Sharing Experiences

Celebrants sharing experiences
in Tauranga over lunch

When a group of celebrants get together we can talk for hours sharing our experiences so much so that we could easily write a really entertaining book about them. Today I met with some of my celebrant colleagues from around the Coromandel who are members of the Celebrants Association of New Zealand Inc. During a delightful lunch at the Tastebuds Cafe just south of Thames, we managed to exchange an amazing amount of stories, useful information and ideas.  


Three hours later we had certainly come to know each other a great deal better and learnt a great deal about one another and our work.


Networking such as this is such a valuable process especially when, as celebrants, we work on our own and living where we all do, are quite a distance from one another and the main centres. Today was a first for those of us living in the wide flung Coromandel/Hauraki area and it was really worthwhile, so much so that we are going to keep in touch from now on via email and meet every three months.


Personally, I have never had a problem sharing my resources, experience or how I have dealt with the various queries and challenges that celebrants are presented during their work with my fellow celebrants. My philosophy is that we are there to assist one another in whatever way we can and it is usually a two-way process for we learn from one another. My celebrant colleagues today shared my philosophy so the two-way process was very evident.


As I have said many times, Celebrancy is such a privilege. It is extremely personal, creative and interesting on so many levels. We meet people of diverse cultures, beliefs and professions. We come into our clients lives at particularly exciting or sensitive times and help them celebrate those important moments in their lives with empathy, integrity and professionalism. From these experiences we are blessed and enriched beyond measure.


Oscar Wilde said 'that experience is the name we give to our mistakes;' how true that is for it is through those mistakes that we learn what not to do and so improve our standard of work. By networking with colleagues we learn new ways of doing things, we learn to look at a situation from another point of view and we learn those vital little tricks of the trade. We also refresh our memories of things that worked well for us in a ceremony, are shown different ways of incorporating ritual and symbolism into ceremony and widen our knowledge of the many cultural aspects celebrants have to deal with today.


I totally agree with the 20th century French author and philosopher, Albert Camus, who  said - "You can't create experience. You must undergo it.'  We can listen to our colleague's experiences and take them on board but it is only by dealing with what is presented to us and creating our solutions, ideas and using our initiative that we truly learn - that is experience. 


Today my fellow celebrants and I shared our experiences and celebrated the many privilege and satisfaction our work brings us and in doing so enriched each other. We added to our knowledge and went home the better for it.


And as Albert Einstein said so succinctly  - "the only source of knowledge is experience.'

My 19 year old grandson experiences snow for
the first time. Now he knows what it really feels like!