While My Body Grins and Groans (I want to take nothing for granted)

Recently I have heard more than one person say they don't want to take anything for granted!

I echo this sentiment in today's reflection of birthday celebration weekend.

Ps.90:12

So teach us to number our days, 

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Thank-you God, for

 Fridge-foragers...

Father and son discussions (on the merits of certain hockey players etc.) 😅

Impromptu Sat. afternoon surprise coffee break... thank-you Emily and fam!

(Missed a pic of the delicious raspberry lemon scones, still oven-warm!)

Precious birthday-celebration dinner-guests...

 (my parents)

and Victoria...

 Dear Husband, May I never take you for granted

(too often, sadly, I do!)

esp. your hat-tossing habits 😐😏 which haven't changed

 since mentioned HERE on last year's anniversary poem...

Special sister time...

even more special in a peony garden !

Whistling Gardens near Brantford, ON

(below, a few of fifty+ pics of peonies)

Sister smelling the 'roses' while her hubby

scouts out ice-cream shops on homeward route 😊😂💖

I want to take nothing for granted in life's little Learn and Teach

Where soon each gifted day is planted in a garden out of reach

I want to wonder at God's grandeur; be mesmerized by His grace,

To be fine-tuned to tender splendour till nothing seems common place

Collecting through life's gains and losses, a much gladder gratitude   

Braving love's charge of shouldered crosses by trusting Mercy Renewed 

Contented in the Steadfast Knowing, come what may God never fails

His love is constantly bestowing winds to test and steer faith's sails

I want to take nothing for granted, where blooms briefly beam and nod 

But to be more humbly enchanted by the handiwork of God 

He, who attends both joy and sorrow maintains nature's threaded loom 

I want to live today without tomorrow's borrowed dread and doom 

I want to manifest His Presence in the peace of Letting Go

Where true happiness is, in essence, this; trusting His yes and no

Confident that the One who began a good work will see it through  

The Author of salvation's plan is faithful, trustworthy and true 

I want to take nothing for granted in life's leap from Him to Him 

Soon morning's newborn ray is slanted westward; soon Today grows dim

While epitaphs that time composes sets gasps in permanent ink

Like a storm of thorns and roses scattered, blood-red and blush-pink 

As breath-by-breath's brimming succession spills life's sacred, fleeting Toll

Wreathed by dust-to-dust's grim profession of death's claim of all but Soul 

So, before my hulled husk is planted in a garden of grave-stones

I want to take nothing for granted while my body grins and groans 

I do not want to take for granted the sheer wonder of it all

Or become dumbly disenchanted just because the petals fall

Or love's smile-and-tear weathered tether snaps; the ties that bind undone

By the Hand that brought us together; nothing new under the sun

Rousing us, Self-heady-prone dreamers to face raw reality

Time's transient flash of  vapour/paper streamers unhinges eternity 

So, while life's precious plot is planted with memories that love makes 

I do not want to take for granted that which God both gives... and takes 

© Janet Martin

I do not want to take for granted the sheer wonder of it all

Or become dumbly disenchanted just because the petals fall...

Thank-you God, for another birthday...

Thank-you for sisters/family and friends

 who showered me with beautiful birthday wishes

and flowers...

I came home yesterday, a bit peony-high

to find a new variety of peony (Dark Eyes) a deep burgundy-red

 at my door, from my friend's garden!

thank-you Kim 💖

I was also sweetly blessed by a begonia-planter 

in memory of the begonias Lucy gave all of us sisters last year,

from my sister Marlene 💗💔

Some flowers in the hue of the flowers Lucy gave us sisters last year

(because the peachy-coloured begonias were sold out)

From my sister Carolyn...we 'watered' them with a few mingled, tender tears;

Love's universal language

I'll admit it was an extra-teary birthday.

I miss Lucy with profound tenderness in times like these

so I took out the book she gave me in place of a card last year...

 

A Picture (Full of Pictures)

My current roles as a member of my family are daughter, sister, wife, mother,

grandmother, aunt, niece, sister-in-law, mother-in-law,

Those to whom I was granddaughter and daughter-in-law have passed on)

In Ontario we are celebrating Family Day!

My thankfulness for family has been refined

in 2024 like never before

and my heart wears an unutterable ache

for all whose family circles this year have a gap

where Loved One used to be.

In place of warmth and vitality, a precious picture...

A picture full of pictures!!

Our Family/Valentine's dinner planned for last night

 will hopefully happen next Sunday!

