The Momentum of Moments...

Happy Birthday. Jim!

thank-you for wearing out many a work-shoe on our behalf.

We love you!!

These work shoes have weathered many a mile

and, if in the kitchen some glares fierce and mean

of which you seem to enjoy as you smile

and reply, "relax honey, they're clean!"

The bread you win I've buttered and packed

Into sandwich-miles so you can eat on the run  (you're known for that)

The muffins I've made for your lunches, when stacked

I dare say could almost touch the sun

The food you carry the is same EVERY week, yes!! (for years)

Bananas and cornflakes, muffins and cheese

Yogurt, fruit,  somersausage sandwiches

Lately you've relented to "take salad, please!"

(p.s. the jif-jar is applesauce, not peanut-butter😊 )

 Happy Birthday Jim, and God bless you, my dear

And keep you safe where many dangers lurk (like moose!! close call this week)

May He keep His hands over yours as you steer

And give you strength to do your work (like cleaning out trailers)

The momentum of moments always startles us somehow

As we constantly marvel at the pace of here and now

Life’s mosaic of days gone by expands, the commonplace

A humbling recollection of God’s faithfulness and grace

Time leaves us at a loss for words where seasons disappear

And in its dexterous demise adds on another year

While we are busy looking after love’s constant demands

With legacy of work worn shoes and labour-weathered hands

We ought to not look back too long, yet long enough to count

The blessings overflowing from an invisible fount

Where fight songs we once flaunted with presumptuous flippancy

Have softened to a much more modest, thankful melody

No matter what our age, there’s always something new to learn

As we begin to bear the brunt of Bygone’s no return

We need to build each other up while we are breaking down

We need to keep on smiling even when we’d rather frown

Because Time waits for no man in its courses we must brave

And much of what has shaped us will follow us to the grave

The ways we’ve become set in too established to undo

Save perhaps this; to say more often these words, I love you

© Janet Martin