This summer, I was ready. Ready to decide where my new life in Myddfai, Carmarthenshire, was going to head in the next chapter. When you’ve been lucky enough to live a life that has been full and varied (not just because of opportunities but also challenges) then finding the next thing you want to focus on can be a challenge.
“I need to make a difference, I know that” I told John, my husband and partner for over 30 years now (we will celebrate 30 years of marriage next spring) as we sat by our woodland pond celebrating being discharged from my Cardiologist. I’d been given a less than rosy picture for the next ten years, and thanks to Myddfai air, plenty of exercise in the garden and sheer determination as a couple, we’ve re-written our next chapter and I am well enough to work, part-time again.
As a business speaker and mentor, I was doing something I loved, with people who were taking control of their future, determined to make positive change and life-time goals come true. It seems there is already common ground when I take on the role of Celebrant for couples who want to make a life together.
As an adopted child, I was officially given the name of my new family on my brother’s second birthday. Becoming part of a family as an adopted child gives you a new sense of belonging, of being part of a tribe. Working with families to welcome new children into their world, perhaps after a second marriage that means step-kids will be becoming a larger family unit, fills me with excitement.
As a daughter-in-law, who wrote and held the service for her father-in-law, who deserved to be remembered by those who loved and cared about him, who knew his humour and his dreams, I want to support others in saying their good-bye in authentic words, with meaning and love.
Becoming a Celebrant has been my new chapter, and I hope it will allow me to be part of the next chapter in the lives of many families.
Dinah