Postponed due to weather

Thankfully we had a few eager volunteers who 'ventured' out to help mom-dad, 

grandma-grandpa eat a big pan of stew and strawberry pie 😊😋💝

and one more, courtesy of Grandson

Each day God gives us a fresh start

To develop a work of art

That, when we go from whence we came

Will be the picture of our name

Will be the echo of our creed

The heirloom cast by word and deed

An everlasting legacy

 Of love for God and family

Each day we ought to bear in mind

The part of us we leave behind

The one thing that death cannot claim

The precious picture of a name

How humbly aware we should be

Of lovely little words like 'we'

And 'us' and 'family' and such

Before one slips beyond our touch

Each day bestows to all a brush

With daub and splash, with pull and push 

And often without second thought

The hues of love and life are wrought

Where we have none but self to blame

For the picture of our name

That will unveil ultimately

Our love for God and family

Each day lengthens and shortens life

...as sister, brother, husband, wife

As father, mother, daughter, son

Someday the picture will be done

A keepsake that we cannot see

But leave behind for family

A treasure that death cannot claim

The precious picture of a name

© Janet Martin 

Our Father who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name...

Matt.6:9

Time Never Feels Quite Long Enough

When it comes to love

Time never feels quite long enough

A rare everyone-home evening on the weekend;

when time never feels nearly long enough 

Time never feels quite long enough, it often seems to me

These precious days we dearly love fly by, don’t you agree

How beautiful and terrible the tug of heartstrings ache

Where hello soon bears farewell hugs in Loving’s give and take

Time never feels quite long enough where love and laughter meld

To keepsakes in a treasure-trove of echoes fondly held

Where sometimes, in love’s sentimental joy and sorrow-wake

We grow reluctant to count candles on a birthday cake

Where children seem to hurry so to run sweet childhood through

And we try not to worry oh, while growing older too 

Where dawn is soon dusk's blue tableau where shadow steeples sprawl

And holding turns to letting go while smiles brim and tears fall 

Time never feels quite long enough in the fine company

Of ‘perfectly imperfect’ love of friends and family

Which makes me hunger for Love’s timeless bliss still set before

Up yonder where no parting is, in Love’s Forevermore

Time always only gives and takes today, no more, no less

Its intangible ocean breaks our hearts with happiness

While teaching us through pray-push-shove, when it comes to farewell

Time never feels quite long enough for all love wants to tell

© Janet Martin

The Beautiful Blessing of Family to Love

It is Family Day in Ontario...

We bring out the best or the worst in each other

Through blood-bond (or bondage) of sister and brother

Of father and mother and uncles and aunts

Of Niece-nephew-cousins, and gramma and gramps

A lineage of names, frames and faces are we

Comprising the faction, that we call family

Fabric work of freundschaft, (relatives) of hand-me-down traits

Of stature, demeanor, chins, noses and gaits

Of quirks we don’t notice or question because

That’s just the way our family ‘does’ /was

A birds-of-a-feather Forever are we

By a genetic tether that we call Family

We banter and bicker, share laughter and tears

Because blood is thicker than water or years

We bear a fond bond, whether near or afar

Of a sense of belonging wherever we are

Because what makes ‘us’ transcends geography

Distance cannot sever cords of family

Of father and mother and brother and sis

Precious imperfection and terrible bliss

A beautiful chaos of ancestral ties

Grandpa Joe’s cowlick and Granny’s blue eyes

A come-from-a-long-line-of-proud pedigree

We are and will always be family

We are much more than mere faces in frames

Or leaves on a branch on a tree full of names

We are love-pray-for-and help one another

We are a thank-you God for father, mother

Where no one can take the place of you or me

When it comes to our part in a family

We gather 'round tables, 'round cradles, 'round graves

We celebrate triumphs and weather grief's waves

And wonder, where in God's wide world we would be

Without the dear people we call family 

Where, pray that we never lose humble sight of

The beautiful blessing of family to love

© Janet Martin

My first family

Photo Sept. 2023

Mom and dad and all ten of us...

(Celebrating my parent's 60th wedding anniversary)

My next family

After 35 years of marriage...

photo Nov.2023

Thank-you, Lord

(Love's) Better Poetry

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, take the phrase "Better (blank)," 

replace the blank with a new word or phrase, 

make the new phrase the title of your poem, 

and then, write your poem.

This take on today's poem-prompt 

was inspired by yesterday's photo-session;

the aim being to get a few good ones

(aka everyone looking forward with eyes open!!) 

for a page in a family calendar for my parents for Christmas

You are the laugh-lines that I earn

And collect thankfully

As by the grace of God I learn

Love's Better Poetry

You overflow my cup of joy

Filling love's crooks and curves

With happiness, dear girl and boy

More than one heart deserves 

You are my gentlest lullaby

My tenderest of care

And each, the apple of my eye

And each, my humblest prayer

You are heaven-to-earth's caress 

You are my home-sweet-home

You are more holy thankfulness

Than pen can ever poem

© Janet Martin

Rush of Reverence (or, Blessing of Family)

Today in Canada we celebrate Family Day!

Thank you, gracious Heavenly Father for the most beloved blessing of family!

This poem began with a soft smiled desire

 to collect a medley of mementos framed in memories;

the kind most families can relate to...

