I am a life celebrant and coach.
I see the importance in “moments” that matter in life – helping people celebrate, commemorate and empower life’s important beginnings, completions, transitions, accomplishments, creations and honorings.
To celebrate is to acknowledge all that is good
To commemorate is to honor and give thanks.
To empower is to promote one’s vision and be encouraged.
People are aware that something special is happening. They seek to commemorate and celebrate family and friends. But they don’t know where to start.
My story
I am the third oldest child of a brood of 9. I was, of course, raised in an Irish Catholic home. My parents have been married for 62 years and they gave their lives to their job as parents. Our home was filled with community celebration, all the time. My parents were fans of sit-down meals and organized home projects. Everything I did, I did in a group. Ever since I can remember, I was celebrating life and people. Birth order research pins me down as a people pleaser, a peacemaker and one who thrives on friendships and social interaction. It makes sense. I was filled with the ritual observances of Catholic Mass once a week, if not more, and my life was all about people.
My first official community event as an organizer and celebrant was a Backyard Carnival to benefit Muscular Dystrophy through the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Weekend Telethon. At age 10, I sent away for the carnival kit, set up the carnival in my backyard and enrolled as many neighborhood kids and brothers and sisters as I could to help and to participate. I think I made $50. I sent all of it in and felt that I contributed to the greater cause.
As a people pleaser and peacemaker, the world became my project pretty quickly. I found the philosophy of self-reliance and universal order when I was 19 (breaking free from the shackles of the irrelevance of the Catholic experience at age 18.) I achieved in school and work and in life because I had radical hospitality. I could meet and greet with the best of them. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t seeing the best in others and in life. My life philosophy urged me to see and know Good. Some saw me as naively ideal. Maybe, but who else could treat you better in celebrating all that is Good in special moments on our lives.
Life really is about cultivating the gifts you’ve been given and then giving them. Our gifts are not ours to keep. They are to be shared.
