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 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.

—Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons© janrichardsonimages.com