written by Emma Donohew for Ash Wednesday Wild Church - February 2020

Don’t wash away the mark on your forehead just yet
Let it linger there a little longer
Allow this solid residue to sink into you

We bear ashes that often mark an end
To mark something new
Embrace this cyclical blessing
This threshold in time

Welcoming the earthly ashes to sit with you

Solid Residue
Leftover from our ancestors
who kept fires lit before
and for us

Maybe everything is reusable

Even us

For every part of us comes from
Something
Not just from somewhere

Ash Wednesday
Just another day to embrace the humility of our
Residual nature

Not running from our known future
But welcoming our deep connectedness

Our shared origins
Invisibly interchanging between the generations

So embrace this residual blessing
These ashes from a fire
As a mark of memory
Of remembering
That you come from dust

And through dust, earth and water
You shall return

Amen