Welcome to our first newsletter

We plan to use this forum to share our vision, plans, and progress with you. We are grateful for the support we have received from so many towards our vision of creating a non-profit multi-faith green burial ground in Montgomery County. We look forward to the day that we can share in this special place together.

“And as it is for the spring flowers, so it is for us."
-Daniel Abraham, The Price of Spring

Our Mission

We want to restore humanity's relationship with the natural cycle of life, death, and renewal in order to live more conscious and purposeful lives. We think a natural burial ground is the very manifestation of that mission.

We envision Reflection Park as a peaceful and inviting place where families bring their departed loved ones to be laid in the earth with dignity. In so doing, they continue to give back to the earth in harmony.

Our Story

by Co-Founders Basil Eldadah, Haroon Mokhtarzada, and Nzinga Aziz

Basil: If you had to put a date on it, the seed of Reflection Park was planted in 2012. That was the year my father died. My father believed that when our work in the world is done, our bodies should return to the earth from whence they came. But when that time came for him, it didn't quite work out that way. Like most cemeteries, we were required to place his body in a concrete vault, required not by law but by cemetery policy to keep the land on top of the grave from sinking. Neither could we participate in the burial but instead contented ourselves with looking on as the backhoe lowered a concrete lid onto the vault and unceremoniously poured dirt back into the grave. My father's body lay at the bottom of the vault only inches from the soil and the rest of the great Earth, but it could just as well have been a million miles away. 

As I reflected later, what we needed was a new cemetery where those who care deeply about returning their loved ones' bodies directly to the earth could do so in comfort and dignity.

Haroon: In the late summer of 2019, I got a message from someone in the community looking for donations to help with the funeral costs of a family member. I said, "No problem. Raise whatever you can, and I'm happy to cover the rest." In my mind, I was thinking the rest would be several hundred dollars. When I finally heard back, they had raised about half of what they needed. "That's great," I said. "So what's the balance?" "About $4000." I was stunned. How could a hole in the ground cost so much? 

I later learned that was a pretty good deal as far as funeral costs go. Nevertheless, this is a huge burden on a lot of people. Surely there's a way to make funerals affordable and still dignified. I knew that Basil had been thinking about developing a green cemetery, so I called him up and we talked. The seed had sprouted.

Nzinga: The most poignant lessons on living can be learned from those who are dying. Being with people who are facing life-threatening illness opened my heart and mind to a clearer view of life’s priorities. In the late summer of 2019, my mother’s childhood friend passed away. She had known me since infancy, and over the years she’d become one of my best friends. Though I’d been a hospice nurse for years, nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of the experience of burying someone I loved so much – and learning to move through life without them.

When Basil contacted me weeks later to share about his and Haroon’s plans for a green burial ground, I was intrigued. My personal and professional experiences would add a unique perspective to the team. I was excited at the prospect of offering compassionate natural burial at a reasonable cost. But I also saw in this new project the possibility of other critical activities, like providing education  on options for care at the end of life, promoting advance care planning, and helping to create healthy attitudes toward death and dying. As Dr. Ira Byock writes, "To fully and authentically affirm life, we must affirm all of life, including dying, death, and grief."

Our first step was to explore what land was available. We wanted something in Montgomery County that was close and accessible to people. Our search quickly turned up a 40-acre parcel on the "Highway to Heaven", a stretch of New Hampshire Avenue dotted with a diverse array of houses of worship. We looked at a few other properties, but we kept coming back to that one -- a beautiful tract with a mature forest and stream on its eastern side. We quickly set about forming a non-profit organization that would be the legal holder of the land. In early 2020, we closed on the property.

Immediately we got to work with a talented team of consultants to develop the master plan. Our first major milestone was receiving conditional use (zoning) approval in October 2021. This happened after a lengthy process of submissions and hearings with county staff and officials. During the final hearing, some community members raised concerns about adverse impacts on surrounding water sources. As a green burial leader said, "With new green burial grounds, concerns about ground water contamination come up 100% of the time." In our case, the matter was resolved favorably, which is summarized on our FAQs page.

Progress Update

After we received conditional use approval, the decision was appealed by a community member on procedural grounds. The appeal was granted, and the matter is now slated to return to the county Hearing Examiner beginning April 12. The hearing is open to the public, so you're welcome to listen in. Log-in information should be posted at this site a day or more before the hearing.

Your Questions Answered

With each newsletter, we hope to answer one or more questions about Reflection Park, green burials, or anything else related to natural death care. Our growing FAQs page also has answers to many common questions.

Question #1: What is the difference between green and conventional burials?

Green burial involves the return of a body into the earth with as little interference as possible. It uses the natural biodegradation processes of the earth to transform the body into new life. A body may be placed in a shroud, a casket, or both, which are made out of readily biodegradable materials. No vaults, grave liners, or other outer burial containers are used, and the body is not embalmed. (Some green burial sites advertise non-toxic embalming fluids). It's the way we used to bury our dead before the American Civil War, when the routine practice of embalming got its start.

The term "conventional burial" is often used to contrast with green burial. For example, conventional burials typically involve placing the body in a casket which is then placed inside a vault, grave liner, or other outer burial container. The body may be embalmed, and the materials that clothe and contain the body may last for decades or centuries.

There is a third kind of burial ground known as a hybrid cemetery. This is a burial ground that accommodates both conventional and green burial practices.

You can find a listing of partial or fully green cemeteries in the US and Canada at this site.

One final note: the term 'conventional' describes what is common in a particular place at a particular time. The description here of conventional burial is the common practice in North America currently. However, it is possible that conventional burials in the future will be different. Who knows? Maybe a conventional burial in the future will be what we call a green burial today.

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