Max + Olive | August 2023
“Sarah was so brilliant that I am considering how weird it would be if she was the celebrant at all my big life events, and my family got used to me wheeling her out at every special occasion. ”
When Vicky got in touch with me to arrange a naming ceremony for her children, she was almost apologetic that they weren’t super tiny, but four and nearly-two years old. But not only was it not anyone’s fault (but a global pandemic’s) that this was happening later than the family had planned, but it was no bad thing at all. There is no ‘wrong’ time to celebrate your children, the shifting dynamic they have created in your family, and the older they are, the more their besotted parents can celebrate who they are truly becoming.
The naming ceremony itself was a gorgeous, relaxed summer house party where friends and family spilled out through the kitchen doors into the garden, moving back and forth in tandem with the rain clouds.
The VIPs themselves - Max and Olive - had no clue the day was about them but were smothered with hugs and kisses from passing aunties and uncles, as they played with little friends on the floor and the grown ups piled their plates high with food.
One of my favourite parts of a naming ceremony is the names themselves: first names, and any middles name, and hearing why they were chosen by the parents. Max and Olive, with their West African heritage being hugely important to their mum and dad, have been given traditional Ghanaian middle names to mark the day of the week they were born. Writing the ceremony I found myself down a fascinating rabbit hole, researching different cultural traditions when it comes to naming a child and honouring their gender, tribal lineage, birth date…so incredibly interesting.
Max and Olive’s parents had chosen ‘oddparents’ rather than godparents for their children, wanting to have emotional and spiritual influences in their little ones’ lives, but honouring the fact that Max and Olive can freely ponder the wonders and mysteries of the world without prescribing them to a particular religion.
Max’s oddparent Lynsey read Follow Your Dreams by Jim Boswell:
When others say “It’s hopeless and it really can’t be done.”
When they tell you “It’s all over. It’s a race that can’t be won.”
And they promise “You could spend your life just lying in the sun.”
Follow your dreams. Follow your dreams!
When the people you admire, but who wouldn’t understand,
Tell you “Other roads are safer. Your dreams are much too grand.”
Or the doubters and the tempters try to take you by the hand.
Follow your dreams. Follow your dreams!
You should listen to the counsel of the people that you trust.
But don’t be turned aside, just because they might get fussed.
You live the life, that in your heart, you know you really must.
Follow your dreams. Follow your dreams!
There is nothing you can’t conquer if you believe you can.
No mountains you can’t straddle, no oceans you can’t span.
Just conjure up a vision and set yourself a plan.
Follow your dreams. Follow your dreams!
It was a noisy, cosy, dreamy day for two children who will always be encouraged to follow their dreams.
“She had a very tricky brief - and she delivered in spades. It was poignant and beautiful.”