dust in the wind

Just like that, here we are - Lenten season has started with Ash Wednesday on February 17. 

Lent is the traditional commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, before beginning his public ministry. 

Ash Wednesday

On Wednesday clergy around the world draw a cross-shaped smudge of dark ash on the foreheads of millions of people. It is the ancient rite of The Imposition of Ashes which signals the start of Lent.

Dust in the Wind reports: From the 15th to the 17th centuries, European sailors rode prevailing winds known as the westerlies to reach lucrative spice markets in Southeast Asia. 

powerful westerlies driven dust plumes 

This powerful atmospheric system, which blows west to east around Earth’s middle latitudes, also brought prosperity to the ancient kingdom of Loulan on China’s Silk Road by way of consistent rain to feed its crops.

In addition to ships and moisture, the westerlies also transport dust, sometimes over astonishing distances. In 2003, scientists traced westerlies-carried particles from China’s Taklamakan Desert to the French Alps. 

Sahara dust pollute Europe's ski slopes

The European Commission's Copernicus satellite monitoring program said measured levels of particles smaller than 10 micrometers—so-called PM10s—increased in places such as Barcelona, Spain, and in the French cities of Lyon and Marseille on Sunday. 

The cloud of fine sand blown northward from Algeria tinted skies red and mixed with fresh snowfall in the Alps and Pyrenees, leaving slopes looking orange.

The Temptation in the Wilderness (1824)

The sign of the cross is traced upon the forehead with the words, “Remember Thou, O soul, that thy body is dust and unto dust it shall return.” These words signify a release from the identification of the self with the mortal and corruptible body and personality. 

A detachment from our conventional identification with our mortal shell can result in an altered state of consciousness where our bodies can communicate to us a spiritual reality and we can develop in actuality a more caring attitude toward it and the world we live in, planet earth.