Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

July-High or Season of Sweet Summertime

 Some summer/ July 'highs/highlights'...

Freshly-picked supper!


Yesterday's Lunch!


'Where every flower-dear is fair of face...'


'And every shower-dear a gift from God'


Freshly-popped lily!

And Queen Ann decks herself in finest lace




And Daisy dares with ‘loves-me-loves-me-not’


Living’s unrivaled adrenaline rush
Beauty unbridled in sequence sublime
Colorful cadence of hymns, petal-plush
This is the season of Sweet Summertime

Breeze tousles treetops, stirs leafy-green sighs
Porches are perches for popsicle-snacks
Meadows are churches beneath smiling skies
Earthy pews bid worshippers to relax

Arbors are lavished with vine-woven lace
Gardens are ravished with vegetable-fare
Nothing in summer is quite commonplace
Pity the one who has no time to spare

No time to lie with ear pressed to the throb
In nature’s chest; let it soothe creature care
No time to watch butterfly flit and bob
Or to consider the lilies so fair

Come, let us cater to wanderlust’s lure
Weather the verge of the surge of farewell
Savor the flavor of summer, so pure
Tolling a swansong in each flower-bell

Soak in the silver-soft laughter of life
Cherish its brief afternoon of romance
List to the ballad of roses run rife
While Father Time and Mother Nature (slow)dance

No reason needed, dear, just sit a bit
For none can tether Time to mid-July
All one can do is to revel in it
Linger where bronze wheat fields bend with goodbye

And Queen Ann decks herself in finest lace
And Daisy dares with ‘loves-me-loves-me-not’
Where every flower-dear is fair of face
And every shower-dear a gift from God

Crinoline swish of welkin gowns brush by
Heart skips a beat; reciprocates with rhyme
While happiness soars to new July-high
Here in the season of sweet Summertime

© Janet Martin

While happiness soars to new July-high
Here in the season of sweet Summertime








Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Care's Counterbalance...Creator's Kindness



Let's pray in these times-like-never-before 
where nations are turning from God like never before
that we who believe commit to seeing, hearing, obeying,
relying on and worshipping Him like never before...

Many are the witnesses of faith we may look to for courage, chiefly Jesus!!

Heb.12:1-2
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
 let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
 and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
 2looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith,
 who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, 
despising the shame, and has sat down 
at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we delight in the beauty of creation
it is not hard to believe that our Creator God is awesome above all else!!





Isaiah 46:9
Remember the former things of old:
for I am God, and there is none else; 
I am God, and there is none like me,





Sometimes life’s woes could blind us to God’s kindnesses unfurled
To counterbalance creature cares in a care-laden world
He tunes heaven and earth with boons too manifold to count
He woos us to drink deeply from June’s leaf and flower fount

Where once again He clothes the land with garb of seed and bud
To manifest His evidence, creation shouts His name
To quench credence to atheism’s cold and calloused claim

He comforts us with colours only His thought can compose
And sweetens Heaven-hunger with reason only He knows
Where each season showcases masterpieces, mercy-lent
Where nothing in this world replaces Goodness, mercy-bent

To well in us, in spite of aches and pangs that sting and press
A worship-bidden, wonder-smitten hymn of happiness
Of reverence and honour to He from Whom blessings pour
To awe and cheer us onward to the joy still set before

...to capture our attention with surprises full of grace
To lavish wounds of learning with fond glimpses of His face 
To never let life blind us to He who is kind and good
Whose invisible qualities are clearly understood

© Janet Martin



Rom.1:20
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—
his eternal power and divine nature—
 have been clearly seen, 
being understood from what has been made, 
so that people are without excuse.

Oh God!!! May I/we never live
 unawed!



Tuesday, February 28, 2023

February/Winter Flowers


I picked the flower puzzle to do (see quandary here
because there's just something about flowers
in winter that can't be beat!!


even the pieces look like a handful of petals tossed on a garden path!
So, let's celebrate the last day of February with winter flowers
even if they are painted on cardboard💖😊


They kindle wild dream-pleasure for gardens not planted yet
They gleam with priceless treasure of fond memories to be
They rouse a youthful yearning in the appetites they whet
For perfumed pinks and purples heady with sweet nectar-tea
And like children with rosy faces, kissed by brisk wind-chill
They bloom a little rosier on winter’s windowsill

They delight hearts with visions of a sunny summer’s day
Where butterflies and laughter flit and flirt with honey bee
They make indoors feel friendlier while winter whiles away
As we stroll perfect gardens in a plot of fantasy
A welcome splash of color on a dolor afternoon
They garnish kitchen tables with a glint of May or June

They cheer us with old fashioned charm and make us humbly glad
To be alive where flowers wait to burst the bud with bloom
As blush and gold menageries drive poets gently mad
With so much beauty to behold from Mother Nature’s loom
Primed with a plethora of plumes no tombs can keep at bay 
Unfolding outdoor living rooms still snuggly tucked away

© Janet Martin

Speaking of outdoor living rooms
I would love to try this come spring!



