It's special, it's challenging at times, it's full of wonderful experiences and it can be so positive. Living in a world full of negative news, global warming, wars and conflicts of every kind it is so positive to listen to people's love stories, their love of family and their hopes and dreams for the future. Yes, Celebrancy is really such uplifting work.
Being with a couple who love one another to bits is like being plugged into a 'Happiness Machine!' It's infectious and no matter how tired or low in energy and enthusiasm I may be before a wedding interview by the end my spirits have lifted, I feel re-energised and positive once more.
Being a Celebrant you are privileged to share a couple's or a family's life story. You are there to help them celebrate the love in their lives and to weave, with them, all the strands of life experiences that make their story, their love, their memories and their hopes and dreams into a truly personal ceremony.
No matter if I am working with a couple getting married, a family preparing to celebrate a loved one's life, preparing a ceremony for the naming of a baby or creating a ceremony for a stillborn baby's grieving parents I am forever reminded of the really important things of life.
Love, friendship, family and the innate need to celebrate these special times in our lives - these passages of life in meaningful and personal ways is part of the fabric of life itself. We need to celebrate the love in our lives for love is what makes life worthwhile and is the best of all reasons for our existence on this planet.
As Oscar Wilde said -
'Keep Love in your heart
A life without it is like a
sunless garden
when all the flowers are dead
The consciousness of loving and
being loved
brings a warmth and richness to
life
that nothing else can bring.’
Loving and being loved means we grow into well adjusted people. Being loved as children brings security, support and encouragement we learn values and morals and the difference between right and wrong.
When a child is denied these basic human rights, is abused and neglected, knows only harsh words and negative experiences, in other words, comes from a dysfunctional family background then they often become abusers and turn to a life of crime.
And so the cycle is repeated as in the sad case of Raurangi Marino who today was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in the Rotorua District Court after earlier pleading to charges of sexual violation
by rape, burglary and causing grievous bodily harm to a five year old girl.
I can't help wondering who is truly to blame here and where did this dysfunctional cycle begin and why? And where will it end?
It was the Chinese Taoist philosopher, Lao Tzu who said "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
All I know is that in my work as a Celebrant I am constantly blessed because of the privilege of working together with those who are celebrating the love they have for one another in so many diverse way and in so many different ceremonies.
Love is the greatest force for good in this world and we need to celebrate that fact each and every day. Love is the light that shines in our darkness and Love is the only thing we will take with us when we die.
And love is what gives meaning to my life and my work as a Celebrant.
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