We all die a bit everyday......

“You are dust, and to dust you shall return”

 (Gen 3:19). 

I'll be damned if it is not another liturgical day--one of my favorites, 

Ash Wednesday.  There was nothing I didn't love about being a leader in the church when this day came.  I don't know why..why it is that it is the one day, I miss more than any other about not being a participant or a minister in a church.

There was something that rattled my bones every single time the night came forward.  Congregants would gather for a brief service.

My colleague and I would don our attire, prepare our little clear bowls of ashes---we'd mix pre-burned ashes purchased from the Christian bookstore into the bowl and add just the right amount of olive oil with them, stir with our fingers and then try to get the remnants from our nails and fingers before the service began.

We'd always hide wet paper towels behind the table, so we could clean up before shaking the folks out the door.

There is a fragility to this day...it reminds all of us that life is short,

that it comes at us at a fast pace never knowing what will happen next and each precious moment----is ours to make of our life..good or bad.   I loved making the sign of the cross on foreheads as they would come forward, old wrinkled foreheads, pretty made-up face forehead, worried foreheads, and fresh baby foreheads

all lined up,

all touched with the same plan

We live

We die

and

what is in-between

well that is where we get a chance to 

bloom into the authentic creation 

that the Universal Love 

birthed us for.

I'd stare in their eyes,

knowing and realizing

that the same time 

next year,

i may have stood at their casket,

or 

by their bedside

or held them as they sobbed 

or 

rejoiced at new life being birthed into the world.

My Mama always does say as she ages and her friends become sick 

many facing life threatening illness...

she'll

says....

"well we all die a little bit every day.....some of us just do it quicker than others"

she's right you know...

we all die

The death mister comes at us,

with grabby fingers

to rob us of our place on the world.

I suppose

that is what makes each moment

so 

much a blessing...even the bad moments we think will be the death of us.

I miss my robe today,

my stole,

burned ashes,

colleagues

a

 church community.

I miss

the greasy feel of ashes and oil,

the stiffness of the day where folks

come but really don't want to think or talk about it--death that is---

I miss staring into their eyes, 

touching their skin

connecting on a God-plane for just a moment in time 

where the Spirit stands time still.

On this day

this day that reminds us that 

We come from dust

and

to dust we shall return...

or as my mama always says...

"we all die a bit everyday".

Today,

grab hold of that thought

and let this be the one

that we allow the Mystery to 

pull us forward,

bloom us out

into 

the 

authentic self we are.

From Dust we came......

and

To Dust we shall return..........

and

that is the truth for every human being on the face of our planet.

think about it

and

make 

claim this new day of being alive.

Blessings

the radical rambler