Internal Exhale...

 "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Phil.4:4-6

(read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say, rejoice!

5Let your [b]gentleness be known

 to all men.

 The Lord is at hand.

6Be anxious for nothing,

but in everything 

by prayer and supplication, 

with thanksgiving, 

let your requests 

be made known to God;

  7and the peace of God, 

which surpasses all understanding,

 will guard your hearts and minds 

through Christ Jesus.

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the hush of dawn dissolve the darkness once again...

O, I have ceased to strain on reins that once vexed youth's audacity

Content to bask in the delight of little children, starry-eyed...

To marvel at a world a-thunder with God's creativity...

(I would love if someone could ID this bird! It fluttered/ ran ahead of me,

a bit curious at the intruder 😅)

forgive my blurry zoom lens

Content to learn from weightless wings, unhindered by tomorrow's care

To be taught by Child's innocence is to be astonished by joy...

'o-h--h! I can't wait till three o'clock, snack time!!!' sighed

Miss Sweet as sweet-can-be at two-thirty.

'Oh my! replied I, completely at a loss as how to live up to her anticipation/expectation.

'Do you like popcorn?' I asked, relieved I had one snack staple on hand.

Her pause suggested a 'no'. 

'Actually, what I am really wishing for is fresh bran muffins' 

(NOT what I was expecting at all, but so relieved. lol!)

'Guess what?!" I said. 'This very morning I was wishing for fresh bran muffins!!'

So, fresh bran muffins it was 💖😋

The day before our snack was breakfast cookies (click link)

 and Little Helper's verdict; so YUMMY!

They are the perfect mid-afternoon slump snack

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the hush of dawn dissolve the darkness once again

To light Time's face with God's kind grace outpoured for our benefit

To tune the countenance of hope with love and joy and peace. Amen

O, I have ceased to strain on reins that once vexed youth's audacity

Content to bask in the delight of little children, starry-eyed

To marvel at a world a-thunder with God's creativity

To linger in November's dusk; brusque blush and blue-bathed countryside

O, I have ceased the futile quest of clinging to what none can claim

Content to let the gauze hemline of seasons slip through unclenched will

To be still and know He who fills boundless firmaments with His Name

Anoints each moment with His brush, as Today's Masterpieces spill 

O, I have ceased to Want for things, whose ownership death will destroy 

Content to learn from weightless wings, unhindered by tomorrow's care

To be taught by Child's innocence is to be astonished by joy

As meeker gratitude enriches happiness beyond compare 

O, I have ceased to be encumbered by Bygones I cannot wrest 

Content to concentrate on faces and favours still within reach 

To let the sorrows of this world be comforted by Heaven's Best

And wonder at the holy pleasure only God, through grief, can teach

O, I have ceased to pursue answers for His higher thoughts and ways

Content to know that He is able to do exceedingly more

Than I can think to think; then, with nothing but humbler, purer praise 

To take up faith's cross like a child, and trust God for what lies before  

O, I have ceased the need to rush as if my life depends on it

Content to watch the brush of dawn undo the darkness once again

And light Time's face with God's kind grace outpoured for our benefit

To tune the countenance of hope with love and joy and peace. Amen

© Janet Martin

While I was wrestling with the second last stanza of this poem 

my daughter, Victoria sent me a message, simply this;

Enjoying this collection of hymns this morning 😊

(and suddenly, as I listened, like a little miracle

the words fell into place!)

Tennessee Ernie Ford Hymns at Home

Thank-you God, for 'faces and favours still within reach' !

Thank-you for my family and friends, 

pouring out/in so many precious ways

to comfort me 🙏

Bless each one today! 

Grief-frames

Happy 82nd Birthday, dear Mom born Nov.1, 1942

(photo credit on this post goes to my sister Marlene)

Yesterday, at my mother's annual birthday tea-party

the presence of each other seemed more treasured,

 our love more tender than ever before,

in the light of grief...

My mom asked if she could host it

(for the first time ever) in what has been a tradition

for SO many years!

If Lucy were here I could count on her to remember

when it started, who hosted it

and maybe even what she was wearing and

if/who she was pregnant with...

