Blessing the Dust

Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Ash Wednesday

Hi there! I've been MIA these last couple weeks as Matt and I have been working to put our house on the market. It's a lot to juggle lately, but this newsletter is never far from my mind! I'm taking a quick break from the spiritual pathways series to bring you some Lenten content. I read this poem by Jan Richardson this morning and felt deeply - "yes, I sure do feel like dust and dirt sometimes."

Blessing the Dust
a poem for Ash Wednesday

All those days

you felt like dust,

like dirt,

as if all you had to do

was turn your face

toward the wind

and be scattered

to the four corners

or swept away

by the smallest breath

as insubstantial—

did you not know

what the Holy One

can do with dust?

This is the day

we freely say

we are scorched.

This is the hour

we are marked

by what has made it

through the burning.

This is the moment

we ask for the blessing

that lives within

the ancient ashes,

that makes its home

inside the soil of

this sacred earth.

So let us be marked

not for sorrow.

And let us be marked

not for shame.

Let us be marked

not for false humility

or for thinking

we are less

than we are

but for claiming

what God can do

within the dust,

within the dirt,

within the stuff

of which the world

is made

and the stars that blaze

in our bones

and the galaxies that spiral

inside the smudge

we bear.

—Jan Richardson

From Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.

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Blessings,
Allison