WHERE LIFE MEETS ASH....

“Ash Wednesday is for people who know that it means for their soul to be logged with these icy waters: all of us are such people, if only we can realize it.

“There is confidence everywhere in Ash Wednesday, yet that does not mean unmixed and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of possible disaster…

THOMAS MERTON

A few years back--okay--okay--a lot of years back--

I had been working at my job for a year or so

fresh out of college and full of life and energy

and

so...

having a high school friend take up residents in New Orleans

right during the High Holy Days of Mardi Gras...

well what fresh out of college with money in her pocket kind of girl

would be able to resist the invitation to a party of THIS MAGNITUDE...

Now I grew up in a small little speck on the map,

in  a town that has a flashing red light and a railroad track

daughter of the local Baptist minister...

let's just say..

I had not lived much---even away--at college.

A car load of us girls

loaded up for the drive and we head to the party of the Universe.

My friend...oh he showed us the way....

parades and wine skins

Big beads and sucking crawl fish heads

There was life and laughter

joy abounding,

colors swirling and people bumping and

every where

fat food, good drink, big beads

and

it seemed all of humanity knew each other

and

all were digging in for their last "hoo haa" 

grabbing for the tiny little baby baked in a cake of sweet goo.....because they knew the good stuff was about to end--and those folks...they know how to savor a good time.

As a good little Baptist girl from a little town...

well let's just say

Mardi Gras and New Orleans 

were about as close to what I thought could lead to "hell" as one might encounter

and

YES

it was fun!!!!

We drove through New Orleans traffic from one parade to the other

collecting beads and coins and if one was lucky---really lucky---a coconut head or two...

James Brown was full blast on the radio and 

my friend Bill...everyone once in a while would pipe in with James and say...

"give the drummer some"---which means in Bill language

take a swig from the wine skin...

and 

let's just say...

"we did feel good"

I remember paying to park in someones yard

and then asking them if they'd allow us to use their bathroom--

and we crept inside 

about to bust

into a shotgun house with lights hanging down from the ceiling on a long rope

I was sure we were inside some kind of mafia gang house...

but for a dollar 

and an emergency..

well that bathroom was just fine!!!

Ash Wednesday immediately follows 

the Shrove Tuesday of life..

where

mortality shatters the part...

From Dust we came

to Dust we shall return...

talk about a party buster upper....

I've come to love Ash Wednesday

it gives us folks a really good clear dose of reality

"Life is fun........but it ends........."

Live it well

that stuff 

in between

born and dead

there is

something

an "IT" so big I can't describe

that resonates, 

supports,

embraces

and

upholds.

I sense tonight

when I walk toward the front

to receive the Ashy reminder

of 

our mortality...

I will think of what Thomas Merton said,

:“There is confidence everywhere in Ash Wednesday, yet that does not mean unmixed and untroubled security. The confidence of the Christian is always a confidence in spite of darkness and risk, in the presence of peril, with every evidence of possible disaster…

THERE IS GOD

AND

WE ALL NEED A BIT OF A REMINDER....

TODAY

THESE ASHES WILL BE MINE someday.

MAY EACH OF YOU TAKE A MOMENT

TO PONDER THE MOMENTS

THAT 

ARE BETWEEN

BORN AND DEAD

AND

ASK YOURSELF

HAVE YOU LIVED A LIFE YOUR PROUD OF?

IF NOT THEN DO IT...

BLESSINGS TO ALL OF YOU...

ON THIS ash Wednesday.......because 

it really happens you know

even if we don't want to think about it 

LIFE will Meet ASH

ALL TOO QUICK!

The radical rambler