“Want to do Ashes to Go,” she asked.

“In Waldoboro?” I responded.

“Yes!”

“No,” I said.

The thought of offering ashes to strangers on a street corner with the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return” is a stretch for me.   Observing Ash Wednesday is relatively new to me; I am still learning about the depth and even joy of the practice.

This year members of the Waldoboro United Methodist Church, the Broad Cove  Community Church and the Broad Bay Congregational United Church of Christ gathered for soup and ashes–served separately, of course.

The tables at the Methodist Church were set with purple table clothes, gorgeous flowers, and little candles.  I saw the people gathered–a community acquainted with death and life.  They knew the power of community to ease the pain of grief; they knew the joy of hot soup, old friends, and strangers on a snowy night.   We celebrated the gift of mortality, the power of God, and the love of community.

We are dust and to dust we shall return.   The purple flowers will fade and die before long and we will not be far behind.