On Death and Funerals

Not to sound morbid or anything, but I found an interesting question in my Christian-Pagan online community today.  The person was asking about what we believed about the afterlife and reincarnation.  Being a Christian-Pagan community, we know that Christianity and Paganism tend to disagree about the afterlife.  There are widely different beliefs in this community, but thankfully we can all peacefully explore each others' beliefs without fear of judgment.

This person also asked if we'd thought about how we'd want our funeral planned and I wanted to share my funeral plans (not that I'm intending on dying anytime soon!)

As young as I am, I'd actually given this some thought.  When my grandfather died a few years ago, we had a wake for him.  This made me want a wake when I pass on because we celebrated his life instead of mourning his death.  Granted, there was plenty of time to mourn his death at the funeral the next week.

Also, after reviewing the many ways your body can be laid to rest when you die, I'd decided I had 2 ways to choose from:  I either want a funeral pyre, also known as open-air cremation, in the middle of an open field within a circle of carefully laid out stones, or I want to be laid on a bed of flowers in a small wooden boat and launched into a body of water (I haven't decided between large lake, ocean, or down a river).  Another idea that would go along with the funeral pyre idea would be to plant a sapling tree where each stone was laid (or close enough) so a circular grove would grow where I was laid to rest.