The Hands That Shape Tomorrow
She Who Nurtures the World: A Mother’s Day Tribute to the Power of Feminine Virtue In the 1800s William Ross Wallace wrote a celebratory poem of women – mothers in particular – honouring how “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” The words and context are a little dated, but the…
Courageous Communication
Pre-wedding preps are full of conversations about flowers or wedding breakfasts, guest invites and seating plans, speeches and first dances. I’m not sure how many couples will sit down and ask each other the harder questions that are essential to their being successfully wed. And yet, those are the conversations that truly shape a marriage.…
I stand at the beginning of marriage…
…and I have stood at its ending. Both have shaped me. That perspective gives me a deep respect for the vows couples make. Marriage is not a fairytale – it is a living, evolving partnership. As a celebrant, I create ceremonies that honour not just romance, but resilience, friendship and the daily choice to love…
Be My Valentine Celebrant
Does Valentine’s Day make you think of roses and romance and Cupid’s arrow and proposals? Of course, for me as a celebrant it does. Not so much for me, personally these days…now, when I think about my loves, my heart leaps for my grandchildren, several cartwheels at a time. But there is a connection… I…
Gifts We Carry
On Christmas Eve, we carry gifts, carefully wrapped, hidden under twinkling lights, each one chosen with thought and love. Some are small, some grand, but all are offered with the hope that they will bring joy. The gifts we carry are not only the ones we set under a tree. Each of us carries other…
Finding Meaning in Loss: Lessons from a Funeral Celebrant
In a world obsessed with credentials, nobody ever asks me where I trained to write or speak. They just want to know if I can help them say goodbye. My name is Julie. I used to be so proud of the letters after my name – I worked hard for them and I used to…
Hanna Green
Hanna Green’s life was one that began and ended in perfect symmetry. Sixteen years in completion… and although it was a life brief in years, it was vast in love; immense in learning, in meaning, and in light. How do you begin to honour such a rare, radiant soul on this, the seventeenth anniversary of…
Emotional Choices for Wedding Music …Celebrating Love
Popular music is full of powerful messages about love – not just romantic love, but the kind that helps us see ourselves more clearly and kindly. From lyrics that promise, “You make me feel like I’m enough” to ballads that speak of being seen and accepted, there’s a recurring theme: that the love of another…
Love in Motion: A Mother’s Rite of Passage
I’ve navigated a good few rites of passage in my life – marriage, motherhood, the sweetest transition into becoming a grandmother, and so many more quiet thresholds in between. But nothing has felt quite like this moment: standing at the threshold of another letting go, not of a child, but of a man – my…
Embracing Grief: The Sacred Process of Healing
I often get asked how I manage to lead funeral services; people are keen to know how I cope with being surrounded by such grief. There’s a simple answer to this – I am continually learning how to carry both love and loss together. And whilst the grief at most services is not my own,…
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