While Opportunity Affords...

whether its a hug,

flowers,

a text,

a thank-you,

a smile,

we'll take it,

right, moms?

(and dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, spouses, etc.)

any day of the week

any time of the year💝

and, while we have the opportunity

in like measure let's give to our moms

(and dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, spouses, etc.)

what we appreciate receiving...

tokens of love

Happy 26th birthday, Matt

(with celebrations better late than never)

Waiting for Uncle Matt to say....

OKAY! Blow!!!

Happy Birthday to you

Little Big Boy is two!

(whenever Little Big Boy's  mommy asked what kind of birthday cake he would like

his reply was quick and to the point, 'Candy!!' 😅😂💖

In the past week we've celebrated a few birthdays 

and a few mothers...

Each celebration's joy over-shadowed with the awareness

of a grief-stricken family in our neighborhood

who recently lost 'mother' without warning

on their way home from a day spent together.

These things should serve as sacred reminders

to love while opportunity affords...

(yes, every 'howling' bit of it, some with laughter, some with tears 😅)

in tot's defense, he just got pulled from playing golf with a set he just received for his birthday

Here's to the beginning of a lifetime of 'looking for the ball!'

While opportunity affords occasion to love as we ought

To test the reasoning that lords over empires of want-prone thought

While we are able to partake of moments shaping What Has Been

While love allots hope and heartache and all its tender points between

While give-and-take are running rife

Let's make the most of love and life 

While celebrating motherhood and everyone that makes Her thus

While learning to love as we should amidst the humanness of 'us' 

While weathering (but by God's grace) the rise and fall of highs and lows

While ever-approaching the place we all will face; life's curtain-close

While have-and-hold unfolds its lease

Let's cherish every masterpiece 

While laughter spills lyrical thrills and we embrace the gift of 'touch' 

While we encounter clash of wills because human nature is such

While years estrange each brief What Is, while leaving so much still to teach  

While we shoulder imperfect bliss before it slips beyond our reach

Let's taste simple pleasures with love

While God refills Time's treasure-trove 

While mercy meets us where we are and grants fresh opportunity 

While we are never very far from fond farewells waiting to be

While growing older with each breath that draws closer dust-and-ash dues 

Let's live today's prelude to death as if love has no time to lose 

Before its sorrowing tears pour

Let's love now, like never before    

Let's evaluate moment-art

then take each gift of love to heart

Janet~

...and last but not least, our master chef!

Yesterday morning the service was opened with one of my favorite Psalms-16...

Preserve[a] me, O God, for in You I put my trust.

2 O my soul, you have said to the Lord,

“You are my Lord,

My goodness is nothing apart from You.”

3 As for the saints who are on the earth,

“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;

Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,

Nor take up their names on my lips.

5 O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;

You [b]maintain my lot.

6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;

Yes, I have a good inheritance.

7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel;

My [c]heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

8 I have set the Lord always before me;

Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will [d]rest in hope.

10 For You will not leave my soul in [e]Sheol,

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to [f]see corruption.

11 You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Hope's Frame...

Good/Happy gorgeous, Friday May morning to you...

Across the eastward brink of earth, a sea of unplumbed moments tolls

Something about a new day’s birth wakens awareness in our souls

For He who sets before our gaze, Hope’s Frame filled with mercy renewed

To author a glad hymn of praise and unspeakable gratitude

Ahoy! The hours fleetly fly between daybreak and twilight’s knell

Soon their plumbed aftermath will lie like husks strewn where dusk’s shadows fell

Leaving behind the words and deeds we tossed like seeds along the way

A blend of fruit, flowers and weeds that will be threshed on That Great Day

…compelling us to pay close heed to track-records not finished yet

To study and ponder the seed that that we are so prone to forget

To regard with attentive care those who are following behind

And to be solemnly aware of sheaves we leave for them to bind

Across earth’s eastward brink a sea of unplumbed mercies bares God’s heart

His love for all humanity should bid us do our earnest part

To fill the Day that fleetly spans the distance between faith and sight

With love because His mercy fans the flame that fills hope’s frame with Light

© Janet Martin

Morning Has Broken

Eph.1:17-19 

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, 

may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, 

so that you may know him better. 

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order 

that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 

19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

today's poem was inspired in part by the passages above and below;

Does the phrase, 'God, who is rich in mercy'

not offer food for glorious meditation

as we wonder and ponder the riches of His 

great power and glory?!!

Eph.2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 

2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world

 and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, 

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] 

and following its desires and thoughts. 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—

it is by grace you have been saved. 

