We need to do the painful work of tallying our wrongdoings, seeing the ways in which we’ve brought harm to others, forgiving those against whom we’ve stored up resentment, and receiving again the gracious work of God’s forgiveness of our sins.
Repentance is continual. Daily. Sometimes moment-by-moment.
Ash Wednesday comes around once per year in the Christian calendar as an abrupt reminder that this work of dying to self and burning the waste needs to be done regularly.