The Older That We Grow...

Yesterday we celebrated my turning 60!

I was young...

 but now I am old(er); 

...yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken. 

Ps.37:25

***

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, 

until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, 

Your might to all who are to come.

Ps.71:18

***

Sometimes we may be tempted to lament the grunt and groan

That Time is bound to introduce if given time enough

But age is not all doom and gloom, for all we may bemoan

The older that we grow the more we cherish those we love

The older that we grow the more we find to thank God for

Aware that life at best, is like a flower; it will fade

That days are laid like steppingstone we traverse to a Door

All will pass through, and none knows when death's Farewells will invade

Thus, each day is a gift from God, filled with loving commands

With beauty and duty's sacred accountability

Because what matters most is not what we hold in our hands

But in our hearts, with reverence and kind humility 

Growing older grants far more than what meets the eye, my dears

Where steps may slow and any resemblance to youth is spent 

But loss has deepened love for those still privy to our tears

And prayers. Joy is refined through grief and laughter through lament

...and even if given the chance to turn back time somehow 

Not many would choose to re-weather life's lessons once more

Far better this, to find happiness in the gift of Now

For happiness is found in what we find to thank God for

The scenery of looking back, the older that we grow

Becomes a panoramic view of things we cannot change

And things that never will; though generations come and go

God's love and promises, no passage of Time can estrange 

Janet Martin

Amos Raber - The Older I Get - (LYRIC VIDEO)

 

A Birthday Poem for The More 'Seasoned' Stage of Surprises!

Happy 62nd Birthday, Jim 

God bless you, guide you and protect you 

as you roll and chug/plug down and up life's highway!

(literally and metaphorically)

 My dear, the years keep hasting by

Where once upon green youth

We thought we had a lot of time

To learn life's changeless truth

And once upon far younger Thought

We dared Time's sleight of hand

By thinking somehow it would not

Heed Father Time's command 

And in spite of what 'Old Folk' said

About how years unfold

With gathered speed, we tossed our heads

And winked, youth-and dream-bold 

But now, with much more 'seasoned' stance

And sass and strut subdued 

We take each new day that God grants

With humbler gratitude

...where, as spent sun-up and sun-down 

Weathers youth's girl or boy

Pray we find in time's wizened crown

Sweet surprises of joy

Trading the fast-fading façade

Of face and form, my dear

For truer, purer love/awe for God

With every passing year

Counting, not loss, but gain, dear friend

And blessings beyond score

So that we cannot find the end

Of things we're thankful for 

Love always, from your wife

Janet Martin 

A blast from the past!!

Time-Don Williams

Yesterday's Sunday morning message passage

is the perfect prayer for today and every day of the year!

Phil.1:9-11

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more

 in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best 

and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—

to the glory and praise of God.

On Growing (our) 'Old'

Psalm 39:4-5

“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. 

Let me know how fleeting my life is. 

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, 

and my lifetime as nothing before You. 

Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath.

 Selah

I remember as a child, telling my mom I want to be a nice grandma, 

like my grandma, when I'm old and she told me

 that to be a nice old person begins, 

not when we're old, but when we're young!

So, however young or old we are, let's begin today 

to make tomorrow's older version of ourselves

 a bit more patient, humble, caring and kind.

Last night I visited my aunt (Naomi) in the hospital,

not because I'm so kindly faithful at visiting my aunts!!

 but because she happened to be in the room beside my sister-in-law's room.

I blinked and blinked as I gazed at my aunt, 

feeling like I was looking at the face of dear grandma from years ago!

My aunt is a beautiful 'old' person just like her mother/my grandma was 💝🙏

Whatever we are doing, who/wherever we are today

we are 'growing' who we will become when we are old-er!

Let's 'bloom' like a beautiful flower; like my mom's amaryllis! 

Who we turn into when we’re old begins when we are young

The golden years of childhood mold the makings of the man

Like learning the rules of respect, and how to hold the tongue

What habits we should not neglect and doing what we can

To make this world a kinder place with gentler word and deed

To treat one another with grace rather than spite and greed

To be who we imagine when/if we reach ripe eighty-three

Begins long, long before the benediction of fleet/sweet youth

Better to begin now to hone the way we hope to be

Before we look back and bemoan the telling toll of Truth

Tis no small thing to train a child to live/love the way they should

To tame tempers that else run wild, and never lead to good

To be a wise old woman-man is not by accident

We ought to prize, the best we can each opportunity

To mine for wisdom in life’s sacred lease of moments spent

Rather than wasting acres with wild-oat futility

Because Time seems to quicken haste with every passing year

Thus, no one can afford to waste the wealth of Now and Here

Who we want to be when we’re old begins anew, today

To treasure like nuggets of gold, life’s moments as they spill

From choices into consequence we cannot wish away

As they augment investments Time is eager to fulfill

Sooner than we suppose we feel and see and bear the truth

Of what once seemed strange and surreal, turned into living proof

This life is full of schemes, it seems, to teach us how to pray

 And give to God our hopes and dreams, while weathering the art

Of ever growing older with each precious, passing day

While turning wrinkles bolder, while nothing new tries the heart

While often we forget while we are busy being young

The things we do habitually, shape who we will become 

Janet Martin 

 

We Are All In This Together

Happy 49th Birthday, Calvin, (my 2nd youngest brother!)