😅😂💖

She had an incredible memory!! 

Because mom hosted it, Dad could enjoy the celebration too 💝

(although we have another one on Sunday that includes our men as well)

Grief ebbs, then rushes in like a billow, invisible

It rolls through heart and soul with staggering intensity

It strips us of all pretense; Love's most severe crucible

As God, who IS love, tries the Part that He alone can see

Grief sends us on a journey we would never choose to take

Around and 'round a gaping void, veiled by façades, skin-thin

It winds heartstrings through phantom frames where echoes tug and ache

Woven from moments not unlike the moments we are in

Grief moans like autumn's lonely wind through woodlands, leaf-bereft

It sobs, like summer, silenced by its sum of Season-sand

From detonated dreamlands, it examines what is left

Sifting through drifts of rubble diamond-dust, where once Love laughed and planned

Grief teaches us to live with an 'if the Lord wills' regard

To love as if Today could be the last for you or me  

It stirs holier handling of dawn's invitation card

Because Today does not come with a Morrow-guarantee  

Grief metes Love's Must; relentless thrust of waves, dash-crash-recede 

Then, with renewed velocity, returns with wrenching pains 

To wander rooms, once full of Innocence we did not heed

Where now his/her essence of presence, like a shadow remains

Grief takes us to the arms of friends and family so dear

And it is no coincidence, it drives us to our knees

To draw us to The Sacred Solace of God's list'ning ear 

*And glimpses to the Inner Room of Heaven's Mysteries/Sympathies

Janet 💔🙏

The verses below comfort me constantly,

as I lift my wordless groans to God's intercession

Rom.8:26-27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 

We do not know what we ought to pray for, 

but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people 

in accordance with the will of God.

Below, yesterday's timely and profound devotion

from the book Streams in the Desert, Vol.1

(* this devotion articulates splendidly, the last line in today's poem)

While I was working on this post

a friend sent me these words...

She is mourning the loss of a friend who passed away this week.

"God is so gracious and so tender,

 even though we might never get the ‘why’ on this side of heaven."

Thank-you, Joanne!

(Her friend was released from a brave battle with ALS)

And last but not least...

My mom with her salt and pepper shaker collection

200+ pairs!

Yesterday she invited each of us to choose a pair,

before she gives her grandchildren the opportunity to do the same

I chose these Siamese cats.

They have lived in my mother's china hutch since

before I was born.

From her friend Mary (Mrs. Abner Martin)

My two 'little sisters' enjoying their choices!

Lucy was the middle sister...

Momentous Memento

I helped to clean out Lucy's gardens yesterday...

(photos shared by permission)

While we collected flower seeds...

...picked her pears (how she loved these beauties!!)

 ...sailed through the air on swings

While they (her grandchildren) pulled my hands, eager to live, laugh and love

While they called "come and see' 

...while my heart almost collapsed within me

 I suddenly sensed in the tear-drenched dirt of hurt,

the innocent planting of seeds of Hope and Joy

Dear Lucy...

there are moments, grief numbs the part that ought to smart and sting

then, like a wave it comes; the heart wails like a wounded Thing

and there are times despair could haunt love's solemn sacrifice

and almost I am tempted to want love without its price

and, there are moments I feel stripped of all I once knew well

then without warning I am gripped with the sense of a Bell

still tolling, 'neath a Hand bestowing midst bereavement, bliss

of life still overflowing with Hand to Hold, Cheek to Kiss

then, although there are moments when grief deals a crushing blow

and longing reels as echoes peal from scenes I/we cherish/ed so

then, even when it feels like grief  grants love's mean reckoning 

I sense the turning of a leaf, tearstained, but beckoning 

there are moments I could not bear, but what love cannot lose

though every dream and wish and prayer has lost its dancing shoes

there are moments that steal my breath; joy and grief intertwined

in memories that feel like death left much of you behind

Janet 💔💞

there are moments that steal my breath; joy and grief intertwined

in memories that feel like death left much of you behind

Psalm 145: 13-14&17-20

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises
    and faithful in all he does.[c]
14 The Lord upholds all who fall
    and lifts up all who are bowed down....

