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A Green Burial Perspective

9/26/2018

What most people are talking about when they talk about green burial is making environmental burial choices with the resources available. Green burial starts with the way we live our lives. It starts with a mindset of living our life as best we can—causing the least harm to the earth and those around us. It entails our day to day choices as well as the choices we make when we are in crisis. Sometimes these crises throw us off our game. When these crises entail life or death choices we might lose our minds just a bit. In that moment we take a breath and remember who we are and what we believe and move forward making the best choices we can from a firm foundation of belief.

Green end of life choices do not only entail which plot we might use, what urn appeals best to us or what fits the budget. Green end of life choices also include what kinds of medical interventions we might deem needed. It might also include distance in travel to events. Green end of life choices might also include what modes of transportation used. If we die in Nebraska, do we really want to have our body embalmed and transported across state lines? Even if we were fortunate enough to locate a funeral director who would aid us in being transported without embalming, do we really want the added expense and use of fuel to transport our body? We might also consider what container used. Do we want a coffin or a shroud? Where are these manufactured? I personally love the wicker coffins produced in England. I would not choose a coffin from England, however due to the cost of transporting it. I might choose one made nearer to home.

Green burial encompasses more than just the final resting place and a natural body. Even if the greenest of the green burials is not available to us, we can look at other factors in our burial choices that take a gentle approach to the earth and those around us. Most people do not have the opportunity for a very green end of life. That is the state we find ourselves in today. It does not have to remain so. Many of us are working toward a greener life and end of life. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to make end of life decisions and you cannot find green choices, do your best. That is all any of us can do.

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Simplicity

9/19/2018

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The word simplicity has kept rattling around my head these last two weeks. Simplicity carries peace and wholeness with it. Simplicity conveys a sense of completion. Simplicity uses the essentials to get the job done—whatever the job happens to be. Simplicity of thought has such elegance and beauty. Sometime our hectic lives do not afford us the time to stop and think of what we truly need. Sometimes our cacophonous lives block out the quiet voice of our hearts. Taking time and being present in the moment—seeing what we need in the moment—might be a luxury to some of us, but it might just be what we need to move forward. We might feel that we do not have a moment to stop and see the beauty around us. Simplicity eludes me more often than not; however simplicity is my deepest desire.

When I think about final plans and what to do with my body, I know in my heart I want what is simple and kind. I do not want a lot of fuss. I only want the essentials done to my body. I want my body washed, anointed, dressed and kept cool until the funeral. My body has been good to me considering what I have put it through. In the end I do not want to put it through a lot of extra effort just to preserve it for a few extra days. I hope that my body will get the honor and respect it so deserves. I have made plans for all my final decisions that have to be made. I hope the simplicity of the plan will allow those who have to actually have to carry it out a chance to catch their breaths a moment, and spend time with each other in love. I hope I can learn to live more simply—to live by the ideal of what is essential so that when my time on this earth draws to a close those closest to me will automatically embrace my simple and gentle plan.

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Everything Stopped

9/12/2018

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Everything stopped. Everything changed. Nothing has ever been close to the same again. The feeling of helplessness still lingers with me seventeen years after the fact. I suppose I will never be able to move along past the moments when those airplanes hit those towers. I suppose the reason I am stuck in New York City has to do with the fact I lived and played in New York for six years. Some of my most cherished memories took place on top of those towers. I suppose I am stuck there because the events of that day began in New York City, and I am stuck there wondering why this had to happen. The hit to the Pentagon shocked me. The heroic acts committed in Pennsylvania humbled me. Their example of courage and love should rest in our hearts and give us the courage to do smaller acts of courage and love. I know that everything stopped in that moment and what followed was like a horrible dream from which I cannot awake.

I long for the time when we as a people were not afraid. I long for the time when we could hold civil conversations with people who do not agree with our perspective. I know part of me still lives in the pre-September 11 world. I suppose this is how grief functions. When we experience loss, perhaps the difficulty is that part of us remembers the time before the loss and longs to live that way again. We live then in a dissonance with reality. As long as we are aware to the nature of grief and memory, we can move on and begin to accept the reality for how we must now live.

Loss teaches us lessons all the time. Sometimes the loss can remind us of how we can live. Perhaps we can take the love we once felt and use this to mold the new reality we must now face. With the loss of September 11, we could begin to live life unafraid. Perhaps we could remember those who gave their lives on that day so other might live free of tyranny, and allow others to hold differing views. We could once again be a nation where we hold conversations so that we can come to a meeting of the mind. Let us not allow fear and loss take us away from who we are and who we can be. Perhaps everything stopped and changed forever, but still we can loosen our grip on the fear and grief the past might hold and move forward in courage and love.

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Caroline Vuyadinov

I graduated from St. Vladamir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York with a Master of Divinity. I trained as a chaplain following graduation and worked with a wide variety of people.

When I moved to Canada, I began work in a women's halfway house in Hamilton, Ontario which worked with women in conflict with the law on a federal level. I became the program manager and loved working alongside the women, creating their plans for their reintegration back to the community. I also worked as a liaison with the parole board, parole officers and other community service providers.

Upon my return to the United States, I worked in the Death Care Industry as a Family Service Counselor, which lead me to become a green burial advocate. I co-founded Midwest Green Burial Society with Juliann Salinas. I speak to community groups and have developed practical seminars for a variety of audiences. I have been interviewed on a national podcast and was featured on a WGN spot dealing with green burial.

A Green Burial Perspective

Simplicity

Everything Stopped

Caroline Vuyadinov

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