We are stardust

On Ash Wednesday, as has become tradition over the years, our hospital Chaplin, Sister Rita, came down to the emergency room to distribute ashes. Rita is a dear friend and we always kid each other so I asked if she had enough room to work with (with my big bald head) and she responded that she didn't think she had enough ashes. Then she started laughing. It took her a while to calm down and she said "that was bad, maybe I could give up being bad for lent." She's a good soul.

"Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return"

It's a reminder to keep our humility, something I can struggle with. The ashes also remind us to sacrifice, reminding us of a time when people would put on sackcloth and not wash during periods of repentance.

I also listened recently to an NPR show about stardust. It seems that there are clouds of dust moving through the universe and that they contain the building blocks of life. I do not claim to have understood all that they were saying, but it seems that what makes us up may have once been a part of these clouds and when we pass, what is left of us may eventually return to these clouds and form new life. Kind of a cosmic reincarnation.

I thought, cool!
"Remember that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return"
How awesome is that?
The entire universe interrelated!

Forming the world in seven days would be a feat, but doing it out of stardust, that would take one mega cool God!
Turns out, Joni Mitchell and Sister Rita are right,

"We are stardust.

We are golden.

And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."