6 And God raised us up with Christ 

and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 

7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,

 expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 

9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

As Long As There Is 'Us'

Yesterday morning my mom, sisters and sister-in-laws 

gathered in a joyful celebration; a birthday...

Happy birthday, Karen 🎂🌷

(picture used with permission; photographer my sister, Lucy)

(click HERE for a record of some of the prayer requests

shared over the years for Karen and my brother Dave, her husband.

 

We were each invited to bring approx. 6 stems of white, pink and/or purple flowers to

create one big bouquet from all of us💗💜💗

Yesterday afternoon a community of mourners gathered

(after a tragedy mentioned HERE and HERE)

to remember the life of a dearly beloved woman; 

a wife, mother, daughter, sister, sister-in-law, neighbor, friend, 

mentor, counsellor, etc. to so many...

Gatherings like this are a solemn reminder to all of 'us' 

to be more mindful (once again) 

of something we can easily take for granted; 

each other.

As grieving friends and family shared

there was a common theme; to choose, above all else-

gratitude for the gift of her life 

and love they shared with her.

As long as there is ‘us’; mom, dad, spouse, sister and brother

Neighbors, friends, both far and near, we have a gift; each other

No two of us are quite alike, created tenderly

By He who's written all our days before one comes to be

As long as there is us, until that day when death doth part

We ought to live to love each other with all of our heart

Because life is a fragile thing; we cannot see how far

From farewell’s fond and unrelenting, rending reach we are

So then, let’s love each other without verbal fist-a-cuff

Let’s recognize the gift of now, and make the most of love

Because life grants no guarantees, let’s be patient and kind

For no one knows who next will leave love’s gaping hole behind

As long as there is ‘us’ let’s write Our Story with love’s ink

Rather than take for granted what can be gone in a wink

Let’s look each other in the eye and hold each other near

Before the gift of ‘us’ frames joy in sorrow’s tender tear

As long as there is ‘us’ let’s keep each other in our prayers

Let’s make moments to cherish in the thick of common cares

And be more humbly mindful of the gift we call today

Then, be a living ‘thank-you’ to the Giver, while we may

© Janet Martin

Psalm 139:16

Your eyes saw my unformed body; 

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

 before one of them came to be.

Yesterday evening this post (click link in title)

 from Ann Voskamp was in my inbox!

Especially profound in the light of recent events...

How Is Loss a Gift?

( About grief, gratitude and the gifts of God )

Love Letter from a Father

Today's poem-prompt form Robert Lee Brewer @ Writer's Digest:

For today's prompt, write a persona poem.

 A persona poem is just a poem narrated in the voice of a persona who is not yourself.

Because I grant no guarantees

I tick and tock, I fly and chime...

Dear You, proprietor of dreams

And plans, that I alone estrange

Where, no matter the age, it seems

Human Nature will never change

Dear You, I'd like to, if I may

Before I take you by surprise 

And what now seems secure, falls prey

To resting places I disguise   

I'd like to remind you to pause

And ponder well, all I have lent

Making the most of Now, because

You never know when I am spent

Futile to want what Bygone seals

Or wish for what may never be

Better the hour that still peals

With fleeting opportunity 

Some think that I am on their side

And live as if I thought so too

But I am the taut, tender tide

 That tugs and tolls with dust and dew 

No respecter of persons, I

Am but a servant too, you see

Morning, noon, night is my reply

To a Higher Authority

Before it is to late to give

What I cannot, when 'we' have passed

I want to remind you to live

As if each day could be your last

Because I grant no guarantees

I tick and tock, I fly and chime

My legacy, your memories,

Yours duly, truly, 

Father Time

© Janet Martin

(Because) We Never Know From Day to Day...

Job 14:1-2

Man, who is born of woman,

is short of days and full of trouble.

Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away;

like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

We are a community in mourning

after a tragic traffic accident

Death has a way of re-reminding us 

to look our beloved families, neighbors and friends in the eye

and love them like we were on borrowed time!

We never know from day to day what will unfold of joy or grief

Life grants no guarantees but one; death an ineludible Chief

'Man born of woman’s, days are few and full of trouble', we are told

We never know who will be next to slip beyond our feeble hold

The best that we can do is live and love as if today could be

The day of lasts before we step from time into eternity

We never know when joys we often take for granted will conclude

How kinder we would be, how gentler, humbler our attitude/gratitude

The best that we can do is trust the Giver as the Taker too

And not demand an explanation when a numbered day comes due

The best that we can do is make the most of Opportunity

Because we never know from day to day, what waits to be

© Janet Martin

In loving memory of Kelly F.-Mar.12, 1980-Apr.14, 2024

Wednesday, March 12th, 1980 - Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Wednesday, March 12th, 1980 - Sunday, April 14th, 2024

Unequivocal Eclipse

 Today's poem-a-day challenge from Robert Lee Brewer @ Writer's Digest

For today's prompt, write a major event poem.

