Marked With Stars
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Then the Lord God formed the human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life.” — Genesis 2:7
Today is Ash Wednesday. In churches around the world, a minister dips a thumb into ash and marks a cross on a forehead, saying, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Many people hear that as diminishment, a reminder of smallness, fragility, mortality. But the church has always meant something more radical. You are not merely dust…
You are STARDUST.
Every carbon atom in your body was forged in the collapse of ancient stars. Before you were a citizen, before you were a voter, before you were given a name or a category or a place in a social order, you were matter held inside God’s imagination. You belong to creation before you belong to any nation.
Ash Wednesday does not humiliate the human being. It brings us back into right relationship.
No hierarchy survives at the level of dust. No race, no border, no wealth bracket, no office of power endures there. The billionaire and the prisoner share the same origin story. The body marked for deportation and the body writing the policy come from the same burning stars.
And yesterday, as Christians prepared to receive ashes, we lost Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Journalist and professor, Dr. Stacey Patton, wrote that for Black children growing up in America, he was “proof of possibility before we had the language to name it.”1 She remembered watching him stand in spaces never built for him and speak as though he had always belonged there.
That is an Ash Wednesday story. The ash says: you came from the same sacred ground as everyone else.
Jackson spent his life insisting that society must act like it. He did not argue belonging as sentiment. He enacted it as public truth.
When a nation tried to sort human worth into categories — worthy and disposable — he walked into rooms structured by exclusion and carried himself as though dignity were not granted by permission but rooted in creation itself.
Ashes on the forehead make the same claim. They do not say, “You are nothing.” They say, “No one gets to pretend they are more than human, and no one gets to declare another less.” The mark is strange because it refuses both despair and arrogance. It does not flatter us, but it also does not degrade us. It tells the truth about us: we are temporary and sacred at the same time.
If that is true, then every system built on permanent superiority is already standing on borrowed time.
This is why the church begins Lent with ash instead of glory. We start with reality. We start with bodies that can be wounded. We start with lives that depend on each other. We start with a belonging deeper than law.
Jesse Jackson understood that belonging is not polite inclusion. It is a claim about reality.
To deny someone’s dignity is not just political harm — it is theological error. It is a lie about what a human being is.
Today the ash tells the truth again: You are dust. But it is God-made dust. Therefore every person you meet carries the same holy material.
Remembering that will not solve every conflict. But forgetting it has created most of them.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
When have you felt treated as less than fully human, and how did it affect you?
Who around you may need to hear, through your actions, that they already belong?
How might remembering we all share the same origin change the way you move through conflict today?
A Prayer for the Day
Breath of the Same Earth
God of dust and breath, You formed us from one ground and filled us with one life. Strip away the illusions we build that make some of us seem greater and others seem disposable. Mark us with humility. Mark us with courage. Mark us with love strong enough to recognize itself in every face. May we live today as people who remember what we are made of. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
The Ash You Cannot See
Today, choose three people you encounter —
one you love easily,
one you normally overlook,
and one who challenges you.
Pause before each interaction and silently say: “Same dust. Same breath.”
Notice what shifts in your tone, your posture, and your attention. Let the invisible ash shape your behavior.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
February - My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. I will be leading a book study on Brian McLaren’s book, Life After Doom, that starts on Feb 17. Join the community here.
February 19, 2026 (next session) - On Feb 5, Margaret Wheatley and and I launched a new online course called “Leading with Spirit,” a six-session journey into soul-grounded leadership designed to deepen your trust in guidance, nurture perseverance, and rekindle imaginal wisdom for our fractured world. It’s not too late to join. Take a look at the course outline. We are really excited and hope you can join! Scholarship are available if needed. Learn more here!
March, 2026 - Join Our “Building a Culture of Leadership Within Congregations” Cohort facilitated by Rabbi Benjamin Ross and me! A two-session course for ministers and faith leaders ready to strengthen how their congregations and ministries identify, develop, and support leaders. Learn more here.
March 17, 23, 31 and April 7, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET - Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox and I will be hosting another 4-part series on “Visions for the Common Good.” This series will include sessions with David Abrams, Randy Woodley and Lynne Twist! All sessions are recorded, and you will get the link if you can’t make it. Learn more here.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
I get to work with such amazing, creative people. This section is my way of celebrating them—no paid promotions, just joy in what they’re creating.
Science and Nonduality is offering a Community Gathering with Dr. Lyla June, Kaira Jewel Lingo and Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, facilitated by Rae Abileah on February 26th on how spiritual practice, trauma-aware care, and neighborhood organizing are being woven together as living traditions. Learn more here.
The need for us to persevere and contribute grows ever more challenging as the horror and cruelty escalates, created by leaders with “malevolent incompetence.” Dr. Margaret Wheatley is offering a “Bundle for Good” for shipping within the U.S. She will send you seven copies of Perseverance, and one copy of her book of poems, Opening to the World as It Is. She’s including the poetry book as another means to support you personally. You can learn more here.
The Convergence Music Project is hosting a songwriting event on March 19-21, 2026 in Nashville. No songwriting experience is required, so feel warmly welcome even if you've never written a song before. There will be plenty of content also to further educate, inspire, and develop the gifts of advanced songwriters as well. Learn more.
Millions of people are seeking training in becoming Legal Observers for their communities vulnerable to ICE. Here is a recorded training that is helpful produced by the team at No Kings. If you know of other trainings, please post in the comments below.
The phenomenal team of “Singing Resistance” has gifted all of us a songbook of protest songs that groups are now using across the world. Here is the link. I am marching around my house singing these throughout the day. My dogs are very confused.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
I hope you don't mind...This Ash Wednesday meditation was so beautiful that I used part of it last night with my virtual imposition of ashes before our Zoom Bible study. I Everyone loved it. Thank you for doing what you do. You are a blessing ❤️🙌🏽
Some say we’re simply
stardust, sandstone, carbon bits,
bone and brain and brawn.
...
What if we’re also
recycled pilgrim spirits,
twirling at-to home?