Lent is about to settle on the Plains

The Plains are not forgiving. Anything that is shallow - the easy optimism of a homesteader; the false hope that denies geography, climate, history; the tree whose roots don't reach ground water - will dry up and blow away.

Kathleen Norris, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography

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Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Liturgy of Ash Wednesday

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When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"

Amos 7:2

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The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit:

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51, appointed for Ash Wednesday

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What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God— through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:24-25

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Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21, appointed for Ash Wednesday