A spectacular start to Eclipse Day...

Today bears an air of excited anticipation/expectation

for what has been dubbed a once in a lifetime celestial event!

A total solar eclipse!

Many have made much ado about this rare event!

Imagine if with similar excitement,  we anticipated and prepared for

Another Once in a 'lifetime' Celestial Event!

Rev.1:7

Behold, He is coming with the clouds, 

and every eye will see Him—

even those who pierced Him. 

And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. 

So shall it be! 

Amen.

(Today's poem can be read as one

or as five poem-lets)

To open my eyes to a front row seat

To goodness and mercy is no small fete

To want nothing dearer that God's Hand stayed

And to rejoice in this day He has made

To live in the moment before it is spent

Makes every Today a major event

***

To feast on the favors/flavors of hope and cheer

And savor the sparkle of Now and Here 

Before Today's Slice within reach becomes

A gaping impression of scattered crumbs

Ah, nothing and no one can capture time spent

Thus, every day is a major event 

***

The would-have and should have of yesterday lie

Like strewn husks beneath Today's beaming sky

Tomorrow's illusions may never unfold

Today's vault gleams with priceless moment-gold

Let's make the most of its measure soon spent

And treasure Today; a major event 

***

How lovely the laughter that dries the tear

How brief each leaf in the sheaf of a year

How hardly it seems daybreak spills hope's hues

Before darkly muffled by dusk's adieus  

How dearly then, before Today is spent

We should be tuned to its Major Event 

***

Each day is like a stepping stone; someday

God will reach down and brush them all away

Someday, each knee will bow, each tongue proclaim

That He is God; holy, holy, His Name 

Someday Unequivocal Evidence

Will eclipse all previous major events

Janet Martin

There's an old quote something like this;

For the believer, this world is as bad as it will get.

For the unbeliever, this world is as good as it will get!

What a (Glorious) Day That Will Be (for the Believer)

How hardly it seems daybreak spills hope's hues

Before darkly muffled by dusk's adieus  

Of (Fleeting) Time and Place

I'm currently working at painting and preparing a vacant bedroom

as a spare bedroom (aka grandchildren's sleepover room😊😉💓)

Two coats of primer later, Matt's old room colour, 

the colour of a basketball, is simply a memory!

painted during the boyhood basketball phase of his life;

 a phase long overtaken by more pressing matters, (like mortgages,😅)

Proof of the fleeting POOF!! 

of stages and ages, interests and passions!

Reminding us to build on the eternal 

rather than the temporal because...

 ...the things which are seen are temporary, 

 the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 Cor.4:18

I finished listening to this book yesterday as I painted...

God's Smuggler

The book is filled with profound thoughts and experiences 

but the one below, near the end of the book

made me put down my brush and jot it down!

Starkly relevant for the age we are in...

(When, after gaining access to a country through great effort and pains,

 he (Brother Andrew) proceeded to hand out Bibles, but no one seemed interested)

And he was struck with this revelation-

'Persecution was an enemy the church had met and mastered many times.

Indifference could prove to be a far more dangerous foe!'

**

Pray, we do not slip into indifference, 

but live, deeply aware that we are all 

on a very impending verge... of  eternity

***

Jude 1:3-4

Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share,

 I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith

 entrusted once for all to the saints. 

4For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—

ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. 

They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, 

and they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

***

 

The blessings we enjoy

The heartaches we endure

Grievances that annoy

Dreams loosed from the mind’s moor

The ups and downs we face

The fights twixt faith and fear

Are all hallmarks of time and place

And temporary, dear

Love’s holy exercise

Of hold-and-letting-go

Of glad hellos and hard goodbyes

Of retrospect’s slideshow

Of choice, for better-worse

And not all it appears

Of consequence we bless or curse

With laughter or with tears

Pleasure’s brief blitz of bliss

Suffering’s griefs and pains

All pass way; the genesis

To all that yet remains

Of everlasting gain

Or everlasting loss

These moments in the sun and rain

Are but bridges we cross

That lead away from This

Brief encounter with grace

Where soul alone transcends What Is

Of fleeting Time and Place

The fool rejects this truth

The wise take heed and pray

Because death is the living proof

Of this world’s little stay

Then, while we can, prepare

To meet Thy God, before

We step from time’s fleet thoroughfare

Into Forevermore

© Janet Martin

A Love Beyond Compare

One of my Sunday School students presented this artwork to me yesterday;

a picture she drew (with permission😇) while listening to the lesson!