 

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Dare To Dream But Bear In Mind...


I sat in the garden for a little while this afternoon soaking in the
sights, sounds and smells of fading August...

No longer restless with a dream, but reveling in the bloom!





Dare to dream but bear in mind Dream’s vulnerability
For, it seems life is inclined to vex blind fantasy
Where what we composed in forums with youth still intact
Soon begins to weather foibles and fumbles of fact

Dare to take a leap of faith but be aware of this
Sometimes you will hit the mark! Sometimes you will miss
Sometimes the sweet landing you envision when you jump
Will take you by rude surprise with an uncourtly bump

Dare to hold, hug and embrace but always with this thought
Letting go is juxtaposed with everything we’ve got
Taste today’s sweet laughter; rejoice and be glad because
Everything that is, soon after, becomes what once was

Then the dreamer starts to see what starry eyes once missed
Fantasy will step aside for moments slowly kissed
Where what want composes as youth dons a weathered brow
Becomes about smelling roses blooming here and now

© Janet Martin

 


 

 

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Morning Flowers...

 







Morning metes its sweet Beginning
Mist-burnished petals unfold
From night’s nebulous bud thinning
Until Time is blush and gold
Flushed with mercy to behold

Like a lily, dew-anointed
Fresh from the Creator’s hand
Darkness fades; hope’s reappointed
Brigades wade until they stand
On shores of star-dust and sand

Strewing in the wake of slumber
Daybreak’s diamond studded world
Where the cares of life encumber
Where faith’s warfare is unfurled
Morning flowers, promise-pearled

© Janet Martin

God's word overflows with wonderful promises that He will keep!
A few promise-pearls to pin to today's To-Do's/dues

Lam.3:22-23
Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed,
 for His mercies never fail. 

1 Thess.5:24
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

2 Pet.3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. 
Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, 
but everyone to come to repentance.

Psalm 144:15
Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!

Isa.26:3
You will keep him in perfect peace, 
Whose mind is stayed on You, 
Because he trusts in You.

John 16:33
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. 
In the world you will have tribulation;
 but be of good cheer,
 I have overcome the world.”

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. 
I do not give to you as the world gives. 
Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.


Romans 8:37
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ 
and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.


Psalm 29:11
The LORD gives His people strength; 
the LORD blesses His people with peace.

Heb.13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; 
and be content with such things as ye have: 
for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Heb.13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.


2 Corinthians 1:20
For all the promises of God are "Yes" in Christ.
 And so through Him, our "Amen" is spoken to the glory of God.




Friday, June 10, 2022

As Long As Life Has Flowers We Will Never Un-kissed Be

 In Ontario it is iris, peony and lupine season...






...among others

Gerbera Daisies


Columbine

Spiderwort


Clematis



Every flower-lover is in constant awe at the myriad intricacies of each flower
designed by our Creator
The above beauties,
plus this morning's devotion

...inspired today's poem
(it can be interpreted as written either about flowers or people.
God's love/beauty poured through us)

As long as life has flowers, we will never friendless be
God decorates earth’s bowers with such pleasant company
He stirs our hearts to leap with praise where oft a bloom beguiles
Us to marvel at countless ways that the Creator smiles

The loom within the bud unravels wonder, crease by crease
A miracle of fragile petals forms each masterpiece
Like symbols of kind pardon, beauty startles trouble’s plain
Glimpses of Eden’s Garden gild hill, hollow, field and lane

All things are possible with He who designs every fold
And strews to earth a starry sea of wonders to behold
Forbid one looks but misses mercy’s autographs of grace
God smiles and blows His kisses to us in each flower-face

© Janet Martin


Luke 12:27
Consider how the lilies grow: 
They do not labor or spin. 
Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory 
was adorned like one of these.