Let's Just Do the Best We Can

 Sometimes love is as simple as a shared cup of tea...

(this photo is from a 'tea-book' gifted to me from a tea-buddy')

I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions but it is a good time to re-evaluate and reconsider our goals…

Instead of tongue-waggling our way through it

Let’s put talk to touch and do it

Instead of thinking’s well-laid plan

Let’s just do the best we can

…with what we’ve got, not what will be

Or with what fills our fantasy

The merchandise of want-and-wish

Unless these ‘wants’ are unselfish

…are often vain; our single plan

Should be to do the best we can

…and truly love our fellowman

Then we will do the best we can

© Janet Martin

  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

The Sweeping Sweep of Years

The sweeping sweep of years will yield

The seeds we’re planting in its field

Though hidden deep, still it will grow

This is the way of seeds, you know

And though the hour disappears

Lost in the sweeping sweep of years

When first we dropped it underfoot

Eventually it will bear fruit

Someday will spill the telling yield

Of seeds we’re planting in its field

The sweeping sweep of years will prove

At harvest-time the God we love

Planter and reaper both are we

A weed can never be a tree

Consider well these minute spheres

Lost to the sweeping sweep of years

© Janet Martin

 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Gal.6:7

Our 'Shouting Voice'

For all the words we tout and spout

In sleek and polished token

The only words we ever shout

Are those in action spoken

© Janet Martin

Let’s make our actions count today!

Happy Last day of July 2013.

Irrefutable Dialogue

Love is a dialogue

Not simply of lips

But of heart-whispered murmurs

By fingertips

We live our moments

With an immutable choice

For the heart moves the hand

Thus, the hand is our voice

Can we teach the heart

The law of the head

Or are words mere distraction

To what really is said?

Come closer, my darling

I long to convey

Without word-diversion

What I need to say

© Janet Martin

This train of thought came about this morning as my son questioned me about why people do what they do in spite of what they say... I didn't know what to say other than 'it is the heart that moves the hand...not the law of word.'

Ambitions...

Today I have not stumbled

Or spoken in haste

I have had no regrets

Or actions of distaste

Perhaps this day will be

Like no other before

I fling back my blankets

And my feet touch the floor…

© Janet Martin

…sigh, that was earlier, you know…?

Of Seeds and Such...

They fall along the wayside

A subtle scattered seed

As thought becomes an action

And action becomes deed

With studious regarding

We should tend the field

Where first the seed is starting

Before it bears its yield

For soon along the wayside

The seed begins to grow

And soon our hidden thought-life

Observant eyes will know

They fall along the wayside

A subtle scattered seed

With diligent discernment

Its ilk we ought to heed

© Janet Martin

Non-optional Juxtaposition

We are teachers;

We are students

Someone is watching

when we least expect

Action is speech

It tests our fluent

creation derived

of alphabet

Action is merely

a thought’s reflection

Thought is formed

by what we absorb

We teach while we learn

A juxtaposition

of far-reaching impact

we cannot ignore

We are teachers;

and we are students

No one escapes

this practical truth

We are never too old

to cease our learning

yet we become teachers

in tender youth

…for there is always

somebody following

observing the choices

we thoughtlessly make

Action speaks volumes

Love and compassion

are beautiful legacies

we cannot fake

Action is merely

a thought’s reflection

The wise man endeavors

to keep this in mind

for when we don’t expect it

somebody is watching

and thought is the medium

in which character is defined

We entertain

either angels or demons

in thought’s mystic cell

where only God can see

But sooner or later

as thought becomes action

Truth is revealed

In clarity

© Janet Martin

Mary's comment bears repeating!

...So true, Janet. We probably teach many in our lives when we don't even realize we are teaching! And many who are our teachers don't realize their role for us either. And then, of course, there is the Great Teacher who teaches the greatest lessons of all.

Tango

Paramount passion
Legion of sorrow
Tonight we dance
and weep tomorrow

Never once
did it enter our minds
that both are intricately
Intertwined

Janet