather than hole up and wait for Death. What choice are you making?  What hit you from Lise's story? Share your response in the comments on this episode’s post on Facebook.  Connect with Lise:  Facebook and LinkedIn lise@reimaginecelebrations.com Life Cycle Celebrant website Writer & Playwright website My purpose as a coach is to help you deploy your unique purpose in the world. Connect with me on Facebook or email me.  Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, & Stitcher and leave a review! See you next time on Andrew Petty is Dying!    

Long ago, when sailors navigated by the stars, when seabirds carried the spirits of sailors lost at sea, and when everyone knew that the bust of a naked woman on the bow of a ship would calm rough waters, a sailor would carry a cord with three knots. Bound in each was the wind itself.  Inspired by the ancient lore of knots, I created the ritual "Love Knots" using the arbor knot, the lovers' knot, and the Celtic marriage knot, with possible additions of the double fisherman's knot, and the sailor's breastplate knot. The ritual can easily be adapted for two people entering a partnership of any kind.   See the website RitualRecipes.net for a picture of the three knots used in the wedding ceremony. For couples who have had to postpone their wedding, please read the blog post by my Life-Cycle Celebrant colleague Karla Combres about how and why to mark your original wedding date with ritual. You can find it at The Celebrant Foundation and Institute's blog.

Bonnie Cortez is driven by service. As a Life-Cycle Celebrant with her business, Chosen with Bonnie, she writes and officiates tailor-made wedding ceremonies for couples who are looking for more than the traditional “I do.” Bonnie enjoys learning about couples as individuals, getting to know what drew them together along with their hopes for the future. Bonnie loves bearing witness to some of life’s most transformational experiences. One happy bride recently gushed, “I am still in a dream state. I cannot tell you how many friends and family came up to me and said: “that was the best wedding ceremony we have ever attended!” Bonnie cannot wait to marry you! Please contact Bonnie at: bonnieleenia@gmail.com, 224-714-9396, chosenwithbonnie.com, @chosenwithbonnie on Instagram ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P.S. And, whenever you’re ready... here are the top 5 ways we can empower career-driven moms to acquire success with balance. Watch my free 4 Secrets to Work-Life Balance Masterclass Want to acquire work-life balance without guilt, so you no longer neglect yourself and your loved ones? Before you do ANYTHING else, I want you to watch my FREE 4 Secrets to Work-Life Balance Masterclass right here: https://www.jackieschwabe.com/Master-Class-4-Secrets Download my proven Balance Booster Checklist If you're a career-driven Mom who's struggling with finding balance, then download my work-life balance checklist that our clients use to regain balance without guilt here: https://www.jackieschwabe.com/balance-checklist Join our FREE Facebook Group Join our FREE Success with Balance for Career Driven Moms Facebook Group and connect with career-driven Moms who are learning how to find balance, pause when needed, play the game they want to win, and prosper: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pressplaylifestyleVIP/ Work with me privately If you’d like to work directly with me to acquire success with balance and design the life of your dreams... just schedule your complimentary “Balance Booster Breakthrough" Call with me so we can clarify your fastest path to success with balance and create a strategy for you to make it happen... Apply for your FREE call with me here: https://www.jackieschwabe.com/book-a-call Check Out All These Resources https://linktr.ee/pressplay4u --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pressplayinspired/message

