I have given many a thought to what happens when we die, specifically, what happens to our bodies. You have the option to be classically buried, cremated, donated to science. I think I don't want to be cremated, kept in a jar or the specks of my former self thrown across water. I think I don't want to donate myself to science, lying on a cold metal slab for years. I think I don't even want to be buried, at least not traditionally, set in a wooden or metal box marked by a plain slab of stone. I want to be buried in the forest, no casket, no headstone. Mark my resting place by flowers, wrap my body in leaves and let me melt into the ground, decaying alongside bones of animals forgotten, let birdsong be my funeral organ, let the willows do the weeping, let the toadstools and earthworms feast themselves on my corpse. And let it be that my soul does not rise to heaven above nor to hell below, rather seeps into the soil, into the seeds and moss, allows the remnants of my earthly form to grow into beauty once again.
Posted in response to the challenge Wonder.
Comments
You've added a ray of sunshine to such a dark topic, made it palatable and less frightening. Without being morbid -- and I hope that this isn't -- I think that no matter our age, we should all have a plan for ourselves. I know that my own provides me a degree of comfort: A few years ago I filled out the paperwork that'll have me sent to the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where my remains will be laid out in the great outdoors and studied over time. That research is used to help solve murder cases down the road. How cool is that? How strangely yet so understandably diverse our own last wishes can be! But I digress. You've written about your own plans with such gentle wonderment and respect for the natural world that I was left with such a peaceful feeling at their end, and the sense that you intend for the circle of life to make its full turn. Thank you for sharing something so personal with us internet strangers!
Thank you so much! That's such a cool thing that the University does. I absolutely think there's beauty in death and decomposition; returning to the natural world.
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