I still remember the first green burial I was asked, as a Life-Cycle Celebrant, to support a family with.  Royal Oak Burial Park’s Woodlands was expanding into Phase two of a four-tiered dedicated natural burial area. Arriving early, I took time to surround edges of the grave with cedar, softening the opening into the ground, preparing a welcoming space for when family and friends arrived. Having met with the family prior, feeling connection and deep care for this phase of tending the many faceted journey of meeting the death of a loved one – this one unexpected, I was still a bit nervous.

Supported by experiences in my childhood of being present graveside on many occasions with family and friends offered some grounding. What immediately became apparent, in sounds of birdsong, rustling of creatures in woods adjacent to the park and a lone eagle that came to sit on a tall fir high above for the entire service, was that we were held in an even greater sense of belonging than simply humans.

Weather that day was dreary, somber and grey … raincoats and umbrella’s protecting the living from soft rain, as earth soaked it in, along with tears, and the many physical gestures of offering a loved one’s body to the elements from which it arose – earth, water, air and space.  And, as if on cue … fire – in the form of warm sun shone as we turned towards our cars, nature conspiring to encourage and enliven the living back into life.

Penny Allport – Green Burial Society of Canada Board Member