To Learn More / Purchase the Omnia Radiation Balancer, CLICK HERE: https://www.omniaradiationbalancer.com/?rfsn=3262352.52aff6 We now have shirts!! Use Promo Code: TRUTH for 10% off all through February! https://teespring.com/stores/journey-to-truth-podcast Click here to save 10% off your yearly subscription of Edgeofwonder.TV https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FEOW_Simon_10_off%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1005wroL-XmbS1hg1o5sXJax9DmzSZt7Y9MRMY3-05aWdsBNd-bTk8qDo&h=AT0BjIj5RjPL_seWs08eNNPKoLnz7cJbuxLWK2_Bqg5o0aq0aXvDyitlde8EKdpYtKG9BNBBZeak6S2PYnwGQgPNnB9_JTDv0STG-x_D6pLcLgB-TPX23eZMu9UxNHbNU4tWfay4EcMV26QKxWDmmU0a This week we are joined by Simon Esler! Simon is a Full Disclosure Activist, healer, energy practitioner, researcher, writer, actor, philosopher, father and adept student of experience. He is ordained by the government of Ontario as a Metaphysical Minister of the Bancroft Center for Awakening Spiritual Growth. As a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant he is trained in the art of custom ceremony creation and through Rainbow Kids Yoga he is certified in the art of creating children’s meditations. He is an alumni of York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Studies. In November 2017 Esler launched the QAnon Think Tank. With an incredible team, it has grown into a 14,000 member community focused on researching, filing and disseminating the QAnon Disclosures. He is a co-host on thegreatawakening.ca, and Cosmic Table Talk on the SBA YouTube channel. Simon is currently producing a new series on edgeofwonder.tv called Worlds Within, exploring the metaphysical depths of our reality and their connection to our personal power. He has been a speaker at consciousness and UFOlogy events in Toronto, California and Colorado. Thanks for watching! Check us out on these other platforms: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/journey-to-truth/id1458666262 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4QorFt5veuXszqhJGWuuKj SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-918143689 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeytotruthpodcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/JourneyToTruth3 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/journey_to_truth_podcast Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/journey-to-truth Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/hb2gemdi Podtail: https://podtail.com/en/podcast/journey-to-truth/ Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/site/Search/index?v=JOURNEY+TO+TRUTH

Interview with Ronald Hunt Ron is truly a Renaissance man - Reiki Teacher Master, NLP Certified, Life Coach, Modern Minister and Life Cycle Celebrant. He has a passion for helping people to expand their minds through mindfulness and the development of a growth mindset - changing the lives of people of all ages. In addition to all of this he is a Life Cycle Celebrant who helps couples to create their Dream Wedding, perfect Ceremony, and brilliant start to their lives together. His website is listed below where you can contact him if you are interested in having him officiate at your wedding or someone else you know. Ron and I spoke extensively about the value of meditation at any age and how important it is to creating the lives that we want. We also spent some time talking about our own paths and how we developed our own meditation practices. “Some people meet us at our worst time, but still see the great in us. They are the ones that will always have our backs and our hearts.” - Ronald J. Hunt Reverent Ronald Hunt for weddings - https://www.ido-idos.com

In the episode of Soul Sister Conversations, we speak with Linda Stuart, a Life Cycle Celebrant who crafts transformational ceremonies like funerals and weddings. Through her family business, Linda grew up in the funeral profession and found her true calling after talking with a funeral director who was concerned that people weren’t having funerals anymore. Recognizing the importance of having a gathering when someone dies, Linda set out to create ceremonies with warmth, humour and storytelling giving the loved one’s meaning despite their religious or faith background. We talk about modern funerals, how funerals are for the living not the dead and the importance of ceremony and ritual.

As a professional Life-Cycle Celebrant, I work closely with couples to create unique, personal ceremonies. Whether someone wants a nerdy, comic-book infused ceremony or something more traditional (but with a non-traditional twist), I strive to make each ceremony a true reflection of the couple. Check out Anita's website here!Check out Anita's Facebook here!Follow along her awesomeness on her Instagram here!Check our her video here! 

