Green Burial
Several recent deaths in the community have caused me to contemplate mortality—my own as well as those I love. We often hear the comment that our Western culture avoids focusing on death; that we’re all in denial about the inevitability of death. I agree. Who wants to sit around talking about dying? Death is viewed as a defeat, a negative outcome, rather than the reality that we all face.
In going through the grieving process for my recent losses, and watching others who were even closer to these deceased friends, I believe that most of us could do more to prepare for death—our own and our loved ones’—and that this preparation will help to make death easier.This is a huge topic; I am not attempting to do more than scratch the surface, and perhaps throw a pebble into the collective pool of community awareness.
We all know that we will die—we just don’t know when. So it makes sense to take care of some of the practical details now. Things like planning your own funeral and burial, and talking with your family about their wishes for the end of their lives.
A relatively new movement, referred to as Green Burial or Natural Death, offers alternatives to the costly and impersonal choice of using a funeral home. This is actually a return to the way folks used to care for their dead. There are several organizations that are dedicated to helping people plan and carry out funerals for their loved ones, including preparing the body for burial, bringing the body home for final good-byes and ceremonies, and more ecological options for burial. Memorial nature parks are being established to preserve wildlands at the same time offering simple, non-toxic burial using wooden caskets and skipping the toxic embalming process, so that the body gradually breaks down in the earth. These areas are open for hiking and other events that bring people together.
Even if you aren’t interested in being laid out at home, there are other questions that could be dealt with before death, such as deciding if you want to donate your organs or your whole body for medical research.
To help guide us through all of these considerations here are 3 excellent organizations and how to find them:
Crossings
http://www.crossings.net/Resources.html
Crossings, was created by a woman who cared for her young daughter after she crossed over and wrote a book Allison’s Gift that has been available through the Anthroposophic Press. This website offers a kit to purchase with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare and care for the body and there is also a service for phone consultations.
Crossings: Caring For Our Own at Death
P. O. Box 721
Silver Spring, MD 20918Funeral Consumers Alliance
http://www.funerals.org/caring.htm
Funeral Consumers Alliance; it mentions Michigan laws as some of the best for home funeral/burials and affirms the families right to possess a body “for the purpose of preparation, mourning and burial.” Michigan has one of the best home burial statutes. Families wishing to care for their own dead in this state may run into officials who are not aware of this statute.
Funeral Consumers Alliance
33 Patchen Rd.
South Burlington, VT 05403
800-765-0107Final Passages
http://www.finalpassages.org/
Final Passages is a group in California who advocate home burials.
There is some useful information: on legalities, references to preparing the body and dry ice in a bed or casket, and it has some beautiful photos; you can order several instructive books here: Caring for the Dead: Your Final Act of Love; by Lisa Carlson (1998); Dealing Creatively with Death: A Manual of Death Education and Simple Burial by Ernest Morgan.
Final Passages
P.O. Box 1721
Sebastopol, CA 95473
(707) 824-0268
info@finalpassages.orgThere is also emotional/spiritual work we can undertake now in order to prepare for death. Geri Larkin, in Stumbling Toward Enlightenment, offers suggestions from a Buddhist perspective in her excellent chapter, “Preparing for Death”. In addition to addressing the concept of reincarnation and the Buddhist belief in the 3 stages or “Bardos” in the dying process, she offers practical suggestions that are also appropriate for non-Buddhists. Her main point is that we need to acknowledge that we are all moving toward death and to live in ways that prepare us for a peaceful end of our life.
Planning for the end of our life helps to ease fear and anxiety that we may feel towards death. It also helps to make the dying process more peaceful and less stressful for those we love.