Ash Wednesday...

A printed picture hangs on my fridge...it has water spots on it...and I keep thinking I need to hang another...but it is the last picture I took of Jay.   He is with Izzy and Heather on the back of the pickup.   I took it with my phone...but it is one of those pictures where it seems the person is looking back at you.   Sometimes I think with a look of what are you thinking...sometimes with a twinkle...much like the many looks I would get from that guy...I think how little his "Peanut" was in this pic and how big she is getting...

This morning I read in one of my devotionals Philippians 3:13...I include it on a picture of the sunrise from this morning...as I write on it...and I think as I look at it...almost makes you think of the Blue Line...

Some might wonder what this day represents...though not March 9, 2011...the day that Jay Sheridan's life on this earth was ended...it is Ash Wednesday.    Ash Wednesday...the first day of Lent...40 days representing the number of days Jesus is said to have fasted in the desert...though 46 days until Easter...Sunday's are not included in this time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.   "Almsgiving"...not sure what that is exactly so I do what I often do...I look it up!    And so I see the definition says, "giving to others as an act of virtue"...yes Jay Bird...I think almsgiving...

Jay would talk of being a "good little Catholic boy"...he asked my daughter to marry him on Easter...he lost his life doing a job that he loved on Ash Wednesday.   I remember many gathered with the ashes on their foreheads that night and I was not certain at that time why all had that.   I have since learned more...and so this day I think of Jay...of his family...his friends...his "brothers"...and I go back to the verse above...and "forgetting the past" pops out at me.   I realize that there is a fine line I suppose of living in the past and not moving on...but also it has seemed something that is part of me...to REMEMBER and help keep memories of my granddaughter's daddy a part of our life while embracing what is ahead...

I read on after this verse...which I used the Living Bible version...an old friend...and Philippians 3:14 goes on to say...

"I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us."

"Calling us up to heaven"...and you know bottom line...that is the Grand Finale to this thing called life...so perhaps some may think it has been three years and you still talk about this...but if here in thirty years...I will stop and reflect because to me that is my way of showing my love...but I am working on looking forward in hope while leaving the pain behind...we can not let it hold us down... 

God bless and keep you...prayers of love in this season of reflection of what our faith really means to us...I am thankful for my Christian faith...I am thankful for my family...my friends...though I am not all I should or could be...I press on!

And guess I will press on out to the barn since I am up...and see if that Southdown is giving up yet...

lyp