Season 1 Trailer
On this trailer for the first mini-season of Shame Piñata, we hear from people who pressed beyond the limitations of traditional weddings and commitment ceremonies to create unique gatherings that allowed them and their partners to truly shine.
Episodes by Topic
→ Episodes on Rites of Passage: https://ever-changing.net/rites-of-passage
→ Episodes on Authentic Weddings: https://ever-changing.net/authentic-weddings
→ Episodes on Grief & Loss: https://ever-changing.net/grief-loss
→ Episodes on Challenging Times: https://ever-changing.net/challenging-times
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About the Show
Shame Piñata is hosted by Ritual Artist Colleen Thomas, a Certified Meditation and Mindfulness teacher who helps people make sense of life through ceremony. Music by Terry Hughes.
Listen If
→ You’re feeling stuck
→ You’re going through a tough time
→ Something significant has happened and no one gets it
Full Transcript
There was a knock on the door as my husband of two minutes and I stood in our first private embrace as a married couple. I was told that my mother was demanding my presence. I asked her about that moment recently, asked what was so important, and she didn't remember it had ever happened. It was one of those unique undercurrent moments that pop up at weddings as relationships are rearranged
I’m Colleen Thomas. I'm a ritual artist. I help people make sense of life through ceremony. This is Shame Piñata. The name of this show comes from a ceremony I created at a time when I was feeling completely deflated and unable to move forward. I felt like I had lost my soul and the ceremony helped me find me again. Ritual is wonderful in times when we feel lost. It is also wonderfully adaptive, allowing us to customize traditional ceremonies to meet our unique needs.
On this first mini-season of Shame Piñata, we will look at the challenges of weddings and commitment ceremonies.
Sound clip: I was young and in my 20s. I wanted to just do right by wedding traditions and make sure I didn’t mess anything up or, you know, curse our wedding in some way.
Sound clip: For women, marriage has meant really the death of self. I exist to take care of the man and to take care of the children and that’s it.
Sound clip: Some of the things I was taught as a woman, about myself worth, about like that I was told that I was causing men to sin and I was a problem because I was a female and an attractive person.
Sound clip: Because I’m feeling sad, because I have a sense of loss, because I feel like a part of me is dying, because I’m not over-the-moon ecstatic, something must be wrong with me or with my partner or with the decision to get married - something’s wrong.
We will hear from people who pressed beyond limitations like these to create original ceremonies that allowed them and their partners to truly shine.
Sound clip: So I had to sort of weight, this gravitas, the sense of sort of the millennial is ending and I’m committing to myself for the new millennia to not get into drama with men anymore.
Sound clip: It was so hard for her not to plan a wedding and so she was like ok well, you need centerpieces so I’m going to create centerpieces and we need theme... and they kept trying to ask me these questions...
Sound clip: You’re feeling sad because you are in a rite of passage. You’re feeling sad because you are in the death experience, letting go of this identity, this primary identity a single person, as daughter, and shifting into an entirely new stage of life a new identity and there is no way to go through that without feeling grief.
On this first season of Shame Piñata, join me to explore how to create a wedding or commitment ceremony on your own terms. Episode 1 launches on February 1. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public or go to shamepiñata.com to learn more.