Provenance. the beginning of something’s existence; something’s origin. It’s something that I think about A LOT. Even when I am not in the middle of an existential crisis!
I love to unknot emotional balls of wool to work just how something got started. This is a passion that comes in handy as a Celebrant in Neath when I am preparing for wedding and union ceremonies. We want to know the ins and outs of how a couple met and fell in love in order to prepare to tell their love story at their ceremony.
It’s also an honour to get to know more about a loved one who has died and as we prepare for friends and family to say their final goodbyes, to make sure that the shining light of their loved one is reflected throughout the service.
When I think about provenance of my own relationship with my husband my thoughts are drawn towards our grandparents.
Both sets of our parents divorced when we were children but thanks to the firm bond with our elders, we didn’t need to look very far for rock solid and steadfast relationship role models. These relationships were all very different and unique but they had the common thread of love, commitment and respect.
An Inspirational wholesome, foursome!
I loved hearing the stories of how they met, the challenges they all faced post-war, the arrival of their children, tales of seaside holidays, simple pleasures, DIY hints and tips and how, despite the challenging cards that life dealt them, they never lost faith in each other.
When I think about the couple we are and the couple I aspire to be, it’s a blend of all four sets of these inspirational elders. I hope that our life partnership will have aspects of all of these great love stories and our children will look at us and see that humour, playfulness, respect, having each other’s backs, sharing energy and balancing the chores etc will be the components of something that is life long and they can be inspired by.
I take delight in working with families to plan ceremonies for any life event, whether it is a celebrant lead wedding, a celebration of a union, welcoming a new child into the family or to lead a service to say a last goodbye to a loved one. I use my innate curiosity and fascination about people and their journeys to create ceremonies which express their unique story with the ultimate foal of generating a feeling of ‘Hwyl’ – a shared feeling of emotion.
Steve Jobs famously said “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards”, this is where following a thread through a person’s life or through a relationship journey can bring us to a place where it all began, where we saw the spark ignite and it is an honour for me as your celebrant in Neath and beyond to tell everyone that tale!
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