Today, I got a lot of messages reflecting on Ash Wednesday. The start of the lenten season.
What I always find fascinating is that the ash is made by burning the palm leaves of the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
The palm leaves of Palm Sunday are used in the celebration of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, at the start of the Holy Week.
The palm leaves are kept as holy ornaments for a full year, up until Ash Wednesday.
By Ash Wednesday, time would have dried them out, and fire is used to convert them to ashes, as a symbol of humanity’s dust to dust destiny.
A symbol of pride becomes a symbol of vanity within a short time.
I am thankful for rituals that communicate in symbolic ways: the shortness of peaks, and the vastness of valleys.
Day: February 17, 2021
Ash or Dust
One is a product of magnitude (fire), the other a product of time (weather).
They both occupy space, yet lack direction.
One uses time to become the other, the other fuels magnitude to accelerate the formation of one.
Why choose to become one when we all ultimately become other?
As a symbol.
A snapshot of the future brought into the present.
Everything gets cremated by time.
– Osasu Oviawe