Embracing Nature’s Messages

Last month we passed a significant milestone in our natural year – the autumnal equinox, marked by the illumination of the brilliant Harvest Moon. Though most of us no longer depend on the availability of daylight or moonlight to meet our dietary needs, the harvest season is a special time to pause and appreciate our connection to the land on which we live, work, and play. Our relationship to the earth has always encompassed much more, and is way more interdependent, than our collective tendency to treat the earth as mother nature’s pantry.  Our interconnectedness to each other and to the environment we share is particularly poignant at this time of year when the leaves transition.

As we celebrate the northern hemisphere’s transition to shorter days and less bountiful agriculture, we have an opportunity to reflect upon all that has happened to us personally and globally in the last few months. It may feel difficult to find joy and light these days amidst all of the conflict and sorrow in the world. The Harvest Moon can serve as a reminder of gratitude to the natural world for bolstering us into the spring and summer months. It can also invite us to consider how we, as humans in harmony with Nature, can do our part to restore balance and to light our way through darker months. 

We look forward to the day soon when we can open Reflection Park to our community and celebrate the many lessons that Nature can teach us.

PROGRESS UPDATE

Our team is growing!  Meredith Bowers, a nonprofit consultant, has joined the operations team to help us get ready to launch. Meredith has worked for several nonprofits in Montgomery County including Montgomery Hospice, KID Museum, one of the senior villages, and Nonprofit Montgomery. She currently serves as Deputy Director at Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth, and Families. She was called to green burial as a personal passion and is delighted to contribute her nonprofit management skills in service of launching Reflection Park in the community where she and her family live. 

Mona Eldadah officially joined us earlier in the year as our project manager. She has been instrumental as the main interface with our architecture, engineering, and landscape design consultants. With a background in architecture, Mona is helping us navigate the many interacting processes of design, permitting, and construction. She will also employ her eye for design to help with our communications and outreach efforts.

Earlier this month, the team met in person (a wonderful treat for a remote team) for a strategy and planning retreat. We worked on further development of our operational details, both as a burial ground and as an organization. We also focused on big picture matters around our mission, values, and ethos, discussing how these principles will manifest in our operations.  For example, our mission statement reaffirms our dedication to “restoring our natural relationship with the cycle of life, death, and renewal,” yet for many of us, we have been alienated from this natural relationship for so long that it may be less of a restoration and more of an initial awakening. However, wherever we start from individually, we acknowledge that this relationship has a long and deep history in our human community.

What We Are Reading and Hearing

There are so many profound articles that poignantly convey the complex mix of hope, grief, meaning, and groundlessness that accompany the human experience at end-of-life. Here are a few we’ve read recently in the Washington Post (here and here) and the Baltimore Sun.  As we walk each other home, we are moved to hear from others on the path. 

The intersection of social justice, environmental justice, racial justice, and achieving equity through green burial and conservation is integral to the ethos of Reflection Park. This short podcast explains it beautifully. As green burial champion and educator, Lee Webster, notes, “Natural burial is a unique entry point for equal access to nature.”

In Search Of…

We welcome your recommendations for credible local artisans and providers of:

• memorial stones and engravings

• natural burial products like caskets and shrouds 

• expertise in horticulture and integrated pest management

We would also love to hear about anyone doing work in natural burial, death care, or related spaces aligned with Reflection Park’s mission and values. 

If you have someone in mind, please reach out to us at info@reflectionpark.org.

Your Questions Answered

We continue to receive questions about Reflection Park, and answers to those questions plus many others can be found on our FAQs page. If you do not find an answer to your question there, please email us at info@reflectionpark.org.

When will we open? 

That is the question we get asked most often, understandably. As we noted in our July newsletter, we made some late cost-saving design changes that will result in less ground disturbance, less impervious surface, and reliance on solar power. The revised plans are now undergoing review for permitting with the county. In parallel, we are on track to have a “bid ready” set of construction documents by November. We expect to start soliciting bids soon thereafter. Our estimate at this point (subject to change) is to break ground in the spring of 2024 and to open in summer of 2024. If you have been following our progress and our projections for opening, this timeframe is later than our previous predictions. We appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through the many moving parts needed to develop this project. We hold this work as a sacred mission and take seriously the resources and good will we have been entrusted with to bring the vision of Reflection Park to fruition.

When can I reserve my grave plot?

This is the second most frequently asked question, and the answer to it is the same as the first. As much as we would like to begin offering pre-need burial packages now, we must open our gates first. We hope that our families will all live long healthy lives, yet we must also be ready for the inevitability of a burial whenever the need comes, sometimes unexpectedly. Of course, it goes without saying that offering at-need burial packages must also wait until we open. We will continue to keep everyone informed about our progress towards opening through this newsletter, our website, and other communication channels as they open. 

Reflection Park is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity, and all donations are tax deductible. We are grateful for every dollar contributed in support of our mission to create a sacred place that celebrates the cycle of life, death, and renewal. More information can be found on our donation page.

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