“For many the dreams of youth
become the regrets of the old,
not because life is over
but because it was unlived.
To age gracefully is to experience
fully each day and season.
When we have truly lived our lives,
we don’t want to live them again.
It’s the life that was not lived
that we regret.”

~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross ~

“Death is not the greatest loss in life.
The greatest loss
is what dies inside us
while we live.”

~ Norman Cousins ~

“May all your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous,
Leading to the most amazing view…
Where something strange, more beautiful and more full of wonder
Than your deepest dreams awaits you”

Edward Abbey

“If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
even as the river and the sea are one.”

Kahlil Gibran

“I don’t want to achieve immortality
through my work.
I want to achieve immortality
through not dying.

~ Woody Allen ~

“If I think more about death
than some other people,
it is probably because I love life
more than they do.”

~ Unknown ~

“Life is pleasant.
Death is peaceful.
It’s the transition that’s troublesome.”

~ Jimi Hendrix ~

“To live is to fly
both low and high.
So shake the dust off
of your wings
and the sleep out of your eyes.”

~ Townes Van Zandt ~

“More precious than any fiery diamond

Is the flowering human heart

Opening like a poppy head

And like a poppy

falling.”

~ Ruth Dallas ~

“The past is history,
tomorrow is a mystery,
but this moment is a gift
and that’s why we call it
The Present.”

“I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately,
to front only
the essential facts of life,
and see if I could not learn
what it had to teach,
and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.”

~ Henry David Thoreau ~

Less pollutive than cremation and not wasting valuable land like cemeteries, natural burial parks create forests from burial grounds. In Britain these are often called ‘Woodland Burials’ and in the USA, ‘Memorial Nature Preserves’. (See our Linking Legacies page for more information.) In New Zealand we call them natural burial parks, or just “green burials”.

Essentially they represent a way of burying our dead which uses the valuable nutrients in the body to establish new growth. They are also a way of remembering our loved ones by creating a sense of permanence in the form of a forest, where people can walk and remember those who are buried there.