Bluestem Meditations 

Quiet Hour at Bluestem. Every Friday at noon.  

Join us for a period of quiet reflection in nature. An hour of time to pause in our care for the land and to practice presence with one another on it. We attend to this reverent space where each of us is known, valued and cared for. Bring a camp chair, cushion, blanket, yoga mat, or sit on a cedar bench in the Sanctuary. Grab a self-guided meditation from the Barn and meander through the pathways using your senses. The quiet hour is open to the spirit of those gathered in it. 
Picture
Burial crew volunteers bearing witness
Picture
Bluestem's entrance covered in wildflowers
Picture
Laying Jingle to rest
Picture
Future chestnut eaters
Picture
Woodland gravesite
Picture
Feb 2024 Preparing a gravesite
Picture
Nov 2023 Burial service
Picture
July 2023 Bluebird babies
Picture
April 2023 Bluestem Pond
Picture
March 2023 Grassland Burn
Picture
January 2023 Grassland Prairie
Picture
October 2022 Natural Sanctuary
Picture
November 2022 Daisy's burial plot
Picture
October 2022 Trailbuilding by Volunteers
Picture
September 2022 Grassland edge
Picture
June 2022 Moss in the woodlands
​

To Care for the Earth in Death as
​We Do in Life 

When I tell people that I work at a cemetery, I usually get a few strange looks. People can’t help but think of the manicured lawns, the stone monuments, the somber men in black suits and dress shoes. But Bluestem isn’t your conventional cemetery. Even in the stark winter, it’s impossible not to sense the sacred hum of the land that surrounds us and of the conversation that unfolds with the work.

Read the full essay by Katie Mangum. 

A Community Conservation Milestone

Ten years ago, we set out to research and imagine a conservation cemetery for the Triangle, where natural burial would be integrated with the conservation of land.

Read the full reflection by Heidi Hannapel. 



Nature Has Always Given Me Solace

As a Queer person growing up in rural North Carolina, I always felt like an outcast from society. 

​Read a poem by KAM. 

A Future for American Chestnuts

I am grateful to Bluestem for the willingness to give a safe, long-term home to these young, 2nd year seedlings in the hope that not only I, but everyone who visits and cares for Bluestem, will have the opportunity to watch these trees grow into giants.


​Read more by Cameron Prybol.

To the Bluestem Volunteers on April 10

Our father asked for only his family
at his graveside, so we were six.
You were five.

​Read more by Laura Prange.

Birding to Bluestem 

When something happens that dramatically enriches the quality of your life it’s magical. When that special something serendipitously happens when you are newly retired, engaging in hobbies you have longed to explore post work-life, and reflecting on the purpose of your life henceforward, it is life changing.

Read more by Marie Cefalo.

Serving on the Burial Crew 

I was really uncertain what closing a grave might be like.

​What I observed however was a beautiful transformation, as the family opted to cover the site almost entirely on their own. With each shovel of dirt, slow murmurs turned into stories about their father, jokes being given, communion being built. What was once visible grief was being replaced by stories celebrating their loved one.

Read more by James Gartrell 

Monitoring the Bluebirds

Eastern Bluebirds typically nest from March till August.

​Their nests are 1-4 inches tall and made from neatly woven grasses or pine needles. They lay 4-6 powder blue eggs that are 1-4 inches tall. Motivation for monitoring the boxes includes removal of sparrows, starlings, paper wasp nests, and mice. Identifying the species of nesting birds allows the Bluebird society to not only track bluebird populations but also other native bird species. 


Read more by Caroline Ray 

Present and Future 

As we age, my wife and I have been thinking about our final resting place. For me, traditional end of life alternatives were not appealing. I wanted my body to go back into the cycle of life -- to feed other life. I did not want it pumped with chemicals and buried in an indestructible vessel or burned to add to the growing concern of global warming.  

Read more by Steve Gartrell

​

Early Saxifrages 

A rest
Burning of the fields
This darkness
Black ash attracts the sunlight
Awakening green plants below
To sprout and be fed so well 

Read more by Emily Stewart 

Closing the Circle,
​Healing the Spirit  

As the end of my living experience draws near, what to do?  I am burdened with my experience. Now to move forward, I will need to let go of the personal – both good and bad, to approach the next stage after death.   

Read more by Jeshua Pacifici 

A Ritual of Remembrance  

We take time aside to hold space together and learn, feel, and pray in Bluestem Conservation Cemetery. We turn to you in prayer, saying Creator and Conservationist, hear our prayer. 

We thank you for the living land we stand on. We build on the wisdom and memories of those who have nurtured this land before us.

Read more by Callie Swain-Fox and Kaley Casenheiser

In Memory of Daisy  

My graceful gray cat, Daisy, was with me for 18 years. We had a sweet, steadfast relationship and her resilience made me believe she’d always be there. Yet, when her death came, it presented me with an unexpected life passage of my own.

During the past year I began a relationship with Bluestem and its founders ... but it was Daisy who finally connected me to this very special site. 

​Read more by Ina Stern

Transformational Body Politics  

What can one small person do in a vastly complex seemingly indifferent world? Show up at Bluestem Conservation Cemetery in Cedar Grove NC at 9AM any Friday to be a volunteer trail builder. You'll join six to ten other volunteers and at the end of a three hour playing-in-the-woods session you'll have transformed a rocky, root infested mess of woodland into a smooth, hikeable trail. You get to see the transformation in real time.

​Read more by Dave Deming

Equinox Musings 

It’s autumn equinox here in the Piedmont. That time when day and night meet in the middle and linger for a moment in equanimity and equilibrium. A pause. A breath, before the descent. Sitting with my feet in the Eno River watching and listening I finally realized why we so often call this season fall. Everything is falling.

​Read more by Lara Struckman

Returning to the Earth  

It is a beautiful, wet and overcast morning. We listen to our breath flow in and out of our noses and into our bellies. The littlest among us is five years old, and we span three generations of women. This is a powerful place to breathe together, this land transitioning into another life—one that will support human bodies as they transition back to the Earth.

​Read more by Emily Stewart
Writings on nature and experiences at Bluestem are welcome.
They are reviewed by community members and posted to this page.
​Send submissions to Bluestem Meditations.
In the Poem Box at Bluestem
Love After Love, Derek Wolcott
​The Economy of Days, Michael S. Glaser
Quilts, Nikki Giovanni 
Floodwood Pond, Danny Dover
Eagle Poem, Joy Harjo 
absence. displacement, Etel Adnan
Meadow, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer  
We Are of a Tribe, Alberto Ríos
What Begins, Danusha Laméris 
In Any Event, Dorianne Laux
​A Prayer for The Unknown, Cole Arthur Riley 
Love Poem, Linda Pastan
Kindness, Naomi Shihab Nye
America, I Sing Back, Allison Adelle Hedge Coke 
When Great Trees Fall, Maya Angelou
​Gloria Mundi, Michael Kleber-Diggs
In the Fields, Jake Skeets
​June Night, Sara Teasdale 
​Field Mark 6: Love Handle, J. Drew Lanham
Instructions On Not Giving Up, Ada Limón 
Three Times My Life Has Opened, Jane Hirshfield 
A Tribute to John Blackfeather Jeffries
Family Ties, Philip Martz
​Essential Gratitude, Andrea Potos 
The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry 
Excerpt from Who Will Be the Messenger of This Land, Jaki Shelton Green
Talking to Grief, Denise Levertov
The Sensualist, Jamie Hysjulien