ABOUT THIS EPISODE
There are moments when the patterns of a life begin to feel less like repetition and more like an invitation.
Join Aaron as he turns toward rituals and rites, asking what happens when the customs, ceremonies, and remembrances we inherit meet the person we are becoming. Through reflections on identity and belonging, uncertainty, and the quiet human need to mark change, he considers how ritual can hold both grief and possibility without requiring one to erase the other. The conversation moves gently into life transitions that do not always come with language, witnesses, or ceremonies of their own, and asks whether some thresholds must be created rather than discovered. Along the way, Aaron invites a kind of mindful reflection on the stories we continue to inhabit, the ones that may have grown too small, and the forms of remembrance that might help us meet change with greater presence.
Invitations to Consider:
- How recurring intersections of time and place become rituals, rites, and remembrances that help human beings create meaning.
- The possibility that ritual responds to uncertainty not simply by creating certainty, but by helping us understand who we are.
- Aaron’s experience of creating a “release and transformation ceremony” when an important life transition had no existing ritual that felt adequate.
- The tension between inherited practices and chosen ones, including the question of when a meaningful tradition becomes an empty performance.
- The ways certain transitions, losses, beginnings, or parts of ourselves may go unwitnessed, and what it means to notice them more fully.
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About Aaron:
Aaron Tabacco, PhD, has spent more than thirty years guiding people through growth and change, often in complex and high-stakes environments. He currently serves as the Director of Staff Experience at a major academic health sciences university. With a background spanning nursing, neuroscience, education, coaching, and mediation, his work centers on helping individuals and organizations navigate identity, connection, and transformation with greater clarity and care.
Known for his grounded presence and compassionate communication, Aaron works with students, clinicians, faculty, executives, and senior leaders across healthcare and other industries. His approach integrates relational depth, reflective practice, and a commitment to creating more humane, integrated ways of working and living. He works in San Francisco, California, and lives in Vancouver, Washington, where he continues a lifelong engagement with writing, music, and the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest alongside his husband and three adult sons.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-tabacco-phd-83359b9/
https://substack.com/@aarontabacco?r=b5ap9&utm_medium=ios
https://www.youtube.com/@CirclesEdges
Email: aaron@circlesedges.org
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