Bday Present Burial Plot

Today I gave myself a birthday present burial plot. I bought a little piece of earth to be buried in. In a blogpost last October https://susasilvermarie.com/giving-the-body-back, I spoke of Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina, first green burial site in the United States, and of the thinking behind green burial. A few months later, I was later delighted to learn of a green burial site much more accessible to me. Green Hills Cemetery on the edge of Asheville http://www.greenhillscemeteryasheville.com/ includes a beautiful woods for natural burials.

I turn 67 this week, big deal. I’m healthier and stronger and all around more fit than I was in my 40’s and 50’s for sure, so I likely don’t have any rush on arrangements. I’m running a 5K this month, I hike 5 or 6 miles in the mountains and I do weight training at The Fire http://www.thefirepersonaltraining.com. Thing is, it came to me to give myself a really big present this year, and when something flits through me in a repeating thought wave, I listen. It came to me to do it now, to give myself a place to rest my bones; a place of alchemy where I can, presto! turn back into the elements.

Today was the day to do it, a perfect western North Caroline June day. I thought I was doing it so my son wouldn’t have to wonder what I wanted, and wouldn’t have to shell out so much, and so he and others could come to a pretty place for comfort in grief. And it is for him and others, of course, but the experience today certainly feels like a real birthday gift to myself. I have given my body a spot sheltered by an oak and a birch and two kinds of pine. The neighbor plot will hold the bones of my friend, Antiga. Friends can come here for nurture and reflection. I imagine sacred picnicking and plenty of singing, maybe even dancing, among the trees.

Next birthday, I’ll buy myself a flat granite marker, complete with engraving except for date of death. While the marker awaits me at the foot of my future grave, I’ll go visit and have psychic chats with my future form. About today’s present, I feel tranquil. It’s good to remember that this life is only one chapter in a grand book my greater self is unfolding.