Ash Wednesday Hearts

This year brings us an Ash Wednesday that falls on Valentine's Day.  I have always considered Valentine's Day to be the ultimate Hallmark holiday, a day manufactured to make us spend gobs and gobs of money to prove our love.

I would not be going to a restaurant on Wednesday anyway.  I don't mind having church duties.  I wonder if the restaurant trade will see a drop in people going out to eat because Valentine's Day falls on a high holy day.  Probably not.

Ash Wednesday reminds us of our ultimate destiny:  it all ends in ashes.  We might say, "Well, then, what's the point?"

I use Ash Wednesday as a call to consciousness.  Let me remember, before it all ends in ashes, that we should pay attention to what's important.

Valentine's Day is similar, a day to remind us of what's important.  What do we love?  Who do we love?  How do we show that love?

Celebrating these days at the same time seems oddly appropriate.  We are here for such a short time. We try to hard to preserve what we have, thus ensuring that we will have to watch what we love flake away from us. We are dust, and we will return to dust sooner than we care to think about. 

In the meantime, let us love well.  Let us create ashes because we burn so brightly, not because we let our love molder.