My First Real Ash Wednesday

It didn't occur to me until partway through the service tonight that I hadn't been to an Ash Wednesday gathering for about fifteen years, and this turned out to be a spectacular return. As I approached Jacob's Well in the warm dusk of a false spring night, a blazing fire was being stoked by a girl just before the entrance in a large, metal basin. Inside, the candlelit foyer was brimming with an installation of windowpanes pasted with photos and contemplative, grounding thoughts. Wending through to my pew was a solemn and beautiful segue into the season of Lent.

So, being a non-Catholic, I had never before had ashes dotted on my forehead until tonight. I caught myself consciously worrying about what I'd look like when I went to Westlake's after the service, but muffled my inner squelch by noting that ashes are common and discreet among Christians on Ash Wednesday. However, as you can see from my photo, for me that was not the case.

After the service, outside the church were the remains of the fire pit freshly quenched and distributed in small basins to a select few. I approached an available woman with a bowl, knelt upon a pew pillow cushioning the concrete and received the reminder of my earthy inception and conclusion, dust.

Rising I paused to contemplate and gaze at the crowd. A girl I recently met and her husband came up, said, "Hello," and informed me that I had a rather large cross on my cranium. I thought nothing of it until in the rear view mirror of my truck and, soon there after, the mirror of the Westlake's bathroom shed some light on the rather large compost pile on my face.

Currently, I have random bits of ash on my hands, face and, fortunately and probably, my charcoal gray sweater, and will probably change clothes, soil some new ones and completely forget the my countenance of soil.

While waiting for an outstanding scrub of my body and the inner scrubbing of my spirit on Good Friday, I can comfortably say that I have made up for twenty-seven ash-less Wednesdays and will look forward to my next dusting.