The Call
Why being a Funeral Celebrant is important to me.
All of my life, I have felt a calling. I first experienced the call at the age of sixteen, when I worked as a nursing assistant caring for individuals in an end-of-life setting. This was my full-time summer job during my last two years of high school and four years of my college summer and winter breaks. This experience made a lasting impact in my psyche; consequently, those nursing assistant days would forever plant the need to return to caring for people near death. Although the logical step would have been nursing school (specifically palliative care), I chose the path of an art student.
Fast forward twenty years, with a full-time professional graphic design career rolling, I had decided to add part-time work as a certified nursing assistant in order to serve others in their last days of need. I held this job for two years, but unfortunately, I relinquished the nursing job due to the demands of family and working full time as a designer.
A decade later, I became restless in my lengthening career as a corporate designer. I knew that I was not hitting the mark of my life’s work. During this period of unrest, I deeply explored spirituality and developed a solid sense of a human’s journey through the eternal life cycle while absorbing various philosophical, religious and cultural interpretations. I participated in various rituals across traditions, seasons and life stages. But always, I felt drawn toward the transition between earthly death and the state of being thereafter –a universal dynamic.
The passing of my father was the catalyst in moving closer to my purpose. Being very close to my father, I wanted to celebrate his life’s journey on earth by creating and presenting the ceremony for his burial. This was a natural role for me to take on, having been the artist, writer and lover of ritual in my family. Indeed the task was emotional but the creation process and delivery of the carefully crafted remembrance, eulogy, verses and readings eased the passage for my family’s need to honor him and begin closure. This experience left me with an illuminative desire to do this for other families. This was the moment that I knew that I wanted to be an ambassador of a sort for the deceased in regard to facilitating the expression of a good bye, farewell, see you later…with reverence in the manner of which the decedent would approve of.
With interest, I researched the area of funerals and discovered the role of a life-cycle celebrant. Additionally, I was enthralled to discover the Life-Cycle Celebrant® program offered by a renowned school in this field, the Celebrant Foundation & Institute. Not only could I get certified to do such very important work, the schooling of all the related subject matter on ritual, life stages and rites of passage appealed to me tremendously.
With mid-life maturity, I have had the opportunity to answer that calling from youth and nurture it into fruition. Throughout my life I have kept my heart open to this call, trusting that the path would show itself. The function of a funeral celebrant professional is an excellent fit for me because it acknowledges the truth of life passages and engages my strengths of leadership, empathy and creativity. This work enables me to guide the individual or family group in collaboration for the purpose of manifesting an appropriate, personal and meaningful ceremony for a mysterious, “scary” life transition. Furthermore, the ultimate gift that I can offer is to directly assist the dying person who desires to create or contribute expression of final thought in the spirit of closure and legacy. I am readily available to aid those who are in a position to consider their departure from earth. I also realize that not all death has warning and some individuals perish with not being able to or wanting to construct a sense of closure. And for others, death comes very early sometimes before birth. For these often tragic and tender heartaches, I can craft the service that the family needs. Furthermore, pets are often lamented just as equally as a human family member -this I welcome as well. I serve objectively with the mission to discover and honor the uniqueness in each life that comes to my care. Every day, I feel gratitude to have found the direction that enables me to help ease the passage that all living beings must take.