Oh, Doesn't Fall Just...(a Thankfulness Poem)

It's Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada... 

Oh, doesn’t fall just turn you inside out with happiness

So much to love and tuck into kind prayers of thankfulness

Where colours of the world crescendo; nature’s orchestra

Slows earth’s impatient audience and fills our hearts with awe

Oh, doesn’t fall just make you wanna dance a dosey-doe

Take that wind-ruffian by the arm as round and round we go

While leaf-shaped notes spiral in a canticle, crimson-tossed

As we drink in the elixir of sunshine steeped in frost

Oh, doesn’t fall just thrill and enthrall you with its appeal

A beautiful withdrawal from sea-song’s silver and teal

Where what once authored quiet dread, in a riot of bliss

Bequeaths a sentimental satisfaction for what is

Oh, doesn’t fall just fill you with oceans of gratitude

The seed has freed its fortune and the flower is subdued

The earth and its fullness thereof hath wielded labour’s rod

And humbled us with harvest as we pay homage to God

Oh, doesn’t fall just stir in you a soulful metronome

Where death’s clock-tower tolls and makes more holy, home-sweet-home

Though we might take the long way just to hear the crunch of leaves

And maybe hum the old-time hymn of Bringing in the Sheaves

Oh, doesn’t fall just wake in you a weight of imminence

The russet frond, frost-brittle now that fringed the pond and fence

The eventide is earlier with sky wide deep’ning blue

Where farewell is a word we never fully get used to

Oh, doesn’t fall just make you feel a little like a king

Crowned with summer-gold memories that only love can bring

And doesn’t fall just always strike you to the very core

Because we always have so much to be so thankful for

© Janet Martin

On Giving Thanks

 It's the Time of year when Thanks Giving reasons multiply by bloom-lent bushel!

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thess.5:18 KJV

Because giving thanks is no spectator sport

And because Christ died once for all

No one has no reason to worship the Lord

Who authored and honours Love’s call

Because giving thanks changes complaint to praise

And makes us more humbly attuned

To blessing and beauty that showers our days

To mercy, each morning renewed

Because giving thanks spears the darkness with light

And touches our sorrows with joy

No one has no reason to count with all might

What Self-centered want would destroy

Because giving thanks is not simply a whim

But a Love-anointed command

No one has no reason to not give to Him

Glad worship of head, heart and hand

© Janet Martin

A 'Praise Him' Poem (and Happy Thanksgiving to our American Friends)

PAD Challenge day 22: For today’s prompt, write a praise poem. 

A poem that has only begun...

There is no end to our WOWZA (see inspiration for this term here)

 when it comes to Praising Him

in whom there is no shadow of turning.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, 

coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, 

who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

 A few praise-him pics of daybreak...

(This is pick-a-stanza piece if it's a little long-winded for your taste😉)

Praise He who dissolves dark with pastel-pink of morning-tide

Who spreads four-season wonderment across the country-side

Who does not give what we deserve but startles us with grace

In spite of all our wayward wants and worship we misplace

Praise He who woos us with His whisper woven deep within

Who knitted us together with far more than pulse ‘neath skin

Who, though He knew how hard the hurt of human plight might be

Created earth and heaven to showcase His majesty

Praise He who lets us laugh; who helps us through each day to day

Who stuns us with the handiwork of nature on display

(and who can count the marvels that He tips from misted jars

From teeniest of blossoms to the night-sky filled with stars)

...from newborn babe to ripe, old age His favor never fails

From bud to bloom to farewell’s tomb His faithfulness prevails

From folds of green to gold through winter’s cold, storm-tossed terrain

Praise He who keeps his promise; Springtime always comes again

Praise He whose Love will never falter, filled tender plea

The author of salvation and hope for eternity

Who, through His Son won for his own, death’s Great Deliverance

If we believe, and thereby receive faith’s inheritance

Praise He, who convicts us of sin that mars our happiness

For too often we want Him to bless our greediness

But praise Him, all-wise Father who works only for our good

And frustrates mortal grasp with mercies oft misunderstood

Praise He, who comforts us when pain or sorrow metes its Must

And calls us to remember our frames of dust-to-dust

Praise He who stirs within us a most keen and solemn sense

After this life all that remains is Choice’s recompense

Praise He who delights in us like a father in a son

And lavishes His love on us in ways never outdone

For He never forsakes His own but heaps grace over grace

Until we pass through the thin curtain that still veils His face

Praise He who dissolves dark with pastel-pink and golden cheer

Who never skips a season in the quadrille of a year

Who does not give us what we earn but renews mercy’s score

With a new day to learn to trust and pray a little more

Janet Martin~

True Thankfulness

How truly thankful am I 

For gifts that life bestows? 

How truly thankful am I?

Only the Giver 

Truly knows!

 Listening to this song is a Thanksgiving tradition!

The things we have and hold and love

Stirs thankfulness a bit (a lot:)

The things we give, ah, here we prove

The holy whole of it

True thankfulness bids us to reach

Beyond our mouthy flare

To prove the opulence of speech

By what we give and share

True thankfulness is more than noise

Of blessings that we count

True thankfulness spills into joys

That fills another’s fount

True thankfulness tunes hearts to heed

The cries of fellowmen

For we are all creatures of need

Needing help now and then

True thankfulness can never cloy

Life’s goodness in clenched fists

But overflows love’s humble joy

With more than tallied lists

The first response of thankfulness

Bids us praise and applaud

The second response seeks to bless

And share life’s gifts from God

© Janet Martin

I'm so thankful to be part of a church family that gives and gives!
I am part of a team that helps prepare Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas services.
I was impacted yesterday with how many people give of their resources, talents and time to make one simple service happen, all to say simply, humbly, fervently
  'thank-you God'!

  ...and a little Thanksgiving humour😃

While teaching a class of lovely, lively grade one to three boys yesterday morning

we discussed what we are thankful for...

One said life

another family and friends, 

another God, and so on

and one mischievous lad said 'my butt'

I rebuked him with a simple 'let's keep this respectful, not rude' and he nodded.

However, a few minutes later when we moved to mats for Large Group story time

This One Mischievous Lad was soon lying on his back and rolling around 

so I couldn't resist whispering into his ear,

 'remember what you said you were thankful for?

Now use it'

He is only six years old but he got a BIG grin, 

and sat on 'it'.

lol. 

A Simple Thanks-living Creed

Bake day, because it's tradition...

Happy Thanksgiving!

With all I am

With all I have

With all my breath of days

With all my love

May my life prove

A heart of thankful praise

© Janet Martin

 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:26