Ashes to Ashes; Dust to Dust

     So I recently photographed an abandoned home with a dear friend and fellow photographer. It was haunting. Not haunted---but haunting. I was fascinated by the worn shoes throughout the old home, and I wondered who had worn them. Perhaps I'll find out another day, as I'm sure there is a life filled story to know. 

The people in the scene were dead, but alive.  I could hear them.  I heard their smiles and their cries.  I saw their laughter and their anger.  I felt their exhaustion and their vulnerability.  

I heard complaints of sore feet, sore backs and sore hands.  I heard cooking and the clanging of pots and pans. I heard mothers screaming at children. I heard fathers sighing and I heard the ruffling of the pages of his escape in a newspaper.  I saw ladies fidgeting with their corsets.  And I even heard church bells,

     Speaking of church bells.  Of course I  thought about these 40 days of lent, and how difficult it has been to practice the virtues we are called to practice. You know, Lent is commonly called The Penitent Season.  That is very fitting for me--- because as I have expressed in a previous blog---I'm having trouble.  My cry is "Father forgive me; Father, help me to do that which I am called.  

    

  In the Catholic tradition, we begin Lent with Ash Wednesday.  We go to church, are reminded by our Pastor why we are at church, and and then the penitents or parishioners gather in lines to receive something. This something is a symbol.  This symbol, however denotes a profound meaning for us church folks.  This symbol is a reminder of our death, our end...our own apocalypse.  

     It may seem morbid for some, but receiving the markings of ashes on our foreheads, one by one as the the words "remember...you are dust" were repeated, was a sacred experience for me. It reminded me of my utter dependence on God.  My Photographic opportunity, this haunting home, full of life once lived, just drove the point home.  With each photograph  I deeply pondered how short life is.