Somehow A Heart...

 Cleaning out vegetable and flower gardens

is always bittersweet...

and part of my heart always seems to go with it.

 ...but I'm not pulling out all the veggies yet, until the threat of killer-frost

 so we can keep on enjoying fresh-from the garden rainbow-suppers!

oops, I was so excited to eat it when it was cooked I forgot to take a picture...

so picture a plate with chicken and veggie stir-fry, 

red tomato slices, green and red lettuce, 

white feta cheese and bits of wholewheat wrap.

Yum!

Somehow a heart repairs its wounds

And makes the bearer of it smile

When bud has borne its parting blooms

We mourn its plumes a little while

Then bind the season that we had

With brand new reasons to be glad

Somehow a heart restores its loss

With more of what first made it sing

For sorrow is love’s albatross

But love runs rife with life’s fresh fling

Where hearts hold threads that interlace

Both launching pad and resting place

Somehow a heart resists farewell

Where moments like links in a chain

Hinge to a fringe that tolls a bell

That tugs somewhere hard to explain

And yet, we cannot be too sad

Because of the good times we had

Somehow a heart resigns its ache

To burst with both bitter and sweet

Where the mercies of give and take

Will sometimes make it skip a beat

And wonder as its pieces fall

That there is a heart left at all

 (repeat first stanza at the end, optional)

Somehow a heart repairs its wounds

And makes the bearer of it smile

When bud has borne its parting blooms

We mourn its plumes a little while

Then bind the season that we had

With brand new reasons to be glad

© Janet Martin

oh!  you're still feeling a little peckish?
 how about one of the Apple-oatmeal muffins that Victoria made!

A Prayer and A Humourous Parable

 It's a busy life isn't it?!

Hopefully never so busy that we forget what truly matters!

Building for Eternity!

Our church is adding onto its building because we are running over with

the future church aka young families/children!

We are all invited to be part of the donators Big Picture

in these exciting times of growth!

I was convicted humorously yesterday in my Sunday School class of grades one-to-three girls...

One big sister was so delighted because
she earned four mini chocolate bars after finding the verse first in a Bible sword-drill.
Her little sister, quite envious was sobbing quietly.

Big sister put her arm around her and whispered, 

"don't worry! Jesus is still your friend and you can still pray to Him"

...cold comfort to the one who looked at the chocolate tucked securely in her big sister's pocket!

How often are we guilty of the same kind of response!

'praying' for the 'needs/needy' while our pockets bulge?!

Giving is the one thing with a guaranteed return!

God loves a cheerful giver!

 Then Lord, I pray...

That greed should never bid me turn from need, unfeeling, bold and cold

That love would walk the second mile where no one but You will behold

And Lord, that whereas I am able I would give with meek intent

Remembering You set the table heaped with what Your mercy lent

That leer of fear won’t render fruitless the labourer of Your field

That far, far more than duty bids me to be mindful of the yield

That the purpose of loves' endeavor would never be self-apprised

And Lord, if I should spurn Your whisper that I would return, chastised

That the ever-dwindling measure of my numbered days on earth

Would not be spent seeking pleasure but bent on far greater worth

That a kind, careful awareness would keep mind and conscience keened

Lest seared by the repetition of love’s perfect law demeaned

That, when my time on earth is finished and the final battle won

That then full joy will be accomplished when I hear these words ‘well done’

And that the Substance of Things hoped for, evidence of things not seen

Will instill in me such a hunger that nothing can come between

© Janet Martin

Of The 'Commonplace'...

 Many are the times, whether as a young mother or a middle-aged mother and grandmother

I have gazed at loved ones and thought,

"I want to remember you exactly like this"

but I never do...

Time always replaces the old with the new

reminding me that what may seem like a common Monday morning mess really isn't at all!

I want to remember you

How you are right here, right now

But I know I never do

Time erases you somehow

Lending to love's subtle chase

New and precious commonplace

I, with all my best intent

Cannot seal upon fond gaze

Images of endearment

For Time cannot change its ways

Kissing to each form and face

Whole new frames of commonplace

I have dared to shake the cage

That insists upon its due

Futile to grapple with age

Time insists upon the new

Turning into treasured space

That which seemed so commonplace

Then, with kind humility

I will love with tender heart

This small part of you and me

Where the brush that grants its art

Leaves me breathless by the grace

Of ‘no such thing as commonplace’

© Janet Martin

Summoning of Seasoned Senses...(a sort of farewell to sweet September)

 It is so difficult sometimes to reconcile our Want

to the will of Time...

Farewell, September, I hardly remember you

as you flowed through much to do!

As the days like sea-waves roll

Fading on dusk’s westward break

As mere moments take their toll

Strewing seasons in their wake

Seems I sense where echoes cling

An immense unraveling

As the years their fears resign

Sweetness tinged with bitter truth

As the tears with smiles entwine

Like a vine with blighted fruit

Seems I sense where seasons spill

An immense and binding chill

As the refuge once I sought

In some future fantasy

Crumbles where a world of thought

Tumbles through roused reverie

Seems I sense amidst its din

An immense calm closing in

As Time, neither friend nor foe

Turns the green tree russet-gold

As resistance yields its show

Where what once was young grows old

Seems I sense, on leaf-strewn yards

An immense changing of guards

© Janet Martin