September Skin...

Happy September Saturday!

SO much is happening to remind us

of the preciousness of Time...

Let's cherish moments with our loved ones because

we never know what a day holds!

Each morning is set free from a fresh flask of moment-dust

Then seize its opportunity and raise thy glass to Trust

The colours of the countryside have lost their lustrous sheen

The timbre of time’s telling tide shucks cornfields of lush green

Deception’s furtive favours, for a small while may appease

The heart with summer-flavours steeped in ling’ring fantasies

But cannot keep at bay for long the truth that will be told

Where September tolls welkin gong and turns the pear tree gold

…and tips yon cruet, spilling bluest awning overhead

Where sweet time as we knew it runs a sentimental thread

Through you and I as we grapple with subtle season-shifts

While comforted by apple-orchard orb’s enticing gifts

As we count down last days of summer with awed gratitude

For who can tally the vast ways of God’s goodness renewed 

Each morning is set free from a fresh flask of moment-dust

Then seize its opportunity and raise thy glass to Trust

For everyone can ill afford to pine for yester-years

But taste time’s vintage being poured, before it disappears

We have an obligation, nay, a privilege to give

To God pure adoration for each single day we live

September stokes in us an ache for Season almost spent

Where we are beholden to make the most of Mercy’s ‘lent’

And learn to love the colours that are slowly seeping in

For glove of youth and valour will soon don September skin

Where the fool mourns what once was, but the wise remain content

Time is too precious to fritter in bittersweet lament

© Janet Martin

Eccles.3:1

To everything there is a season, 

A time for every purpose under heaven:

It is also still very much canning season;

Off to make some salsa!

(I got up at 6:00 to start the canning 

but then the sun was rising 

and then a poem begged!)

And such is always the poet's quandary/dilemma

...to heed domestic duties or to poem-a 😏😊

On Going Through The Change...

They don't call it The Change for nothing, my sister and I conceded as we

lamented some of the maladies of middle-age😓

As I pondered this it made me think of a few other changes

that we should, by God's grace, go through

(and some that eventually we will) by God's promise, 

go through...

***

Some changes are anticipated eagerly,,

like the change a new baby brings

or winter warming to spring

Others we would dodge if we could,

But changeless God, if we allow Him

works change for our good!

***

Always day changes to night

then night to day...

Change challenges and teaches us

It vexes and delights

It startles and beseeches us

With ruthless appetites

Oh, nothing stays the same for long

In life’s foray of days

The hand of change is sure and strong

Insisting on its ways

Both good and ill do not stand still

As surge of seasons roll

Change wistfully winnows until

All that remains is Soul

Change tempers us and teases us

The wrinkles it bestows

For all the ways it squeezes us

The least of our woes

Change changes us, estranges us

From who we used to be

A slow and steady genesis

To immortality

© Janet Martin

Behold, I tell you a [m]mystery: 

 shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— 

52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 

at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, 

and the dead will be raised incorruptible, 

and we shall be changed.

1 Cor.15:51-52

Eph.4:17-24

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, 

that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 

18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God 

because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

  19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality 

so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.

20That, however, is not the way of life you learned

  21when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, 

to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 

23to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

  24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Colossians 3:9-10

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge 

according to the image of the One who created him—

Faithful One-Robin Mark

Elemental Metamorphosis

PAD Challenge day 6: For this Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

Write a change poem and/or...

Write a don't change poem.

The gold-etched puddle caught my eye this morning providing

the springboard to today's poem-prompt!

Dawn...

Gold etches remnant sketches of gray’s shattered aftermath

It gilds the place of tears to cheer the pilgrim on life’s path

From what we cannot change to what we can; where young and old

Are at the mercy of the Hand that begilds gray with gold

What is soon changes; elemental metamorphosis

Father Time soon estranges us from everything that is

So, before we begin to fret about all that is not

We’d better take a better look at all the good we’ve got

Because before we know it, we will look back on today

Change is on the horizon brimming with both gold and gray

Where for better or worse is always never very far

And change is often taking place exactly where we are

© Janet Martin

Change is on the horizon brimming with both gold and gray...

Dusk...

...and points in between...

Still...

Life is like a box of Chocolates.

you never know what you're gonna get.

~ Forrest Gump

 

Sometimes that's how I feel about poetry before it is bitten/written!

SO much to taste; as fingers move you just never know what the end result will be!

Above photo from the book Through Irish Eyes

Do you ever look at history books and wonder at the photos, 

the fashions, the 'normal' of the time?!

Do you ever read a book from ages past,

and marvel at how much has changed

only to read the story of the people in the pictures

to realize that beneath façade 

humanity is as much the same as ever?!

People with souls pressing toward hope-and-dream goals

with many a bump along the way...

