In the Light of Letting Go...

Ps.145:10-14

The Lord is good to all;

he has compassion on all he has made.

10 All your works praise you, Lord;

your faithful people extol you.

11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom

and speak of your might,

12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures through all generations.

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises

and faithful in all he does.[c]

14 The Lord upholds all who fall

and lifts up all who are bowed down...

(Read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

The road to life's highlights runs

rife with anticipation

The road from;

with fond memories

We spent a special weekend with some old and some new friends;

a weekend eagerly anticipated for some weeks then BLINK! and it's over!

Whether its outings, or a simple meal or seasons, 

as gifts of earthly pleasure slip through our bearing

as we touch, taste and treasure, while ever growing older 

we learn to expect and even cherish

the bittersweet pangs of letting go

that are bound to follow the embrace!

These bittersweet pangs hide in beaming pink peony-pom-poms,

...soon felled

in growing children and grandchildren

and in every fond fellowship/relationship God grants 

with people or nature!

Love imparts in profound measure, both pleasure and pain!

...like the pleasure of anticipating ice-cream

to celebrate the first day of summer

before the pain of disappointment.

Sorry guys!

The ice-cream shop is closed!

(we were informed of the closure ahead of this photo but

had to make sure) 😅

to respect privacy I won't share the kind of photos from the weekend

 most people most enjoy...of people!

but here are a few other pleasure-treasures.

Blue-heron dusk primping-routine

Canada geese on a leisurely paddle...

Sunset 

'ride' on The Big Chute (photo is the the boat ahead of us)

The chute is lowered into the water till boat/boats are properly boarded

then the chute via cables lifts the boats over the highway 

and lowers them into the water on the other side!

Summer's fresco

White Falls...

...and a poem-memento to remember to treasure what we hold

all the more because of the letting go! 

Love imparts in profound measure, portions of pleasure and pain  

As hearts overflow with treasure only farewells can sustain

Nothing in life lasts forever; tears and laughter ebb and flow

  As we learn to love with fervor, 

in the light of letting go

 Brave the fleeting bliss of flowers in spite of the kiss that waits

 Like a seal on Bygone's Bowers brimming with Delight's licked plates 

Let the music of love's moments rush the soul with holy 'ooh'    

For Love spills a sweeter cadence 

in the light of letting go

Love imparts with raw precision climaxes of joy and grief 

Suturing heartache's incision, bud by bud and leaf by leaf 

Meanwhile drawing ever nearer Heaven's reassuring glow 

While love's holding grows much dearer 

in the light of letting go  

© Janet Martin

I went in search of an oldie hymn (Lyrics below)

 this morning as I pondered the weekend and shed some tears

and prayed some prayers esp. for my brother-in-law and also friends 

who have bid (some very unexpected) farewells to their spouses in the past year,

and are suffering love's ultimate earthly letting go, 

no longer able share both love's profound pleasure or pain!!

Parting Hand

Author Anonymous

1 My dearest friends, in bonds of love,

Our hearts in sweetest union prove;

Your friendship's like a drawing band,

Yet we must take the parting hand.

Your presence sweet, your union dear,

Your words delightful to my ear;

And when I see that we must part,

You draw like cords around my heart.

2 How sweet the hours have passed away,

When we have met to sing and pray;

How loath I've been to leave the place

Where Jesus shows His smiling face.

Oh, could I stay with friends so kind,

How would it cheer my struggling mind!

But duty makes me understand

That we must take the parting hand.

3 And since it is God's holy will,

We must be parted for awhile,

In sweet submission all in one,

We'll say, "Our Father's will be done."

Dear fellow youth in Christian ties,

Who seek for mansions in the skies,

Fight on, you'll win the happy shore,

Where parting hands are known no more.

4 How oft I've seen the flowing tears,

And heard you tell your hopes and fears;

Your hearts with love have seemed to flame,

Which makes me hope we'll meet again.

Ye mourning souls, in sad surprise,

Jesus remembers all your cries;

Oh, taste His grace, in all that land

We'll no more take the parting hand.

May Today Be...

And just like that it's Summer

Happy First Day of Summer!

May today be a hymn of praise

to He who grants all of our days!

Isa.61:10-11

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
 For as the earth brings forth its bud,
As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise 

to spring forth before all the nations.

After yesterday's wind and rain the garden, adorned with nature's jewels,

 springs forth with vivid hymns of praise!

May today be, in Bygone's trove, 

above all else, a cherished thought

A gem in a collection of 

learning to love the way we ought

A token where devotion crowns

the tempo that unravels days

Composing from hope's ups and downs

a memento of grateful praise

May today be in reverie 

a masterpiece Past mediates

Into the kind of poetry 

ink never quite encapsulates

Arpeggios that waltz and brood, 

o'er vistas of echoes unbound

A breathless sense of having stood 

with shoes removed on holy ground

May today, as moments are spent, 

augment inestimable worth 

An intentional investment 

in treasures not beheld on earth 

As, grace upon grace grants no lack

Because God keeps his promises

May today be, when looking back

A frame filled with God's faithfulness 

Janet Martin

Before We Face Today's Unknowns...

Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love,

 for in you I trust. 

Make me know the way I should go,

 for to you I lift up my soul.

Ps.143:8

Before new dawn

breathes soft upon

yon star-glazed canopy

Before our feet

touch down to meet

fresh opportunity

Before we wake

or birdsong breaks

the silence of the night

Before hopes, dreams,

wants, plans or schemes

stir in whispers of light

Before the air

begins to bear

the brushstrokes of Today

God goes before

to hold the Door

then kindly lead the way

© Janet Martin

 

Dear Lucy, Then Heaven...

Dear Lucy, today marks nine months since

you were suddenly called Home...

May all of us who miss you so

honour your memory by loving well

those still within our reach!💓🙏

Lucy loved flowers...esp. peonies!

In her eulogy one of her children remembered her calling to them

to come and stuff their face in a peony 

'because you have not lived till you've stuffed your face in a peony!!'

So Lucy, this peony-season each face-stuffing is in tender memory of you...💝💔

 Won't you too, take time to stuff your face in a peony?!

and when you do, thank God for your loved ones, 

pray for those mourning the loss of a loved one

and consider, if God should call you as suddenly as He called Lucy

nine months ago, if you are prepared to meet Him

because you have received the gift of salvation 

when you believed in Him! 

This is one of the first verses our parents taught us to memorize

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

***

When Death, the Scythe that ceases Time, gathers a loved one beyond reach

Then Heaven, once hope's distance clime becomes longing's uttermost roar

Where, though we stagger 'neath the weight of lessons love must ever teach

We turn our eyes toward a Gate that gleams far fairer than before

When Death delivers Farewell's rift and stuns the grasp of mortal ken

Then Heaven, once salvation's gift becomes sorrow's song, over-joyed

And though our tears may flow, we know God's keeps His promises. Amen

He cheers us with strains of 'hello' wafting across yon, gaping void

When Death reminds we who remain how small-swift-sacred is life's lease 

When earthly loss is Heaven's gain then Heaven suddenly draws near

Compelling us with humbler hearts to look upon the Prince of Peace

Until faith turned to sight imparts the face of God and loved ones dear 

When Death, the Scythe that ceases time fells dust-to-dust's brief vestibule 

Then Heaven, once hope's distant clime draws grief to gaze beyond the grave

On He who gathers back the soul, who made Heaven's hope/Home possible 

Conquering death and hell for all who call on Him, Mighty To Save 

~Janet Martin

The Sweet By and By

June Jingle or Anticipation Undone

 Photos directly below from Gingko Footprints Peony Gardens

We have passed the halfway mark of June...already?!! 

Time for a little June jingle as we realize

that what we long anticipated is well underway;

That twinkle in time's eye after winter is past before it begins again! 

That first perennial-garden burst of columbine-lupine-iris-peony pleasure

before lilies-roses-phlox-delphinium-daisy delight

before dahlia-aster-sunflower-sedum...well, you get the idea 😊💖 

Below,  my first roses in many years!

Lupine longing is lavished!

Columbine craving contented...

First foxglove fantasy fulfilled! 

(a first for me in all my years of flower-gardening!

It may not look like much but it is the fruit of much perseverance and patience!!😅)

Anticipation lowers bars where once in winter’s world of stars

We lingered over dreamy hues of verdant greens and welkin blues

And visions of a garden walk midst peony and hollyhock

And benches where we would recline beneath plumes of wisteria vine

Anticipation realized is Pleasure, slowly, sweetly prized

In the luxury of a nose buried in summer’s first red rose

In lounging with tea and a book in a breeze-serenaded nook

Or where perennial bowers bend with the return of flower-friends

Anticipation turned to June is a green-giddy afternoon

Green pastures on yon hillside spread; green-leaf percussion overhead

Green ambience drenching the dell where once lackluster shadows fell

Before each stark, dark barren limb throbbed with nature’s green-whispered hymn

Anticipation kindles cheer for favours lent, year after year

For so much beauty to behold as hours, like flowers unfold

For laundry-lines where clean clothes waltz, for children turning somersaults

Beneath lofty vaults of soft sky tinted with twilight’s lullaby

Anticipation comforts souls where happiness is full of holes

Where joy would lose its wooing spark where dreams oft fall shy of their mark

But June is always right on time and full of delight’s seasoned chime

And colours of summer begun and Anticipation undone

© Janet Martin

Anticipation of long summer evenings...is Reality!!