Alicia Forneret is a professional dedicated to creating new spaces for people to explore grief and grieving. We recorded this episode in the fall, in the beginning of the holiday season. A difficult time for someone who is missing their loved one. Alicia speaks about greed and gives advice on end-of-life experiences. Through Alicia I found out that ashes contain sharp shards. Something I didn't know before. We also talk about the way we handle grief in the workplace. Her Dead Moms Club lapel pins help people commemorate, commiserate, and celebrate their dead moms. The pins are for everyone. People of all ages, all genders, all backgrounds. A friend, a family member, and maybe even your own mother. She is currently becoming certified as a Life Cycle Celebrant to help people celebrate both life and death. Alicia is a council member on the BC Women's Health Foundation's Young Women Council (Vancouver, BC). She is also a cohort of the inaugural Lululemon Luminaries program. Her written work has been featured on the pages of popular magazines and books, including (but not limited to) Modern Loss, Grief Dialogues, Vancouver Magazine, Loam, and Kinfolk. And my story and voice have been featured on CTV News, Grief Out Loud, InStyle, and more. You can find her writing my newsletter from coffee shops in Vancouver, running workshops with Reimagine in NYC, and hosting Death Over Dinner events across the United States and Canada. Visit https://alicaforneret.com/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/DreamNation/support

Alicia Forneret is a professional dedicated to creating new spaces for people to explore grief and grieving. We recorded this episode in the fall, in the beginning of the holiday season. A difficult time for someone who is missing their loved one. Alicia speaks about greed and gives advice on end-of-life experiences. Through Alicia I found out that ashes contain sharp shards. Something I didn’t know before. We also talk about the way we handle grief in the workplace. Her Dead Moms Club lapel pins help people commemorate, commiserate, and celebrate their dead moms. The pins are for everyone. People of all ages, all genders, all backgrounds. A friend, a family member, and maybe even your own mother. She is currently becoming certified as a Life Cycle Celebrant to help people celebrate both life and death. Alicia is a council member on the BC Women’s Health Foundation’s Young Women Council (Vancouver, BC). She is also a cohort of the inaugural Lululemon Luminaries program. Her written work has been featured on the pages of popular magazines and books, including (but not limited to) Modern Loss, Grief Dialogues, Vancouver Magazine, Loam, and Kinfolk. And my story and voice have been featured on CTV News, Grief Out Loud, InStyle, and more. You can find her writing my newsletter from coffee shops in Vancouver, running workshops with Reimagine in NYC, and hosting Death Over Dinner events across the United States and Canada. Visit https://alicaforneret.com/

Tawnya Musser, founder of Dear Departures, is a Home Funeral Guide, Life-Cycle Celebrant, and End-of-Life Doula offering services in the Denver Metro and surrounding areas. Tawnya shares how her journey through life informed her transition into the world of death and dying. Hear how she shifted from a headspace of ‘We’re all going to die, so what’s the point?’ to a place of ‘Yes, we’re going to die. So, what can we do to be prepared and empowered in our choices?’ We talk ‘go-to’ death practices, and their impact on the land, our environment, and our finances. We discuss and define terms including green burial, home funeral, water cremation, burial vaults, what it means to be ‘death positive,’ and what a funeral celebrant is.   We delve into engaging children in conversations about death, by introducing how cultures throughout the world have a variety of ways to care for the bodies of their dead. We explore how being in the presence of the deceased’s body has value as it relates to grief, and the ways in which we process death. We touch on how the shift into celebrations of life can strive to include space for tears and grief. Resources:  Dear Departures National Home Funeral Alliance Tenants of the Death PositiveMovement The Moth – Grief To A Five Year Old The Good Funeral by Thomas Long and Thomas Lynch  Conscious Dying Institute Celebrant Institute Death Café Life of Death short video Song: Everything Gets Gone by William Elliott Whitmore

Dannielle is is a Leadership Development program manager at The Standard, an insurance and financial services company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Dannielle has a masters from Antioch University and strong experience in organization and leadership development, learning and development and strategic communications. She has worked in the insurance and financial services industry over 11 years and the technology sector for nearly two decades. Dannielle is also a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant and former Peace Corps volunteer. She lives in Tualatin, OR with her husband. And most importantly, they have three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and one grandchild with a second due soon.