This poem took off in a totally different direction than I was expecting

when I first felt 'the niggle'...

That's the joy of poetry; you never know what you're gonna get!😄

Time does not change the way it pours four seasons round and round

It does not hasten or meander, ever tick-tock bound

Sunrise, sunset, now dry, now wet, now plant, now harvest, oh

Where it seems little stays the same as ages come and go

…but some things stay; life’s ilk of silk and steel still much the same

As on the day when Adam pointed at his wife with blame

The sweetness of indulgence of forbidden fruit is brief

Consequence still lasts so much longer borne with bitter grief

Yes, little stays the same but oh, the heart left to its rule

Is still desp’rately wicked as it caters to the fool

Pride still precedes destruction, arrogance authors the fall

And humble pie is still a most unpleasant victual

The youth that we try to preserve will still always fall prey

To Father Time who does not swerve or waver in his way

When man still loves a woman and a woman loves a man

Till death doth part, we still glimpse the heart of the Master's Plan

Innocence of a child is still the purest joy on earth

Mirth finds its dearest laughter and life finds its sweetest worth

Where man, still born to trouble will soon discover its rod

Push-pull, heave-ho, uphill we go, still by the grace of God

We still reap what we sow; God is not mocked, though some will dare

To think they can, spurning the love that didst their pardon bear

Man’s understanding still grapples with Lord God’s Sovereignty

The rebel still plucks ‘apples’ from the still forbidden tree

God's gift of grace is still free if we repent and believe

The sinner on one's own cannot redemption’s work achieve

We still all have only one life, death’s sickle sweeps the earth

And one by one we will return to He who authors birth

Time and humanity, while progress changes the façade

Are beneath the authority of Everlasting God

And while so little stays the same, some things will never change

Because of the Undying Soul no mortal can estrange

© Janet Martin

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Heb.13:8

Be still and know that I am God

Psalm 46:10

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

 do not fret when people succeed in their ways, 

when they carry out their wicked schemes

Psalm 37:7

Still, Still With Thee

Adapting to Time's Changes

It's easy, when our comfort zones are not rocked 

to become more complacent than we think we are.

Yesterday morning's sky suggested a storm on the horizon...

...the afternoon proved it!

The times we are in suggest a storm on the horizon!

What are we doing to prepare?

This song has become a bit of a mainstay in my mind

in these changing times!

Rock of Ages  thank-you Augustus Toplady

Adapting to time’s changes that we sometimes don’t expect

Can introduce ourselves to strangers we have never met

How well love’s pieces fall in place when life is kind and good

But who are we when things don’t go the way we wish they would?

Change is a curtain-rise exposing foreign points of view

Principles will be challenged with popular say and do

And if we don’t know why we stand for what we do, look out

The fall will surely show who pomp and boast was all about

The Rock of Ages does not change but everything else will

The sacred pages of love’s law are pure and perfect still

Forbid we think about ourselves more highly than we ought

But humbly seek the One whereby meekness and Truth are taught

Who are we when push comes to shove and shove to shock and awe

When we are challenged by a mob ignorant of God’s law

Where will we stand when change arranges strange conspiracies

Will we look to First in Command or earthly hierarchies 

When change confronts us with sudden and unexpected spar

And introduces ourselves to who we really are

It sometimes comes as a surprise when stripped of love’s façade 

To realize how often we trust man, rather than God

Adapting to time's changes is more than fodder-for-past

For Time is not a liar; it will tell the truth at last

Of who we serve, what we preserve by faith or negligence 

And who we are by who we look to for our confidence

© Janet Martin

It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man.

Psalm 118:8

Change Is Not A Comfy Sweater

This post started while hanging out laundry

and contemplating Comfy...

One thing I love in fall is pulling out old sweaters

that have certainly seen better days

but have such a comfy, cozy coming-home feeling!

***

Change is definitely not a comfy sweater!

2020 has forced all of us into certain 'outfits' we would never choose

but must learn to adapt to, and wear!

***

Change keeps us on our toes...

