Celebrating 10 Years as a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant™: A Journey of Stories, Ceremonies, and Coming Home

Scotland?  When I graduated from the Celebrant Foundation & Institute in 2015 as a Certified Life Cycle Celebrant™ I had no idea what lay ahead, but I knew from the start, this is what I'm meant to do.  
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What I couldn’t have imagined is how deeply this vocation would root itself into my heart and soul.  
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Never in my wildest dreams did I think what I love doing would bring me home to the country where I was born, yet a decade after officiating my first ceremony found me nestled in the Scottish Highlands at a Celebrant Retreat.

Heather blooming looking over the North Sea in the Scottish Highlands

I’ve been back to Scotland several times to visit family, however there were so many places in this beautiful country I'd yet to see.  
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When my friend, colleague, & ritual maven, Danna D. Schmidt, popped up in my messages earlier this year with news of a Celebrant Retreat in July in Scotland, the itinerary read like a personally curated dream come true. 

Ten years after officiating my first ceremony, I was with 7 other Professional Celebrants from North America on retreat in the Highlands of Scotland, a country steeped in ceremony, ritual, and story-telling.  ​(I may owe Danna a lifetime supply of purple heather for putting this retreat on my radar.)

​Over 10 days we were immersed in a time of powerful reflection, renewal, and laughter, with silence often speaking as deeply as our conversations, somewhat mirroring our work as Professional Celebrants accompanying people at pivotal moments as they cross life's thresholds. 

Sacred kinships formed amid Scotland's shimmering lochs, ancient cairns  and mystical glens as we watched bees and butterflies frolic from heather to thistle, enhancing the scent of the sea air with notes found in the finest of scotch whisky.

A ceremony I've wanted to manifest is a full Scottish wedding. I have all the tools in my ritual kit, and I've used several in ceremony.  I've had pipers at weddings and burials, however I'm still awaiting a kilted groom or grooms.   

So you can imagine my delight when I came across a bride and groom as they were leaving their wedding ceremony in Inverness to the joyful sounds of the pipes; guests in kilts and fascinators. (I had a delightful conversation with the piper and his dad when they crossed my path again later that afternoon. I haven't posted the bride and groom out of respect for their privacy) 

I'm still waiting to conduct a full Scottish wedding ceremony here in Canada and hope it won't be another 10 years for that to happen!   

A special highlight was the day we welcomed 4 Scottish Celebrants from the Scottish Independent Celebrant Association (SICA) for a full-day visit.

Like North America, the Celebrant title isn't regulated in Scotland.  SICA was established to promote the highest standards of Scottish Celebrancy and support to Celebrants who have undergone professional celebrant training and continue to enhance their knowledge and offerings through ongoing education.  

Our day began over breakfast and the time flew by.  Something common to Celebrants on both sides of the pond is a passion for what we do, and there is never a lack of topics of conversation.  Ours were rich with traditions, sharing and plenty of heartfelt storytelling — hallmarks of Scottish culture and Celebrant practices.

SICA also actively promotes death literacy through various initiatives, including bringing candid talks about death and funerals to school children.  Children often understand death more that we realize, and it's important they have safe and open spaces for questions and honest discussions.

Me (second from left) with SICA members Gordon J. Smith, Michael Hannah, Gillian Robertson, Lynda Smith (no relation to Gordon)

We closed a day that will be long cherished with SICA member, Gordon J. Smith, performing a quaich ritual in celebration of new friendships.  This was not so much goodbye, but a warm "cheerio for now" as these relationships continue their flourish. ​

​​Of course our retreat was elevated with Scottish culture, food, scenery, live music, happening upon spontaneous ceilidhs and the wonderful banter mastered by the Scots.  

As the nose of my plane pointed up from Inverness returning me to Canada, I heard a soft call from the Scottish braes and sea:  "Haste ye back."

Wise advice I plan to heed.