Dust

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," is a familiar phrase that most of us probably think comes from the Bible, but it is actually an adaptation of a phrase from Genesis appearing in the Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican Church.

It means that we come from dust and to dust we shall return.  And what I just wrote should sound somewhat familiar because this is close to what the priest says when you receive the ashes on your forehead on Ash Wednesday.

All of it is a reminder of our own mortality and of the stark difference between being alive and being dead.  And this is a very serious issue and one that we need to confront in order to really recognize our need for a close relationship with God.  But perhaps we will go into more depth about our mortality a little closer to Ash Wednesday.

However, all of this brings me to a frank discussion of the emerging sunlight this morning that is basking my craft room with beautiful light.  Because the light is so splendid that it reveals the dust on the desk, the keyboard, the monitor, and the shelves just above me.  I've got work to do. 

Today was going to be a bake cookie day, and maybe it still will be, but somewhere in there is also going to be a thoroughly dust the craft room day and a shampoo the carpet in the dining room day.  Just sitting here and looking around (which is dangerous), I see a lovely silver frame sitting on the desk with a telltale amount of dust on the top.  Where does all of this stuff come from?

I thought maybe we should all be educated on the finer details of dust.  It might make us more likely to get rid of it.  So here goes -- from someone named lynnorth in 2006 --

"Actually, there are three main components of dust: first, dead skin cells, second, the dried feces and dessicated corpses of dust mites (lovely thought, eh? When people develop a house-dust allergy, this is usually the component they are reacting to), and the last component by volume is tiny fibers shed by clothing -- cotton is bad for this, and jeans are the worst. This is for ordinary house dust. (Incidentally, dust mites are not generally visible, except with a microscope; they are 200-300 microns long, they eat dead skin cells and live in bedding, carpets and soft furnishings. Always. Trust me on this, anything a year old or more has a good population of them.)"

You can follow this train of thought any way you want, but I'm sticking to the tiny fibers shed by clothing myself.  I've seen paper mites, so more details about dust mites (like observing them under a microscope) is unnecessary.  I get the picture.  Time to REALLY dust, not just use my trusty lambs wool handled thingy.  Thank you so much, lynnorth.  Made my day.

Hope I didn't mess yours up too much!! 

Remember that old song, "May the Bird of Paradise fly up your nose?"  Yep, there was one.  Well, now I'm getting this picture of me dusting and the dust kind of poofing upward and the dust particles going up my nose.  Maybe I should get one of those masks to wear.  Hmmmm.

I'm going to tell my husband that I should get some hazard pay for dusting.  Let's see how that goes over.

Take care, all of you.