For We, Four-Season Lovers

 

As 'winter' descended with a vengeance this week

conversations turned season-ward...ready or not, winter always comes!

I hope/try to be a four-season lover both literally and metaphorically!

For everything we love in seasons that never stay,

each season holds so many unexpected and lovely surprises

if we keep our hearts, arms, ears and eyes open!

Yesterday I lingered over this tray of autumn-gourds,

aka, the Creator's creations

I was reluctant to trade them for more Christmas-flavored décor...

...but then, Christmas joy cheers autumn sorrow!

though, subconsciously I am already preparing for the pangs, when the time comes 

of tucking away dried orange slices and cookie-cutter stars,

(however, it feels like I just did that and here we are, hanging them once more!!!)

For we, four-season lovers

Of green, gold, red and white

Of constantly bowled over

By waves of sheer delight

Of shamelessly confounded

By annual buffets

Of creation unbounded

To enchant and amaze

Of thought, agog with wonder

Of hearts taken by storm

As God turns mortal thunder

To worship’s purest form

Of love’s aleatory

Hymn, from we, humbly awed

At fringes of the glory

And majesty of God

For we, four-season lovers

That grapple with heart-ties

Tangled in fields of clover

And colors of sunrise

And friendships, forged with flits of

Petalled and feathered things

And all the lovely bits of

Beauty each season brings

From spring’s green-misted bowers

To summer’s butterflies

To autumn’s tattered flowers

To winter’s wooly skies

We find fresh exclamations

Of gladness to console

Farewells. Joy heals abrasions

Where love had left a hole

For we, four-season lovers

Imbibed with glints of time

As thankfulness discovers

Life’s commonplace sublime

To startle us with laughter

Rather than vain laments

As God regales both rafter

And deep, with excellence

His goodness fills each season

With His marvelous ways

To kindle perfect reason

To praise Him all our days

To give Him more than merely

Religion’s austere nod

But rather worship dearly

Our four-season God

© Janet Martin

To give Him more than merely

Religion’s austere nod

But rather worship dearly

Our four-season God...

Ps.147

Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; 

for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.

The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

Who covereth the heaven with clouds, 

who prepareth rain for the earth, 

who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.

For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.

He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.

He giveth snow like wool: he scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes.

He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?

He sendeth out his word, and melteth them: he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.

He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them.

 Praise ye the Lord.