Shona E Finnie Civil Celebrant

03/08/2026

Dear Shona,

Good morning! Thank you for all your help yesterday. Was a great service with real flow. Sorry mine wasn’t so smooth, but I’m glad I managed it. Truly thankful for your help under very short notice. Respect, Daniel

03/08/2026

Hi Shona,
Thank you so very much for today.
You gave Bob the most beautiful send off.
The way you put it all together from the references to the world in the 1920s to navigating marriage, family and ourselves was not only respectful but beautifully worded. You portrayed Bobs life in a familiar, kind and honest manner which did great justice to the man he was. This, for me, was the most importantly part of the day and you did it perfectly. Thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, Clare xx

02/08/2026

“The Window” by Rumi

Your body is away from me
but there is a window open
from my heart to yours.
From this window, like the moon
I keep sending news secretly.

29/07/2026

For Grief (by John O’Donohu)

When you lose someone you love,
Your life becomes strange,
The ground beneath you becomes fragile,
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;
And some dead echo drags your voice down
Where words have no confidence
Your heart has grown heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded others too,
No one knows what has been taken from you
When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret
For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when you wake up happy;
Again inside the fullness of life,
Until the moment breaks
And you are thrown back
Onto the black tide of loss.
Days when you have your heart back,
You are able to function well
Until in the middle of work or encounter,
Suddenly with no warning,
You are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust yourself.
All you can depend on now is that
Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.
More than you, it knows its way
And will find the right time
To pull and pull the rope of grief
Until that coiled hill of tears
Has reduced to its last drop.

Gradually, you will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of your departed;
And when the work of grief is done,
The wound of loss will heal
And you will have learned
To wean your eyes
From that gap in the air
And be able to enter the hearth
In your soul where your loved one
Has awaited your return
All the time.

25/07/2026

I look for you
in the spaces
you once filled
and sometimes
I find peace there.
Some days hurt.
Some days heal.
Both are part
of remembering.

20/07/2026

What is a Funeral Celebrant?

It’s not just someone who stands at the front of the room and reads from a neat little folder. They are storytellers and emotion-translators.

There are no rigid templates and no mandatory scripts, but they start with a blank page, and build something that fits the occasion perfectly.

A Funeral Celebrant is a trained professional who crafts and leads highly personalized ceremonies. They meet with family to gather stories and understand the desired tone, then prepare the custom eulogy, and recommend meaningful readings or music.

It isn't a job, it’s the privilege of helping people step through the moments they’ll remember forever, ensuring that the final goodbye feels exactly like the person being honoured.

17/07/2026

About healing
I learned that mending is not forgetting,
it’s learning to walk with one shadow fewer.

13/07/2026

In Blackwater Woods (by Mary Oliver)

Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light,
are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,
the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away
over the blue shoulders of the ponds,
and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now.
Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation,
whose meaning none of us will ever know.
To live in this world you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

08/07/2026

On the Death of the Beloved (by John O’Donohue)

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul's gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

27/06/2026