Here we are at the beginning of the season of Lent in the year 2021. So, what else is new? I feel like we have been in Lent for almost a full year. The isolation and the aloneness seem to cry out Lent to me! And it has been going on for so long! Who would have dreamed that we would be here in the same place when we first heard would be closed! My family were saying things like ‘see you in the summer’ or ‘we’ll all be home for the Cranberry harvest’. But summer came and went, the cranberries ripened and were picked by a few locals and we stayed alone and home and did our part to limit the spread of the pandemic.
Thank goodness for modern technology with its ‘Face time’ and messenger. And for cell phones in the hands or pockets of all our children. Speed dial and we had them at hand!
But all the ‘Face time’ and messages and impromptu phone chats cannot replace the feeling of a hug and a kiss. Oh, how I long to feel my kids’ arms wrapped around me once more. My Orin has never been a ‘hugger’ as such but even he is finding reasons to cuddle, reasons to touch and hold. I realize that we as a couple are so lucky to have each other. At our age so many of our friends and neighbours are alone to live through this scourge without their life partners who have ‘gone on before’.
But enough of these gloomy thoughts. They say the vaccine is coming and we shall be free once again to live life to the fullest.
Life did take on a fullness a few weeks ago. Jason was determined to see Ash Wednesday have its rightful place in the church year. We have been receiving the ashes on our foreheads for several years. It is a practice that Rev. Billie brought to St. Bart`s. It was met with downright anger by a few old parishioners who said they had never heard tell of such nonsense. Most of us accepted it as something new (although Billie was quick to point out that it was a very old tradition) . She also tried to introduce the washing of feet on Ash Wednesday but that was not accepted at all and was only tried one or two years when Billie could persuade her husband to remove his shoes , or should I say his Birken stocks that he wore …sockless… to make the ordeal easier.
Jason planned a midafternoon service on Ash Wednesday with Holy Communion and ashes for those who wanted to have them . Jason came up with a plan and a long pair of kitchen tongs and cotton balls covered with ashes .In great solemnity he came around to us in our pews and with the tongs and the cotton ball and the ashes he managed to put recognizable crosses on the brows of any who wanted them. We heard the words “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” My Orin could be heard muttering “no dust in our house, the Missus has nothing to do but dust!” .
And on that note, I shall sign off, with prayers for a safe Lent and a blessed Easter.
I’ll keep you posted,
Aunt Madge
