Friday love to you, my darling Vizzy D's! Writing to you from an Aussie Friday morning - and because I am an avid devotee to creating and protecting JOY as a crucial part of this work, I'm happy to report I'm running out the door for a gals' weekend away with my whole soccer team. Yup. Mums on the loose. Lock up your karaoke machines, they're about to take a pounding. 🎤😂 It's so important in this work that we counterweight the hard with the joyful. The heavy with the hilarious. The giving with the receiving. We can't pour from an empty cup, and we certainly can't make a whole career out of holding space for other people's grief without making room for our own joy. So, my darlings, what joyful thing are you going to make happen this weekend? Not what you should do. Not what needs ticking off the list. What are you going to do purely because it brings you joy? Tell me in the comments. Lets keep each other joyfully accountable. 🎶 YOU'RE INVITED: TO MY FUNERAL... My podcast episode of 'Play This At My Funeral' has dropped, and it's a pretty fun hour! We bang on for a bit at the beginning, but we eventually get into my actual funeral plan. I talk through, in DETAIL, how the soundtrack I've chosen will hold my beloveds from pre-arrival, through the ceremony, right through to the end and beyond. This was such a joyous exercise and conversation - I hope it inspires you to give your own ceremony plans, and especially your playlists, this level of thought. As we know, music can do so much heavy lifting in a funeral. It can hold what words can't. It can bring people together. It can even make people laugh when they least expect it... and it can absolutely send everyone out singing (or twerking.) 🎧 Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts: YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/WrUh6pGmUq4?si=D4nyNNH7GQKAfoFf&t=1446 APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/funeral-director-amy-firth-helps-us-turn-death-into/id1849928558?i=1000797412637

9 MONTHS OF CREATIVE PRACTICE FOR FUNERAL MAKERS People so often ask me what funeral training I recommend. And for a long time, I’ve wished I could point them towards something that explores not just the practicalities of arranging a funeral, but the nuance, the complexity and the extraordinary responsibility of this work. Something that makes room for the creative possibilities. Something that challenges the cookie-cutter approach to funeral ceremony and invites us to imagine what else might be possible… Because no two lives are the same. No two griefs are the same. And how we hold this work should reflect that. A sudden death asks something different of us than a death anticipated for years. A family divided by faith, a complicated relationship, the death of a child or a person who died by suicide all bring their own questions, complexities and possibilities. I wanted to create a place to think deeply about this work, develop our creative judgement and learn from the possibilities others can see that we might not… We so rarely get to practise this work without a bereaved family sitting in front of us. But crafting ceremony is a creative practice and creative practice needs… well… practice. The Ceremony Exchange is my new online creative funeral studio, launching in November with monthly classes starting January 2027. Each month, we’ll explore a different fictional funeral scenario, designed to stretch our thinking and explore a particular nuance of grief, bereavement, family dynamics or the circumstances surrounding a death. Whether you're new to death care and want a place to practice, or you're a seasoned "Deathie" seeking new ideas and inspiration - The Ceremony Exchange is for those who want to go deeper into the creative practice of ceremony making. Exploring how we design bespoke, meaningful experiences that reflect the nuance of death & grief. How different lives, deaths, circumstances and family dynamics call for different approaches. It’s ALSO a place to literally EXCHANGE ceremony scripts & ideas. Together, we’re building a growing library of inspiration, language and imagination. A resource shaped not by one person’s expertise, but by the collective creativity of ceremony makers around the globe. In a world where AI is taking our language, The Ceremony Exchange is a place to return to each other and share in the quiet wisdom of this work.