As humans, we grow and we change, we grieve and we celebrate. Let Blessing It All be your guide to foster meaning and community as you mark the moments in your life.
Our personal lives and the lives of our communities are marked by moments of transition and transformation. As individuals, we grow up, we move, we start new schools and new jobs, we begin and end relationships, we have children and if we are lucky we get to watch them grow, we lose people we love, and we discover more about who we are. As communities, we honor people entering new life stages, we reckon with natural disasters and national traumas, and year after year we mark the cycles of the seasons.
Traditionally, we often mark birth, marriage, and death, and yet these are not the only moments that touch our lives and shape who we are. In this stunning collection, editors and ministers Heather Concannon and Allison Palm and contributors invite you to bless it all--moments that are ordinary and profound, tender and heartbreaking, joyful and celebratory, and everything in between.
An expansive collection, the rituals in Blessing It All foster community, joy, and healing in moments like the joining of a blended family, changing names and pronouns, honoring Pride Month, having an abortion, getting a prosthesis, surviving sexual assault, ending a marriage, and so many others.
The rituals--written by a diverse array of contributors with lived experiences that add depth and authenticity to each offering--are designed to be led by anyone inspired to do so, with clear instructions and additional insights and guidance. They are suitable for communities, congregations, family, and individual use. And they can happen anywhere our lives happen, wherever people or families or communities gather, because that is where we encounter the holy.
May you find connection and commitment, inspiration and invitation, a blessing and a balm in these rituals.
Industry Reviews
"A gorgeously written and practically useful book of blessings for every occasion. Sensitive and imaginative, these words will touch your heart and lift your spirit!" -Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices
"With so much shifting in our lives and our world today, here is a valuable resource for engaging the power of rituals to make brave space for change. Heather Concannon and Allison Palm have gathered in one volume a rich and diverse collection of specific rituals that honor the sacred ground of transition. They also offer wise guidance for developing new rituals and blessings that are inclusive, expansive and empowering of participants. In our personal lives and our communities, Blessing It All will illuminate a promising way through times of great change." -Karen Hering, author of Trusting Change: Finding Our Way Through Personal and Global Transformation
"Rev. Palm and Concannon provide the necessary tools for each of us to create rituals for every occasion. In this remarkably comprehensive compendium, distilled from a roster of diverse authors, are rituals to mark life's milestones-unions and separations, losses and gains, transitions and continuances, quiet moments of reflection and boisterous outbursts of joy, retreats for rest and healing, and marches forward toward action and justice. We are reminded of the sacredness of every moment and are compelled to bless them all." -Anthony Y. Stringer, Ayanna Kafi Loebe, and Rev. Duncan Teague, authors of Imani Rituals: Nurturing African Spiritual Heritage
"This book is a treasure chest. Open it and you will find 73-yes, count them, 73-rituals, some for occasions you may be used to celebrating or otherwise honoring in ritual, and other rituals that never even occurred to you. Each one is presented complete with a materials list, a script, and notes on the intention and purpose of the ritual. There are also suggestions in this book for how to create your own ritual. Here you will find still more treasure-reflections on what ritual is for and how it can deepen and transform the shared life of your Unitarian Universalist or other faith community, your family or group of beloved friends, even your relationship with your own transforming self. This book can bring us all to our senses about what we value and how to embody our values in meaningful ways. A treasure chest indeed!" -Rev. Barbara Child, editor of The Spirit That Moves: Readings and Rituals for Times of Change and Transition
"Revs. Heather and Allison have offered us a gift of such immeasurable value. They offer us each a way to deepen our spiritual lives with reflection and connection. They have offered our communities a way to care for each other more deeply and hold each other in love. And they have offered our movement a way to deepen our spiritual lives and grow our tradition toward love and care." -Matt Meyer, musician, educator, worship leader, and author of Desmond Gets Free
