From life to death to life

2/22/23

Ash Wednesday's ritual has increasingly become one of my favorite parts of traditional church life. It's unusually morose. But more and more, all around me on the outskirts and the edges people are saying we have to stay in touch with death and grief to keep us in life. I love it. Stay close to death, they tell me. I believe them.

And so today I will go confront my own death and my own mortality as I embrace my eternity. Ashes on my head. Last year's life (palms waved in celebration) are burned and formed into a thrown-down crown.

These words come from an old Christian liturgy: "In the midst of life we are in death; from whom can we seek help?”

Only every time I remember these words, I say them this way instead, quite by accident: "in the midst of death, we are in life." I actually prefer this. I've written about it before (turns out others have, too). I prefer it because life is hard sometimes every day and Ash Wednesday reminds us that this is part of what we came to experience. Yet in that experience we are ever and eternally in life.

So go ahead and face the grave. And take a deep breath while you still can. 🌿

Image contents: [The sun shining through lots of blurry clouds on a beautiful beach morning in Perdido Key]