It ended with me wiping away tears 

as our church family received a request to pray for a family

 who lost their son yesterday after a brief illness. 

He was in grade five and a best friend to a few boys in our church family.

There will be cake...

I realized I made exactly the same cake recipe (top left corner of photo collage)

 last year for family day weekend only last year's didn't flop😅

 (see recipe and flop details here)

There will be little fellas by their older sisters, bossed

There will be Cinderellas with glass slippers not yet lost

There will be household chores and uproars outside bathroom doors

And scoldings as trespassers tiptoe over fresh mopped floors

There will be oceans of spilled milk on which years sail to sea

While we are busy being the blessing of family

There will be tender moments (and those, not so tender too)

As love lays down firm ground rules on what and what not to do

There will be happy laughter and oh, there will be heartbreak

There will be health and sickness as we shoulder give-and-take 

There will be prayers, so many prayers, and cake and cups of tea

As we thank God for the kind blessing of a family

There will be editing as mom tries to tame grocery lists

And day trips to doctors, dentists, teachers and pharmacists

And sweet goodnights and wake-me-ups at half-past way too soon

And playdates in the backyard and laundry lines to the moon

As smiles and tears compose a dear echo-framed gallery

Of motley medleys showcasing blessing of family

There will be second miles as we all learn to do our part

To make the most of perfectly imperfect works of art

There will be popsicle mustaches, puddle-splashes, and

A bedtime-story-goodnight-kiss-prayer-paved path to dreamland

There will be storms to weather as we weather what must be

Not alone but together with blessing of family

There will be sacrifice, the price of love requires this

There will be hands to hold and hands we held and dearly miss

There will be lovely glimpses of Heaven on earth and oh,

There will be grief, as we suffer Love’s hardest letting go

Which reminds us to cherish every opportunity

To never take for granted, the blessing of family

Lord, willing there will be babies, grandmas and grandpas too

And in between, a spectrum of love's green-gold-blush-and-blue 

There will be crushing disappointments, patience-bested rants

And through it all, pray, an increasing awe for He who grants

And cares for us the same through both triumph and tragedy

While teaching us to treasure the blessing of family

There will be noise and weariness and broken toys and dreams

As girls and boys shed childhood joys far too quickly, it seems

When looking back at careworn seasons hushed by yesteryear

Leaving behind a rush of reverence for now and here

Because no one can tell how near or far lies death’s dark sea

That alters (until Heaven) the blessing of family

© Janet Martin

“Honor your father and your mother, 

that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

 – Exodus 20:12

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.

 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! 

He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

 – Psalm 127:3-5

“Bear with one another and, 

if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other;

 as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

 – Colossians 3:13

below, one of my forever favs by someone who hugely impacted my love of poetry

Edgar A. Guest

Home

BY EDGAR ALBERT GUEST

It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home,

A heap o’ sun an’ shadder, an’ ye sometimes have t’ roam

Afore ye really ’preciate the things ye lef’ behind,

An’ hunger fer ’em somehow, with ’em allus on yer mind.

It don’t make any differunce how rich ye get t’ be,

How much yer chairs an’ tables cost, how great yer luxury;

It ain’t home t’ ye, though it be the palace of a king,

Until somehow yer soul is sort o’ wrapped round everything.

Home ain’t a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute;

Afore it’s home there’s got t’ be a heap o’ livin’ in it;

Within the walls there’s got t’ be some babies born, and then

Right there ye’ve got t’ bring ‘em up t’ women good, an’ men;

And gradjerly, as time goes on, ye find ye wouldn’t part

With anything they ever used—they’ve grown into yer heart:

The old high chairs, the playthings, too, the little shoes they wore

Ye hoard; an’ if ye could ye’d keep the thumbmarks on the door.

Ye’ve got t’ weep t’ make it home, ye’ve got t’ sit an’ sigh

An’ watch beside a loved one’s bed, an’ know that Death is nigh;

An’ in the stillness o’ the night t’ see Death’s angel come,

An’ close the eyes o’ her that smiled, an’ leave her sweet voice dumb.

Fer these are scenes that grip the heart, an’ when yer tears are dried,

Ye find the home is dearer than it was, an’ sanctified;

An’ tuggin’ at ye always are the pleasant memories

O’ her that was an’ is no more—ye can’t escape from these.

Ye’ve got t’ sing an’ dance fer years, ye’ve got t’ romp an’ play,

An’ learn t’ love the things ye have by usin’ ’em each day;

Even the roses ’round the porch must blossom year by year

Afore they ’come a part o’ ye, suggestin’ someone dear

Who used t’ love ’em long ago, an’ trained ’em jes’ t’ run

The way they do, so’s they would get the early mornin’ sun;

Ye’ve got t’ love each brick an’ stone from cellar up t’ dome:

It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home.