Yeah, so February slipped by fast this year and that’s sort of unusual because there was cold and there was snow and there were slippery paths that I’d had to scrape and salt too many times. And yet, despite the storms and despite the cold, progress was made.

If you keep on keeping on, progress is always made.

Little by little the ice gets chipped off, the path gets clearer, and you? You just might find that the small steps keeping you busy end up getting you where you want to be. Or at least a bit closer to where you want to be.

Maybe a little bit closer to blooming. A little closer to Spring.

Ash Wednesday. That’s today. Already and I’m not sure that I’m ready for it. Wasn’t it just Christmas?

But yes, it’s Ash Wednesday and Lent has begun.

It comes every year no matter whether February goes fast or slow. It comes to remind us that we come from dust. That’s what the minister says when he or she traces the ashy cross on the forehead.

Yes, I know this. We wear ashes on the forehead, us Christians, to remind us that we are mere dust and that’s where we’ll return to. Only the thing is, maybe there’s another way to look at it? Phoenix-like, maybe?

There’s this song that we sing each year as the ashes are given, received. That first line – “we rise again from ashes” – washes over me no matter how many times I’ve sung it and makes me think that yes, maybe not so much Phoenix-like but certainly second-chance-like, we can rise.

We can rise again from dust.

From the dust of failure, fault, and failing to forgive, which just might be the dustiest of all.

We can rise again from the pain of the past, mistakes and mis-steps and the missing out that we’ve done.

We can rise again from ashes.

And the song goes on, as it always does.

“We rise again from ashes to create ourselves anew.”

So yeah, it’s March. I blinked and it’s March now.

And Spring is coming for sure, one of these days.

Not today, I think. Because there’s still a foot of snow outside. But soon. Little by little the snow is gonna melt and the paths will get cleaner and muddier and the grass is definitely gonna get green again.

And the song goes on and life goes on and today might just be the best day to remember that those small steps really might be the best way to rise again all Phoenix-like.

Might just be the best way to keep you busy and keep you moving a bit closer to where you want to be.

A bit closer to blooming.

And a bit closer to Spring.

~xo,
LuAnne