I love my class of smart, beautiful, eager, full-of-potential school-girls!

Thank-you K.S.

My earnest prayer for all our Sunday School students,

is that the Holy Spirit would begin to waken and nurture,

as we gather weekly, (and as weeks turn into years,)

not just a belief in God but a love for God.

That they would get more than an education in Bible stories and facts,

but that the plan and gift of salvation would begin to unfold

a lifelong awe, reverence and wonder for God's love and grace!

Will you join me in praying too?!

They are little for such a very little time!

I also pray that we, their teachers, parents and grandparents 

live pure and humble testimonies

of genuine love for the Saviour of our souls

and the Lord of our lives!

***

Matthew 5:16 - Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works, 

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

***

Let's live love over and above

What Duty delegates

Let's love God, wonderfully awed

By His goodness and grace

Let's live aware of eyes that care-

fully watch every move 

Where actions shout and leave no doubt

About who we most love

Let's live a life of joy, not strife

Let's pay most earnest heed

To what we sow, because we know

Soon fruit follows the seed 

Soon innocence will climb time's fence

And leave childhood behind

Let's live love over and above

With every child in mind 

Before the heart grows hard, let's start

To plant, with tender care

Awareness of God's wondrous love:

A love beyond compare 

Janet~

Ephesians 5:1-2

 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 

 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

 a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Through the Means of Today

"That our sanctification did not depend upon changing

our works, but, in doing that for God's sake which we commonly do for our own.

That it was lamentable to see how many people mistook the means for the end,

addicting themselves to certain works which they performed

very imperfectly, by reason of their human or selfish regards...."

Above excerpt from The Practice of the Presence of God

by Brother Lawrence

We ought to pay close heed

To dawn’s gift on display

Because of where its moments lead

Through the means of Today...

Some folk I have outlived

And some will outlive me

Through the means of Today, a gift

God grants mortality

The tally of the sum

Of Today-shadows cast

Are like flickers that will become

My life, when life is passed

The breath that holds the soul

At bay, someday will cease

The means of getting to the goal

Will expire its lease

We ought to pay close heed

To dawn’s gift on display

Because of where its moments lead

Through the means of Today

The means is not the end

The ‘seen’ will soon be through

Let’s live as if Today could rend

The veil between the two

…where there is no release

To what none can outlive;

The end begins what cannot cease

And God alone can give

Oh, pray we bear in mind

Far more than dust of clay

In grave-strewn worlds soon left behind

Through the means of Today

© Janet Martin

Ps.107:8-9

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
 For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Sharing some morning robin and finch cheeriness!

(in between traffic noise!)

Building For Eternity-New Heights Quartet

The Great Redeemer

New Month's Resolutions

 Happy, happy March! (already?!!)

This winter is flying by and hardly feeling like 'real' winter

with its milder temperatures and lack of snow!

Although last evening wasn't mild!

I almost froze my fingers to get these sunset poses!!!

I had to miss the magnificent, pink finale because I needed to go back inside to thaw my hands!

Note to self: never assume to be fine without mittens no matter how mild a few days earlier was!

May we make today more cheerful by being thankful and kind

And by keeping thought life gentle with fellowman's needs in mind

May we not be blind to beauty's wonder-thund'ring treasure trove

But embrace life's common duties with a glad and grateful love

Pray the Lord's goodness will fill us with joy bursting at the core

Rather than highlights that thrill us then leave us thirsting for more

Pray love’s meek and quiet spirit shields us from frontlines of strife

From lust of the flesh and eye, and dust to dust’s vain pride of life

Behold! each moment-memento brims with opportunity

May we delight in the tempo tuning Today’s symphony

For, sufficient for each hour is God’s glorious grace unfurled

Ah! Nothing can overpower He who overcame the world

May we make today more lovely by the way that we reply

To the Giver; not rude-grumbly, but with humble ‘here am I’

As creation spills our ears full, as dawn sets yon heights ablaze

May we make today more cheerful by joining its hymn of praise

For soon high's noon's full bloom flounders; soon plush petal-mettle yields

To the tug that always counters today with tomorrow's fields

So, before today is gathered into Bygone's works of art

May its moments as they scatter leave a smile in someone's heart

© Janet Martin

Ps.92:4-8

For You, O LORD, have made me glad by Your deeds;

I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

5How great are Your works, O LORD,

how deep are Your thoughts!

6A senseless man does not know,

and a fool does not understand,

7that though the wicked sprout like grass,

and all evildoers flourish,

they will be forever destroyed.

8But You, O LORD, are exalted forever!

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing