Tag Archives: Green Burial

The Shift From Burials To Cremation In Western Culture

How journalist Jessica Mitford helped spark a cultural shift in our end-of-life practices

A popular joke goes a little something like this: one fish swims up to another fish and asks, “How’s the water?” The other fish responds, “What the hell is water?” David Foster Wallace and Derek Sivers have used this joke … Continue reading

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Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

A young woman's funny, heartfelt memoir of working as a mortician and revolutionizing how we think of death

From her opening line “A girl always remembers the first corpse she shaves,” I could tell this isn’t your run-of-the-mill memoir. Caitlin Doughty’s Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory is at once laugh-out-loud funny and … Continue reading

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How Can We Integrate Green Burial With A Conservation Land Trust? An Interview with Joe Sehee

The former founder of the Green Burial Council explains how we can preserve land by incorporating beautiful end-of-life ritual locations

Today SevenPonds speaks with Joe Sehee an advocate for social justice based in Melbourne, Australia. As a Jesuit minister, Joe and his wife Juliette, began their journey by working for an environmental planning firm. About a decade ago, they decided … Continue reading

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Why Do We Now Have Sleek Modern Cremation Urns? An Interview with Steve Prastka

The owner of Capsule Urn discusses how his designs will change the way you think about cremation urns

Today, SevenPonds speaks with Capsule Urn company founder Steve Prastka. Located near Portland, Oregon, Capsule Urn aims to update the often outdated or traditional perception that our culture has of vessels and cremation urns. American-made, design-driven and entirely contemporary – … Continue reading

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A Will For The Woods by Amy Browne, Jeremy Kaplan, Tony Hale, and Brian Wilson

Explores the growing natural or green burial movement

The film A Will For The Woods answers one of the most asked questions I get — just what is green burial? (For the answer, see links at the end of this post). Few are familiar with this age-old concept … Continue reading

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”Rue’s Farewell” in “The Hunger Games”

A sweet funeral song floats as Rue rests among the woodland flowers

For those of you who have not seen the film The Hunger Games, it’s a nonstop action cliffhanger mixed with the unexpected innocent sweetness of children. I will not spoil the storyline, but death is around every corner and we … Continue reading

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