Early Ash Wednesday morning we (my husband and I) received the news that yet another of our friends had died. This was the third friend to die in less than 2 months. We are no strangers to death, but the death of these friends seemed to signal a tipping point of some sort, because these friends were our contemporaries. We’d been in school together, worked on plays together, laughed and spent our youth together. I begin to wonder if we’ve now reached that point in life where we’ll mark time by the list of those we’ve loved and lost each season; regularly searching the obit columns with a mixture of curious dread and relief. Ashes to ashes… dust to dust.
All of which leads me to thinking about legacy. When we’ve gone, what will people remember of us? What are the footprints we leave behind on the earth and in the lives of others? Will our leavings be worthy of Jesus? Will our lives have brought life, love, hope, joy and peace into the lives of others?
Surely, this is a Lenten pondering… may our Lenten disciplines bring us into closer conformity to the life and love of Christ.
For more of Ales Prikryl’s amazing photos of The Burning Man Festival, go to www.dusttoashes.net
Thoughts & Images from the Heart 
Rebecca, my thoughts and prayers continue with you. Friends are precious and it is very hard to loose them. Yesterday we lost a good friend, Rev. J.B. McNeil. He has definitely left a great legacy and the entire community mourns. Blessings, Sue
Rebecca, my sympathies are with you as I’ve had similar experiences with deaths of peers over the last few years. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
And thanks for sharing the wonderful photos of dusttoashes. They are creative and stunning.
Rebecca,
Your post rings true with me. So far this year of 2012, we have celebrated the homecoming of my mother (my father having died in 2002) and my husband’s aunt, the last of her generation. His siblings and mine now realize that the passing of the legacy of love, family, memories, hope, and faith now belong to our generation. May God make us worthy of the task. Ashes to ashes. Faith to faith.
Jo Anderson
Supply Pastor,
Bremen First Presbyterian Church