I love and appreciate you so much!

Which means my youngest brother (above left) turns 47 in a few weeks!

They don't remember me much at home (because I am almost 11/13 years older)

 other than being one of five extra mothers (their big sisters)

The Martin Clan is growing old  up! 😅

We are all in this together; growing older, day by day

Gaining fresh courage to weather Father Time's insistent prey

Learning how to cope with changes no sleight of hand can evade

Botox only rearranges, and money cannot dissuade

We are all in this together, learning to adapt and cope

Bound by an ethereal tether testing youthful-yes/youthfulness with nope

Sooner or later the engine that once hummed with easy cheer

Needs intentional/additional attention just to sputter into gear

We are all in this together; students in Father Time's school

While his touch, light as a feather, exacts the proof of his rule

Like a token of remembrance he leaves his kiss on each brow

Acknowledging the attendance of both young and old somehow

We are all in this together so let's give the best we've got

We are growing older whether we admit its truth or not 

Sooner than we care to mention Time steals youth's sleek, purring cat

Leaving us an old steam engine huffing-puffing down the track

We are all in this together; nobody is out of reach

As we learn to learn and weather lessons only Time can teach

As with unspoken reluctance we accede our slowing stride

While feigning brave-faced nonchalance (for Time is not on our side)  

We are all in this together; left-foot-right-foot-left-let's-go 

Smooth-as-silk-skin turns to leather, raven locks turn white as snow

While once-starry-eyed-successors to their grunting, groaning peers

Join the ranks of predecessors weathered by a few more years 

Love, from you big sis aka

Janet Martin

Lol! While not all of this may apply to my younger siblings, yet....

give it time. It will! 😁

 

Sweet Summer's Courtship Came and Went...

Not the sun or the summer alone,

but every hour yields its tribute of delight.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Sweet summer's courtship came....

 and went...

Sweet summer's courtship came and went

Weaving its laughter and lament

Into a wreath of season-spent

To crown footfalls that fade

Like flower gardens, fair and brief

Like bowers bent with fruit and leaf

Like hours full of joy and grief

Like shadowland's soft-splayed 

...where childhood's barefoot, carefree strand

Soon falls prey to the firm command 

Of waves that sweep the sea and sand

 In morn to eventide

Whilst gath'ring in the gleaming wake

Of eager passion's give and take

Framed rations, tamed into an ache

  Of snow-capped countryside 

The aftermath of youthfulness

Is resolute in its progress 

Where winter is the effervesce 

Of summer's sanguine splash

Of petal-mettle, fondly kissed

Then felled by time's determined fist

Beneath a scarf of sequined mist

And echo's knee-deep sash

Janet Martin

Where winter is the effervesce 

Of summer's sanguine splash...

...and because it's tradition with the first real snowfall every year,

this song! 🙏

Fall Softly Snow...

The Glad, Sad Glance/Dance of Season-Song

Hello September, 

month of Burnished Beauty

and Bittersweet Bliss! 

"The only things to truly get sad about" 

philosophized my husband this morning,

"are those things you deeply loved and lose forever!"

This in reply to my 'I'm kinda sad but not totally sad...

(because it's September and in a sense the end of summer

 as school starts again etc. in Canada), 

...because I'm glad every season has wonders I utterly love!"

That said, 

as the Harbinger to Autumn 

strews undeniable hints 

of summer's end,

a rush of glad-sad,

 bursts like a bittersweet ballad

as I steep my soul 

in the cheeping of crickets!

Season-song...

A rush of innocence and dreams

Where laughter in the glad of it

And lament, in the sad of it

Slips through the spring of life like streams

...that sparkle in summer sunshine

A glance of gold-glossed green and blue

Where children heedlessly splash through

The prime of life's care freest time

‘ere waltzes from yon Piper’s flute

Startles dancers with Beckoning

Of ballads, rife with reckoning

From subtle scales, imbued with fruit

Where none can faze autumnal rote

That rolls through green-leaf canopies

With molten, auburn melodies

Fading with every falling note

…to settle with the silenced throng

Beneath a blanket of snow stars

And muffled footfalls, brushed o'er bars

Bearing the dance/glance of Season-song

Begun in innocence, but soon

Tuned to a twirling Carousel

Unfurling hello and farewell

To trampled footpaths, petal-strewn  

Janet Martin

Eccles.3:1-2

To everything there is a season,

and a time for every purpose under heaven:

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot, ...

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...