ashes in the garden

Proper 19A, September 11, 2011
see http://edgeofenclosure.org

It’s about two in the morning, ten years ago. My ears ring in the silence of the convent after the cacaphony downtown.
“Let me have your boots,” says Sister Helena Marie.
I understand immediately.
I take off my boots and she puts them in a plastic dishtub.
She takes the tub out to the little convent garden. She rinses my boots, and then hers in the tub, then prayerfully pours the ash-water of Ground Zero into the sacred ground.