However, dirt or soil is not something dead at all but a living thing. There are millions of living things in one cubic metre of healthy dirt. We just received a dump truck load of top soil for some landscaping we are doing this Spring. The load of dirt has a pungent smell and though it seems devoid of worms and bugs right now, the birds seem to be finding lots to eat in the pile. I am pretty excited about how its going to grow new things this growing year and for years to come. Full of possibility if we only pay attention.
For these 40 days of Lent, beginning today with Ash Wednesday, I am going to try to be more attentive to the living world right in front of me, a spiritual practice of sorts. It has something to do with, “For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Even the soil under our feet. Jan Richardson’s poem below captures this so well.
BLESSING THE DUST
All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners
or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial--
did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?
This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.
This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.
This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.
So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are
but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons