My desire is to empower women to have courage for whatever comes. One important aspect of growing courage is learning to lament. If we do not know how to mark and grieve, then pain builds up in our soul and our courage waxes thin. These rituals are created for those who have lost or who are lost. These are for the broken, the bloody, the battered. Through the act of noticing, of honoring, of tending to, may hope arise out of the ashes, may life come from death. Instead of a thorn bush, the myrtle.

Creating rituals is a lost gift that I long to see a normal part of daily life. From the beginning of time rituals were part of humanity’s story. Whether you believed in the God of the Bible or some other deity or no deity at all, rituals were a part of life. Baptism, Eucharist, the crowning of a new king, the birth of a child, birthdays, feasts, passover, sacrifices (both by Jews and pagans), good rituals, evil rituals, we could go on. There is power in rituals. Because we practice ritual less and less, we have lost significantly.

The rituals that I create are God-centered and what I hope to bring to you through them is threefold.

First, through ritual we declare: this matters. Whatever the ritual’s focal point is, it bears noticing. Maybe it’s honoring someone’s pain or their joy or perhaps their loss. It is slowing down, giving one’s attention to something or someone that deserves care, kindness, and respect. Rituals are a way of saying, “I see you.”
Second, through ritual we are able to have containment. A ritual allows us to place all of our attention on a certain area or aspect of life for a set time. If any one thing begins to consume all of us it sets us up to fail. Life is multifaceted and our attention cannot focus entirely on one thing or we become consumed by that thing. Rituals allow us to unleash all our emotions and be brutally honest and honor something while still bookending the particular thing that we are giving our attention to. No one earthly thing should have all our attention indefinitely. Rituals help us not to fall into idolatry.
Third, rituals are an invitation. They invite Jesus to speak, to heal, to touch, to care for. As I create these rituals I do it with much care, thought, and seeking the heart of God.

Details:
All of the rituals need human witnesses. A small group of intimate friends to bear witness to the person who is being honored, is ideal. I offer already created rituals as well as custom made ones. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.