10 Ideas to consider when planning your own green home funeral and what mine will look like

Welcome!

Last week I filled you in on some legal considerations and illuminated the path towards an estate attorney who can help you create the documents you need to prepare for your death. This week we're going to discuss the options you have when planning your own green home funeral.

My father chose to be cremated and we had a wake for him at my grandfather’s house with friends and family. My brother and I scattered his ashes with his wife and a small group of family, and his musical friends had a jam session in his honor. I think he would have loved knowing he had the option of being water cremated or turned into compost and used to fertilize the land he’d cared for over the 30 years he lived there. He didn’t know these were options! I’d like to share some of the many possibilities so everyone can have the disposition and memorial that fits their needs and wants.

10 Ideas for inspiration:

1. Have a living funeral: if you end up with a terminal illness, you and your loved ones can benefit from the time you have left together by planning a living funeral or celebration of life, to record your memories, and pass along meaningful wisdom and personal belongings. Then, when you die, you can plan to have a smaller ceremony for your family and a green disposition.
2. Ask for donations: to your cause of choice - in lieu of flowers, or gift cards for food for the family, or for memories of you to be compiled and shared with everyone..
3. Host your memorial gathering: at your home, a park, garden, or other natural location. If the permissions of the location don’t allow for your body to be present, you can plan for a memorial only service.
4. Minimize travel required: host your memorial online for those who can’t attend in person.
5. Natural burial: you can be close to your loved ones on your own property (with permits), in a cemetery that provides green burial space, or farther away, helping conserve land and regenerate ecosystems.
6. Water cremation: you could send a vial of your fertilizer liquid home with memorial attendees and your bones can be turned into memorial rocks or jewelry for family. You can also become a coral reef seed tube or be scattered at sea with a ceremony on the boat or on land.
7. Terramation: or natural organic reduction, turns your body into compost which you can use on non-food plants, or donate to locations who can use it on theirs. You can also donate your extra fertilizer liquid from water cremation.
8. Have a potluck: ask friends to bring a chair and a dish to your outdoor bonfire, crab boil, pig roast, or any other food heavy celebration. Community grief helps us process our emotions, share stories, love each other, and know that we aren’t alone in our pain.
9. Ceremony: a water release ceremony can be held by the water, as you share a memory or piece of wisdom you release a flower to float freely in the water. A fire ceremony can be held to send wishes to the beyond using wish paper (burns quickly and floats up into the air, use responsibly).
10. Capturing the event: and people’s memories either in photos, video, or writing will help loved ones learn about you from others and have memories to recall.

Leaving a plan for your loved ones so they know exactly what you wanted, how much you loved them, and with the least amount of financial burden is the most sustainable, kind way to leave this world.

My ideal funeral:

When I am dying, after a very long and satisfying life helping others, I would like everyone who can to join my celebration of life. There will be food and joy and memories shared and lots of photos and video evidence to capture the love and light I choose bring to life every day. There will be a fire ceremony of well wishes to speed my peaceful exit from this plane of existence. I’m not big on stuff, but I’ll have meaningful items to give away to specific people, this may be at a smaller gathering.

Once I breathe my last, I want my loved ones to bathe my body, hold ceremonies in my memory daily, and to honor their pain. I want them to keep me at home for two weeks until everything that needs to be said has been said and everyone has had a chance to sit with me and hold my hand one last time. I am going to record a message for everyone to listen to while they sit with me, and I hope it will bring you joy and a feeling of deep love as you remember me in the future.

I will be water cremated, anyone who would like a vial of my fertilizer is welcome to one. Everywhere I am, love will follow. I will reserve my bones for memory stones for my family and a coral reef seed tube. If my family doesn’t want to go out on the boat to deposit my coral reef seed, then a beach party will be perfect to mark this event. I want a water ceremony to be done in honor of the ocean which binds us all and of which I am becoming a living piece.

I will write the outline of my eulogy, to be filled in with quotes and stories from family and friends. I’d like everyone to be given time to say what they need to say at my memorial, which will be hosted at the family home after my coral seed has been planted. I’d like everyone to bring food and memories to share. Love is all that matters, I would like everyone to please be at peace knowing that I will be and want the same for you some day.

Announcement!

I want to hear from YOU about the things you’re excited to be learning from my blog and what you want to know more about. I’ll be sending out a survey to prepare for something exciting coming at the end of this month!

In honor of my dad’s wife, who passed away on February 14^th, 2020, I’ll be launching my new course at the end of the month, focused on creating your personalized green home funeral plan. Keep an eye on your inbox for the survey, and please give me your honest feedback.

Next week I’ll tell you more about the course and how to structure and write a eulogy for yourself.

Love and Light,

Christine