Lilley of the field

I tap and type away here with 7 fingers. Two are bandaged together on my dominant hand rendering my pinky useless while typing. Slow and thoughtful goes my typing and slow and thoughtful goes my heart. Yesterday marks the first day of Lent and with that we marked our foreheads with ashes in the shape of a cross. This day snuck up on us this year. The past few years, I have thoughtfully prayed and chosen a way to embrace Lent either through the giving up of something (like food) or the taking on of something (like silence) in order to draw closer to God, to remember the sacrifice of Christ, and to make room for the Holy Spirit to speak. But I found myself coming up empty handed this year. Last night, we sang songs, lit candles, laughed, confessed, and reflected in our warm living room- a haven from the whipping wind and icy temperatures. We wrote out confessions on paper and burned them together in a bucket, slowly mixing water into it to make the ashes with which we marked...