Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve

Drawing in the Meadow, Reflecting on Impermanence https://www.naturalburial.org/arts A five-session art experience led by Camille Doucet and Angela Mennitto at Greensprings this summer. Co-sponsored by Hospicare and Palliative Services and On Dying Well.

The following comes to us courtesy of Mary Woodsen, former Board President and member of Greensprings Ecological Advisory Committee. Created by her partner Henry Fitzgerald who's extremely careful about getting the math right, he used only the most recent stats (2019) available. --------------------------------------- Trips to the Moon: Cremation and Energy Use in the United States Ever wonder how far you could travel on the energy used in one year to cremate people in the U...nited States? Probably not, but it’s surprising. To give us some gauge of mileage, let’s imagine we have a car that gets 30 mpg. And for perspective on the distance, we’ll speak in terms of trips to the moon. After crunching the numbers and triple checking our work, the answer is hold on to your hats over 1,972 round trips to the moon. As they say, your mileage may vary, but here’s how we did the science based on what we believe are very reasonable assumptions. The quantity of energy used to cremate people is expressed in units of therms and can range from about 12 therms to 50 therms per cremation. Our assumed average for this calculation is 25 therms, based upon information from Steve Talley of Matthews Cremation in Apokpa, FL. Considering that the oomph of one gallon of gasoline is equivalent to 1.24 therms, we can begin to visualize the magnitude of the energy expended for the 1,570,161 cremations in the U.S. for the year 2019. The 25 therms of energy per cremation corresponds to the energy contained in about 20 gallons of gasoline. Multiplying by the 1,570,161 cremations gives us a whole lot of gas to drive our car 31,403,220 gallons. Traveling 30 miles for each gallon, we’d be way over warranty at 942,096,600 miles. Putting this into perspective, with the moon a mere 238,855 miles away, we could have journeyed over 3,944 times that distance, making the round trip to the moon 1,972 times that year! That’s well over five round trips every single day for the entire year. Cremations consume an incredible amount of energy. I’d rather return to the Earth just once.

Yes, we do winter burials. I remember one burial in February, it was windy and in the single digits while we prepped the site but when everyone gathered around the grave and we lowered him in, the sun came out, the wind died down and all was warm and still for a moment. His friends said he would have loved a day like that. Winter burials seem to fill folks with extra gratitude for the little(?) things-- a ray of sun, warm boots, grieving with loved ones...and of course, life.... We have a (propane powered) earth heater that can warm up the ground before opening a grave but in all our years we've only needed to use it one time. We have a winter burial section reserved for when we can't get our equipment deeper down into the meadow. When it's snowy, rather than using the cart to bring a person to their site, we will pull them on a toboggan. I remember helping a family who were so happy to give their 90 year old mom one last sled ride. Otherwise winter burials are quite like all our burials, the grave is lined with evergreen boughs, family and friends gather around the grave (max group size is 20 right now due to COVID) and create whatever service feels meaningful to them. In every case, being in the wild open beauty of a nature preserve surrounded by thousands of acres of forest land adds something that's hard to describe but impossible to miss.

How We Mourn In a podcast segment from WNYC Studios’ program, Last Wish, GBC-certified funeral director, Amy Cunningham, speaks with Brooke Gladstone about how mourning and death rituals have changed due to the pandemic, offering new ways to face our grief, and teaching us about how we might better live our lives.

http://www.naturalburial.org/fall-2020-newsletter Hot off the press! Read all about our latest happenings in the Fall 2020 newsletter!