Song: Back to the Dust

A song for Ash Wednesday, an observance I didn't know anything about until college, when I first attended a service.  It's sobering to have a priest mark your forehead with ashes and tell you, "From dust you are made and to dust you shall return."  True, but sobering.  It's also a reminder not only of our flesh and of our broken selves, but that our time on this earth is short; let's learn and love and serve while we can.

The words and tune of this song sort of evolved as I put Merry's lunch together before school this morning.  I'd been thinking about Ash Wednesday and remembered Wendell Berry's interpretation of Genesis 2:7, where God makes the first human.  Berry says that God did not make a man out of dust and blow a soul into him (dust + soul = man); no, he says, the recipe for man-making is dust + breath = a living soul.  Anyway, I latched onto that phrase, "living soul."

About an hour later, Kim and I recorded this take live in our kitchen. Sorry for the occasional loud thumps--that's my foot. I couldn't keep it still!

LYRICS

God you made a living soul

took your very own breath

and blew it into this soil

Even though I'm dust I've got to walk till I'm called

back to the dust I'm from

Oh, the flesh is weak

Sullied by so much that it seeks

And when I feel these bones can't but break

Your spirit gives me strength

God you made a living soul

took your very own breath

and blew it into this soil

Even though I'm dust I've got to walk till I'm called

back to the dust I'm from

Lord, I'm not a child

Lord, I've trod about 10,000 miles

Seems no matter how far there's still a far road to go

So go with me always

God you made a living soul

took your very own breath

and blew it into this soil

Even though I'm dust I've got to walk till I'm called

back to the dust I'm from (x3)