Ash Wednesday Can Be Any Day

I wanted to write about Ash Wednesday yesterday, on its given day, and it didn’t happen. Although I thought about writing often, it just wouldn’t happen. Instead, I woke up with a message today … one day after its ritually assigned time. Which is PERFECT.

It seems like a large portion of my life right now refuses to fit into the box or timeline I want to assign to it. How unfortunate it would have been if a blog on Ash Wednesday actually arrived on Ash Wednesday. Why is this? Because there is no time and space in God, The Universe, Our Hearts. Time and space are units of measurement that we humans brilliantly created in order to track and measure. Two very helpful practices for communicating with one another.

Also, Ash Wednesday didn’t “feel different” to me than any other day, and it used to when I was steeped into the Lenten practice and I believed God was an external “thing.” Why doesn’t it? Because every day I ask myself the questions, what is mine to let go of today? and what is mine to keep or cultivate for now?. Then, I listen.

The Spirit of the Living God is always communicating to and through me and my practice is to be quiet and listen. When I can’t hear or when I am inspired into curiosity, I ask questions and wait for a knowing. This process can be frustrating or really fun.

Through observation and life experience I’ve come to see that telling God what to do is futile. When I’m telling God what to do then it is a sign to me I am not listening, nor am I engaged in Life Herself. And, I love being alive. The NOW is where the Love Party is.

Yesterday I watched some television to hear a few celebrities talk about what they planned on letting go. One woman said she spoke with her girlfriends about letting go of wine for the season until her friends reminded her that she would be sinning if she then had a glass. Another spoke of giving up sugar and another chocolate. The news had two priests standing outside our local college with “ashes on the go” to make the ritual available between classes. This used to be me and I have no judgment about their experiences of Lent. The joy comes in witnessing who I’ve been and who I am becoming.

Happy Lenten Season to my Christian friends,