Another Ash Wednesday (Poem)

Another Ash Wednesday

Thumb dipped deep

in the ashes of the palm

 

branches burned to black,

the priest stains our foreheads

 

on this day of prayer and penance,

abstinence and fasting.

 

Re-marked with the shape

of the cross we are called to

 

remember the two thousand

years of deaths and resurrections —

 

ashes to ashes, dust to dust —

to wait through the next forty days

 

for the darkness to lift,

our wounds to heal. 

Thought for the Day

I think attention might be so closely bound up with love

as to be almost indistinguishable. And I think it might be

the thing we owe the world most. [. . .]

~ Katherine Rundell

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Quoted from "VCS Creative Conversation: Ben Quash with Katherine Rundell," The Visual Commentary on Scripture, 2024 (This interview and conversation can be found on The VCS YouTube channel.)

 

Katherine Rundell, English Author and Academic; Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Hay30 Writer and Thinker; Recipient, Costa Children's Book Award (The Explorer), Waterstones Children's Book Prize, Blue Peter Book Award, British Book Awards Author of the Year

 

Katherine Rundell on Instagram

 

Ben Quash, Theologian; Director, The Visual Commentary on Scripture 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] New growth must come from a vision

beyond the embers, a belief in resilience,

and a recognition that the fate of forests

and all other life is intertwined.

~ Lauren E. Oakes

______________________________

Quoted from Lauren E. Oakes, "Beginning with Seeds: Restoration in the Wake of Wildfires" (Op-Ed), Emergence Magazine, February 5, 2025

Lauren E. Oakes, Environmental Scientist, Writer, Author of In Search of the Canary Tree and Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future

Thought for the Day

[. . .] The courage to be brave when it matters most

requires a lifetime of small decisions that set us on

a path of self-awareness, attentiveness, and willingness

to risk failure for what we believe is right.

~ Right Rev. Mariann Budde

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Quoted from Right Rev. Mariann Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith (Avery, 2023)

Right Rev. Mariann Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C. (Washington's First Female Diocesan Bishop);  Spiritual Leader; Writer and Author

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Website

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Your love for someone else can only grow in relation

to the extent to which you commit to that love. Love cannot

increase without sacrifice and commitment. [. . .]

~ Zachary Bortot

_________________________

Quoted from "Two Become One: Marriage a Great Mystery," Center for Christianity Culture & the Arts, Biola University Advent Project 2024,  December 30, 2024 (Online)

Zachary Bortot, M.F.A., Associate Professor of Theatre, Theatre Arts Division Director, Collinsworth School of Performing Arts, California Baptist University at Riverside (See "About" at the first link above for additional information about Bortot.)

Thought for the Day

. . . [Y]ou come to poetry not out of what you know
but out of what you wonder. [. . .]
~ Lucille Clifton

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Quoted from "Lucille Clifton on What Poetry Is," Poetry Breaks Video Series, March 30, 2017

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), American Poet, Writer, Educator

Thought for the Day

Searching is hard work. The intensity of it can make us

frantic – [. . .] The loss can paralyze us. [. . .]

To find something lost, we must change our minds.

We must believe it is there to be found. [. . .]

~ Michael A. Longinow

______________________________

Quoted from "Go and Search Carefully," Center for Christianity Culture & the Arts, Biola University Advent Project 2024, December 25, 2024 (Online)

Dr. Michael A. Longinow, Chair, Department of Digital Journalism and Media, School of Fine Arts and Communication, Biola University; Advisor, Print Journalism, and Advisor, The Chimes (Newspaper); Co-Adviser, Media Narrative Projects, School of Fine Arts and Communication, Biola University (See About at the first link above for additional information about Dr. Longinow.)

Thought forthe Day

[. . . ] What does it mean to live in a place haunted

by the loss of water; can we hold the stories, memories,

and pain of those who've known it; and how do we learn 

to embrace what emerges in its wake?

~ Emergence Magazine

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Quoted from Introductory Remarks to Aralkum, Emergence Magazine Newsletter, January 12, 2025

This short film (watch it here or here), which premiered online on January 12, 2025, on Emergence, shows us the landscape that was once the Aral Sea, and how, since 1960, it has been transformed from our Earth's fourth largest body of inland water into what is called Aralkum, the world's youngest desert. It re-imagines the sea's existence as an elderly fisherman seeks to set sail again.

The 2022 film is the creation of documentary filmmakers Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko.

Thought for the Day

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

~ Wendell Berry

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Quoted from Wendell Berry, "To Know the Dark" in Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), Sec. 1

Wendell Berry, American Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Environmental Activist, Cultural Critic, Farmer

The Berry Center

Thought for the Day

[. . .] you will never love art until you love

what it mirrors better."

~ John Ruskin

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Quoted from John Ruskin, The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxford in Lent Term | The Works of John Ruskin, Vol. 4 (Smith, Elder & Co., 1874), p 45

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English Polymath (Writer, Lecturer, Art Historian, Art Critic, Draughtsman, Philanthropist, Geologist, and more)

Ruskin Museum

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

National Gallery of London (U.K.)