Ballerinas poised on joy's highs and lows

***

Change yanks us from easy chairs 

to balance-beams

Thank God for books; yellow with age 

amidst change-fueled streams

***

Change is much more than a mirror

Playing back the view

Change is like a subtle shearer

Of sheep, and wolves too

***

Change is a symphony of Touch

Give and take synchronized

Look, while we try new shoes and such

It steals The Old we prized

***

Change; inevitable matter of Fact

Stretch if you must but keep Focus intact

Sooner or later, as change takes its toll

It will take all but Creator and Soul

 

***

Change is a strange, familiar thing

As common as a clock

Eternity hinged to a string

Thinned with each tick and tock

***

Tick-tock, tick-tock

If we could see 

Time's filigree unwind

With each tick-tock 

I think we'd all be

More humble and kind

*** 

Change sometimes makes me feel a bit like I am stuffed into 

An outfit snug and stiff, uncomfortable, brand new 

I’d rather wear something kind of threadbare but broken in 

Because I feel much more at home in Routine’s Rags, worn thin 

Change sometimes makes me feel like a child at a wishing well

Or middle-aging student learning how to read and spell 

Where familiar failures and successes are not enough 

To shield me from new guessing-lessons about life and love 

Change sometimes makes me happy but more often breaks the mold 

That feels like so much like my own skin, well-adapted and old 

Till estrangements and fresh arrangements stretch and test and try 

Change is a ladder to stars that keep falling from the sky 

© Janet Martin 

Changeless As Ever, Forever

 The previous post talked about the constancy of change.

Juxtaposed to Change is the Constancy of what/Who cannot change...

The sky this morning was GORGEOUS, but something that never seems to change is

my habit of setting sunglasses and camera anywhere, 

so therefore it seems I spend half my summer hunting for one or the other.

I didn't get a picture of the dawn-sky (or last night's stunner of a sunset)

 but found my camera in the pantry a bit ago while making lunches.

I think I set it there after dashing out to

take these shots yesterday while making supper...

...another thing that doesn't change is the pile of work that won't wait,

waiting after a week away!

 But SO satisfying afterwards!

Changeless above all is the Word that IS God...

As changing as the surface of the sea

That ebbs and surges, is the toll of time

Colour and texture shift; humanity

As it adapts to each precarious clime

Is apt to drift on swells of idle talk

If not secured upon the Solid Rock

Ah, changeless as the ticking of the clock

This life is lashed by season’s shifting tides

Where clash of wills and warped logic may balk

Unshakeable, the Word of God abides

Then cling with faith, not sight, lest quest for proof

Cast dark shadows of doubt on timeless Truth

Beneath, above, beyond thought’s leaky roof

Unchanging is the One Time cannot thwart

Authority and love works for our good

While prophecy unfolds foretold report

While pleasure-pirates loot but cannot find

Enough of stuff to satisfy the mind

Unchanging is the plight of humankind

…we are all creatures full of utter need

Dependent on a pattern God designed

For we rebel, just like Adam and Eve

And we would all be sailors lost at sea

Without the Rock, secured at Calvary

This Rock is Jesus; He who sets us free

Anchors the Soul, lest dreadfully we drift

Toward the shoreline of eternity

Each breath we take diminishes the rift

Where change estranges much with shifting tides

But still the love and Word of One abides

We cannot overthrow what God decides

Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End

Will soon unveil the proof the Fool derides

And faith alone is called on to defend

Nearer and nearer draws the Awesome Hour

When Christ will reappear in glorious pow’r

© Janet Martin

the hymn below is especially meaningful in times like these!!

 Here is a sky-shot from two evenings ago!

Metamorphosis of Now...

 We have returned from a week away at the cottage...

a different sort of week as people came and went

as jobs required and released

(the cottage is close enough to home to make this possible)

Gone are the years when everyone could

take the same week off and stay.

so instead of looking back and mourning the past

we open our hearts and embrace

the ever-changing present

 precious time with Grandchildren...

 a bit of reading time...

listening to lake counsel, mesmerized by its varying tones...

 front row seat to the heavens declaring the glory of God!

among some of the week's pleasures

Change does not happen overnight

But oh, it always does

The Thing that is slips out of sight

Into the Way it Was

Wrapped in the rush of when and how

The metamorphosis of now

For what it’s worth ‘this too shall pass’

Nothing can hold its own

Against the trickle in a glass

That is not overthrown

But shapes time’s grains with subtle ease

Into a chain of memories

Time teaches us to cherish now

We have no more…or less

With which to learn, teach, reach and bow

Beneath farewell’s address

Where no one knows how near or far

To that Gateway called death we are

These numbered days, a gift from God

Ought to tune us with awe

Only a fool ignores his prod

Or sets a stubborn jaw

Where Time is like a wave that rolls

Toward the shoreline of our souls

Take heed, and treat with tender care

What none can own or keep

And fold that fist into a prayer

Lest you die in your sleep

Where now is always on the verge

Of where what is to Was will merge

So guard with wary gravity

Thought’s self-indulgent thirst

For by our very natures we

Are want and longing cursed

But He who does not change or shift

Helps us to find joy in His gift

© Janet Martin

OH!!! and last but not least
Jim playing scrabble on a rainy day
(doesn't he look like he's having the time of his life?!😂😂😂)

sharing a verse I've shared many times...

 Teach us to number our days, 

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12