Greet change
with compassion.

Living life fully opens us to a wide array of experiences. We undergo many transitions. Grace and recovery happen. Heartache and separation occur, too. In the face of profound change, enacting ritual or ceremony helps us meet it with awareness and care.

Sweetgrass helps you acknowledge the light and dark milestones in life.

These transition points may involve change at individual, family or organizational levels. Most likely, they involve passing through a laborious or anxiety filled passage, into a more contented way of life.

While co-designing and leading ceremonies about transition, Sweetgrass holds a safe and accepting space. You may experience a gently interactive format, wherein guests offer support and love. Alternatively, Sweetgrass may co-design a private ceremony for you to conduct alone. In any case, the images, sounds, movements and colors will all arise from your stories, beliefs and values.

Personal symbols and metaphors that emerge while composing a transitions ceremony often become enduring reminders of peace and wellbeing. Experiencing the ceremony itself may help you figuratively or literally cross a threshold, then step into a more compassionate and aware place in life. Greeting major change with a set of rituals or a ceremony may help you melt away anxiety and welcome calmness.

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The moment of change
is the only poem.

- Adrienne Rich

Woman standing in a labyrinth with arms reaching toward the sky
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Birth or Adoption

Are you going to birth or adopt a child in the near future? Either event brings vast joy and transformation to a family. A new chapter begins unfolding for you and the child. Sweetgrass can help you embrace this passage into motherhood or familyhood in a variety of ways.

A baby blessing is a wonderfully personalized way to welcome your new baby, as an alternative to the traditional baptism or christening.

A mother blessing is an especially meaningful way to celebrate a woman entering motherhood before she gives birth. An adoption ceremony may help new parents proclaim their new status as a family and accept the mantle of parenthood. A baby naming ceremony may acknowledge ancestors and the name origins, as shown here.

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New Home or Business

Loads of work: literally and figuratively! Moving into a new home or business takes physical, mental and emotional strength. Claiming the space with a relaxed ceremony before or after your physical transition may ease the strain.

You may have Sweetgrass craft a ceremony to lead yourself, or to officiate and enact together. You may want to release associations with past uses in the space and symbolically set new roots down, for example. Symbols that arise in the process often become vital pillars of identity for the new space.

For civic or corporate organizations, here are some further ideas for acknowledging transitions in the workplace.

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Aging

Yes, we can age gracefully! There are creative rites to be enacted for many stages of growing older:

Sweetgrass offers innovative and uplifting ways to help you savor rather than hurry through the inevitable transitions that come with age.

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Divorce

It can feel similar to a death. Finalization of a divorce may brim with exhaustion, bittersweet emotions or relief. It is so prevalent in our society. Yet it is often an awkward and lonely process filled with law office visits.

To honor the completion of your divorce in a dignified way, Sweetgrass offers assistance with co-designing divorce ceremonies for healing purposes. Where, for example, a woman may say vows of independence and reclaim her maiden name in the presence of family and friends. If children are involved, they may receive vows of support from caregivers.

For more information, watch this recent CBS news story to hear Charlotte Eulette, Celebrant Foundation Director, speak about divorce ceremonies.

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Loss of Pregnancy

There are few if any words that comfort in this time of loss. Maybe designing a small ritual full of tender solitude is what you find appropriate. One with scarce spoken word - only music and lighting a candle or planting a memorial tree - in remembrance.

At Sweetgrass, the opportunity to co-design a ceremony with families experiencing miscarriage or stillbirth is accepted with a deep well of compassion. If you feel it is too private an experience to engage outside help, here is a helpful resource with prose, prayers and example ceremonies acknowledging such intense bereavement.

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Surviving or Facing Illness

If you or a loved one has overcome a life-threatening illness, does celebrating health resonate with you? A ceremony may focus upon your "hero or heroine's journey" through the medical maze. It may convey gratefulness for folks that supported your recovery. Here is an inspiring source for ceremonies that mark healing from illness.

Conversely, facing a diagnosis for terminal illness is heartbreaking. A series of expressive rituals may lead to space for acceptance. We may initiate such efforts at home or in facilities like hospice. In any case, Sweetgrass offers ceremony design that emphasizes honesty and grace.