Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label experience. Show all posts

Monday, May 25, 2020

Of Pains and Gains...


 A weekend full of stressful oh-nos and happy-yeses...
oh the pains whereby we gain experience!

What will today bring; no one knows
but this...the unfailing grace whereby man goes.
Hallelujah!


Now break of day strums strings of gray and wakens hymns of blush and gold
Where what has not yet come our way will soon turn into days of old
Once more to man time is deployed in breath by breath spans, mercy-fired
Life grants so much to be enjoyed and yet leaves much to be desired

The pain that gains experience oft-times does not explain its whys
The rugged road to recompense is filled with hills of sundry size
They keep us on our toes and knees while pressing upward, left-foot-right
A winsome Thing that comes and goes where thorn and rose pricks and delights

Life’s bumps and blows seem to expose the simpler, sweeter joys and such
The somber tones the Painter chose (we never would) highlights His touch
And when we look back on the track we thought begot an unfair score
We start to see with clarity so much more to be thankful for

© Janet Martin


 From the ends of the earth I call to you, 
I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
Psalm 61:2


Monday, February 10, 2020

To We Who Were Undaunted...

  Love must be sincere....
 ...Be devoted to one another in love
Romans 12:9-10
 


To we who were undaunted
by the touch of Time until Her proof pressed into faces
places we can no longer deny and the means to the end
begins to tenderly instill the import of the echo and the imprint of the sigh.

To we who took our turn
among the less accountable but soon outgrew its shoes, to be the teacher, not the tot;
we ought to take to heart the Holy Inevitable and focus on the part that is
 rather than what-is-not

To we well over halfway marks
like man’s three-score and ten (or by reason of added strength the length of fourscore years)
Pray we have learned to love before the tree is hard to bend and the branch seems too brittle
 to soften with tears

To we who have lived long enough
to join the age-old rue that things are not the simpler, sounder way they used to be
 are we who witness Caution's Admonitions coming true, and bear the brunt of wisdom
with surprised humility

To we who seem too old to change
our very seasoned ways (save by the grace of He who doth with mighty Mercy move)
To we who now are daunted by man’s brevity of days. ..let’s take what yet remains of Time and
 turn it into love

© Janet Martin

or the traditional format if preferred...



To we who were undaunted by the touch of Time until
 Her proof pressed into faces places we can no longer deny
and the means to the end begins to tenderly instill
the import of the echo and the imprint of the sigh.


To we who took our turn among the less accountable
but soon outgrew its shoes, to be the teacher, not the tot;
we ought to take to heart the Holy Inevitable
 and focus on the part that is rather than what-is-not


To we well over halfway marks like man’s three-score and ten
 (or by reason of added strength the length of fourscore years)
 Pray we have learned to love before the tree is hard to bend
and the branch seems too brittle to soften with tears


To we who have lived long enough to join the age-old rue
 that things are not the simpler, sounder way they used to be
are we who witness Caution's Admonitions coming true,
 and bear the brunt of wisdom with surprised humility


To we who seem too old to change our very seasoned ways
(save by the grace of He who doth with mighty Mercy move)
To we who now are daunted by man’s brevity of days. ..
let’s take what yet remains of Time and turn it into love



© Janet Martin



Thursday, July 19, 2018

Because Of How Little We Know...




Books filled with knowledge tell us only so much
Life’s day-to-day college hinged to time’s cooled touch
Where retrospect’s cast can put on quite a show
And re-impact us with how little we know

…where we, well-acquainted with years full of ‘learn’
Depend on hindsight for the wisdom we earn
Trip-slip, fumble-stumble yields experience
Teaching us to live-love with more reverence/patience

…and not take for granted that we will behold
The seeds that we planted turn from green to gold
And always remember, by God’s grace we go
Then trust Him because of how little we know

© Janet Martin

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Prov.3:5-6

A re-run because its message is needful every day!

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Not The Same...(as being there)


 Imagination, as fine as it's flight is, 
Cannot transport us by pictures or fact
No matter how well we tell it or write it
Thought grasps but glimpses of full impact!
And we'll never be able to understand or care
As fully as those who can say "I've been there"

(This applies to traveling on a trip or traveling through ups and downs of life!)


Oh, you tell me it was lovely
Rave of moments fine and fair
But the truth is, there is nothing
Quite the same as being there

We are like a band of pilgrims
On time’s seasoned thoroughfare
Always looking through a window
Filled with scenes of “I’ve been there”

While the scenes of ‘you’ve been there’ oh
Though I try with all my heart
Are like reaching for a shadow
Or a phantom work of art

(I’ve heard tell of times and places
Castles, Ireland so green
Through your kind and smiling faces
I try to glimpse what you’ve seen)

But, my wildest fits of fancy
Or mind-sketches on the air
(Though quite grand) they never can be
Quite the same as being there

I tell you of scenes compelling
You attempt to feel the bliss
But the truth is, just the telling
Is not the same as the kiss

© Janet Martin