Dannielle is is a Leadership Development program manager at The Standard, an insurance and financial services company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Dannielle has a masters from Antioch University and strong experience in organization and leadership development, learning and development and strategic communications. She has worked in the insurance and financial services industry over 11 years and the technology sector for nearly two decades. Dannielle is also a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant and former Peace Corps volunteer. She lives in Tualatin, OR with her husband. And most importantly, they have three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and one grandchild with a second due soon.

Achieving emotional closure is often one of the most challenging aspects of a separation or divorce. In this interview, we talk with Sue Cairnie about divorce ceremonies and how they can help couples and families heal and move forward. Sue Cairnie is a Life-Cycle Celebrant and Inter-faith Minister, based in Vernon BC. She works closely with her clients to create personalized ceremonies that acknowledge life’s transitions: birth, coming of age, childbirth, marriage, divorce, coming out, career change, moving, and death. Sue is passionate about the power of divorce ceremonies to create space for healing, forgiveness, and transformation. Your host, Christina Vinters, is a nationally designated Chartered Mediator on a mission to inspire and facilitate healthy family transitions. She is an “ex” Divorce Lawyer (Non-Practicing Member of the Bar), Author of Pathways to Amicable Divorce, and the  DIY Divorce Manual, and Peacemaking Business Consultant. Guest Links: Website: http://www.earthtoskyceremonies.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthtoSkyCeremonies Modern Separations Links: Website: https://www.modernseparations.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/modernseparations Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/divorcewell Twitter: https://twitter.com/cvinters LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cvinters/

Holly Pruett, a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant who helps families to design individualized rituals for the end of life shares the wisdom she's acquired from years of working with people who are seeking to create meaningful ways to mark the major transition from life to death. In our conversation, Holly recounts examples of ways children have played roles in memorial services and gravesite ceremonies. She also provides suggestions for how to explain terms like burial and cremation to young children. You'll learn about possibilities around witnessed cremation, green burial, and caring for a loved one's body in the home.  To find out more about Holly and her important work, check out her website, The Death Talk Project, and PDX Death Cafe.  http://www.hollypruettcelebrant.com/ http://deathtalkproject.com/  http://deathtalkproject.com/pdx-death-cafe/    

What Makes An Effective Funeral Celebrant? Stories have captivated mankind since the beginning of time. The art of the story is a skill and ability needed if you are a funeral celebrant. Being able to listen well, find the story and tell it with sensitivity and relevance is what makes an effective celebrant. In this podcast, I chat with Linda Stuart a Life Cycle Celebrant from Ontario, Canada. We talk about how Linda's creative website has driven new business, the use of social media and red wine and chocolate! A great mix!

Cynthia Cherish Malaran, aka Rev. DJ CherishTheLuv, a breast cancer patient at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC, talks about the importance of PRIMARY FOOD’s role in her successful cancer treatment in this pilot episode. The food on our tables that we put in our mouths is secondary food. Primary Food is all the stuff in life that nourishes us before we eat—Our creativity, our relationships, our spirituality, physical activity and interaction with this awesome world we live in. It was the great relationships with her Self, with others, with art, music, writing, nature, travel, food and dance, that were the groundwork of Cynthia’s successful and smooth cancer treatment. As Rev. DJ CherishTheLuv, she aims to share this knowledge to help others heal and find more ease and inner peace around the world. Listen along to conversations about music, grandmas, Integrative Nutrition, and more, with guests on the mic: Holistic Health Coach and Life Cycle Celebrant, Sacha Jones, owner of Stiggly Holistics, NYC Singer and Musician in Traditional Indian studies, Christine Ghezzo Weiss ROcK ’n RoLL GodDesS and Host of her own Show, “Rew and Who,” ReW StaRR  and Author/Playwright, 85-year old DJ student, DJ LeeLee, Lee Hunkins

Life-Cycle Celebrant Heidi Yorkshire: Why Solopreneurship is so Fulfilling by BSR Broadcasts with Jackie B. Peterson