For many of us, losing a loved one can create a sort of wound upon the heart. That wound can be called ‘Grief’, and the art and practice of healing that wound can be called ‘Grieving.’ This is perhaps the most human of arts, and it takes many forms which can help us along our journey through difficult times. While a deeply personal experience, grieving need not be taken on as a purely solitary and isolating event. When the individual experiences such profound loss, so too does the community, and in the same way there are some forms of grieving which can only be carried out as a community practice.

With this in mind, one of the most important things that the Prairie Creek community offers rests in the participatory nature of our burial services. We believe that taking after-death care back to its roots, returning our loved ones back to the earth together, side by side, shovels in hand, serves as a means to support and reconnect the community, the family, and the individual. This stands in contrast to most modern funerary practices which have over time become much more performative, business-like, something to be purchased and observed rather than participated in. Conservation burial is about far more than just repairing our relationship to the land through more ecologically mindful practices. It gives us an opportunity to reclaim and redefine our relationship to grieving as a healing art, for the benefit of us all.

By Kevin Moran, Operations Coordinator