Ash Wednesday.

Part of me wants to say, "Really? Are you serious? Lent?" But mostly, I am so happy to welcome the "purple days," as Miriam named them. After a year of turmoil, it is good to rest in penance and fasting. And there is the promise of Easter.

Somehow, when you are fasting and asking for mercy, all the details and passing dramas fall away. All that matters is the song in my heart, "Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner." That is why I love this bit from TS Eliot's poem for today:

"Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining

We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each

other,

Under a tree in the cool of the day, with the blessing of sand,

Forgetting themselves and each other, united

In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye

Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity

Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance."

~TS Eliot, "Ash Wednesday, Part II"

The other cool part? You get to spend 40 days in a desert telling Satan to get lost! Check out this painting:

Yeah, Christ is pretty much saying, "Go screw it somewhere else, Diablo! You lose!"

Me, too, Jesus! Giving those powers and principalities the time of day!

Happy Lent.