Ash Wednesday

 All this time

I put my headphones in.

I walk quickly.

I look toward the ground.

I create one million barriers

of independence,

but still God seeks after me.

God leans a rainbow over the sky.

God sends sun after the rain.

God blankets the earth with wildflowers.

God allows music to carry,

and laughter to rise,

all so that I might notice.

And when I do notice,

the unfurling that begins in my soul

is slow and holy and burning.

I am not alone.

God has been chasing after me

all this time.

Poem by Rev. Sarah Speed 

(reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art)