Our final passage - going green?

A friend of mine recently told me about a show she watched on PBS regarding funeral rituals. The show discussed families who leave relatives' bodies at home for a few days following death so that loved ones have time for closure and acceptance. My friend mentioned preferring that when her times comes, her family drop her body in the sea - no body bag, no funeral home... just the open water.

Another friend then asked if we'd heard about a new trend for being buried in a "green" cemetery. Basically, you can opt to be buried in your natural state, leave just like you came in, in a place that doesn’t have headstones or things like that. I did some research and there’s one opening later this year in Conyers, GA, just outside of Atlanta, called Honey Creek Woodlands. The website doesn't have much yet, but check back in a few months when their new site goes up. There's also phone numbers and email addresses if you want to contact them for more info. To learn more about eco-cemeteries in general, I went to wikipedia - and found some fascinating food for thought.

How do we want to leave this life? I understand that many of us prefer not to think of our final passage and that many are regulated by religious beliefs. However, no matter how much we affirm life, how we choose to leave this earth impacts us all.