floods and ashes

Flood conditions abounded today. We noticed as we drove David back to work after his lunch break that the creek by Goosepond Park was way up and rushing quickly along. They have built a new concrete sidewalk under the bridge connecting this park to the one on the other side of the road, and the new sidewalk was completely submerged. I thought this might be a 'teachable moment' so after we dropped David off, we drove there to look at the water. We stood on the pedestrian bridge and watched the water rush by, and Dennis observed that the park was largely underwater as well. He jumped in a few puddles then stood in the center of one and announced "look--I am flooded too!".

Tonight we attended Ash Wednesday services at church. Dennis' class ended before the service did, so I crept out to retrieve him while they were blessing the ashes. We had explained to Dennis about what the service means and where the ashes came from, and he seemed interested, but when he saw what was going on, he informed us that he did not want that on his forehead. Soon it was our turn to go to the altar rail and kneel for our ashes and blessings. After trying to escape without success, Dennis hid from the pastor, flattening himself against the bottom of the altar rail until the bucket of ashes had passed us by. Then Dennis climbed up onto the rail to check out our foreheads and watch the rest of the people getting theirs. He was interested, sure, but he didn't want it touching him! He wasn't as solemn as the rest of the congregation tonight. When we were all reading prayers, he had the pew bible open and was marching around with it, his own little Ash Wednesday parade. I'd like to think he derived some meaning from it, somehow.