...The Lord is righteous in all his ways
    and faithful in all he does.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
    to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
    he hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him,...

Plea For Perseverance

To list all the ways today's poem was inspired, is difficult to encapsulate...

But it is a corralling of wonder wakened while pondering Heb.11 &12:1&2

By the showering of love, of sympathy,

from so many caring people, 

of comfort and encouragement shared from God's Word,

By devotions penned for such a time as this...

By the indescribable joy in sorrow 

through the Presence of peace God has promised if/as we trust Him,

through both the physical and spiritual storms and battles of faith/life! 

Let me not balk against faith’s test that I would never choose

Let me not fear what God deems best, nor His request refuse

Behold faith’s cloud of witnesses still surrounds you and me

The riches of God’s promises worth every wait-and-see

Let me not wallow in the why that tries the ties of love

But rather winnow my reply till worship is enough

As faith is drawn from shallows to the deeps of grief and loss

Let me be wholly hallowed by the power of the cross

Though the threshing fork pains me, may it drive away the chaff

Till only God sustains me, as I lean upon hope’s staff

For he who suffered in my stead, the uttermost of Grief

Will accomplish all He has said; ‘Lord, help mine unbelief’

For you have borne the bitter blows that prove who we most love

You grant the test faith undergoes to expose lack thereof

Then, help me not to falter beneath full surrender’s price

But let love be an altar laid with living sacrifice

Willing to suffer present loss for joy waiting to be

Counting it joy to bear the cross to faith’s maturity

Obedient, till Death’s Last Strife, that draws ajar the Door

That leads to everlasting life and joy forevermore

© Janet Martin

James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,

 whenever you face trials of many kinds,

3 because you know that the testing of your faith 

produces perseverance.

4 Let perseverance finish its work 

so that you may be mature and complete, 

not lacking anything.

Only Trust Him-Alan Jackson

Like a Butterfly...(or, Beneath a Beaming Breadth of Sky)

How sacredly grief keens awareness 

to the preciousness of 

what we sometimes call Ordinary.

How it stuns us, as we realize 

it is Love!

and, what we once considered 'little things' 

are in reality the big things;

the hymn of touch, 

a smile, a hug, a card, a bloom,

a handshake, 'hello', a child, a chick,

an autumn afternoon,

a cup of tea, a meal and 'small-talk' shared, 

a breath-prayer, a holy pause

to marvel at God's infinite supply of mercies 

and then to thank Him, because

no matter what was or will be

He loves and cares for you and me 

***

It's so hard to accurately describe the beauty

of compassion from family, neighbors and friends;

 how your/their tender love strangely sweetens 

sorrow's most bitter parts

Thank-you to each and every one of you

as you remind/teach me anew

 1 Cor. 13:13

And now these three remain: 

faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.

***

Love never fails;

it turns heart-wrenching loss

into a startling gift

we would never choose

or know;

a gift, God-breathed to heal

grief's brutal wounds

as love's tears flow...

***

Ps.147:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

***

Isa.52:7

How beautiful on the mountains (or in a barnyard) 

are the feet of those who bring good news, 

who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, 

who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 

“Your God reigns!”

These youngsters (blurred to protect privacy)

 overflowed with sympathy, questions and conversation

at the farm where I buy our fresh-as-they-come eggs

(often they run to gather them, still warm with the touch of God!)

SO many gentle moments to cherish...

Beneath a beaming breadth of sky

Life feels like a cheek, kissed

As Time wafts, like a butterfly

To bygone’s croft of mist

As joy and sorrow’s interplay

Composes Bittersweet

Arrangements, strewn like petal-fray

That flutters to the street

Where Fleeting Footfalls thrum and fade

Through seasons come, to pass

Like subtle arpeggios played

On keys of breeze and grass

Where children romp, their innocence

Cradles oblivion

To the brute strength of mere moments

Ever-so-deftly spun

Like threads, into a work of art

As tears and laughter meld

Love’s precious glints of heart-to-heart

That we so briefly held

Beneath a beaming breadth of sky

Where Today/lifetimes seem/s so small

As we waft like a butterfly

Toward Dusk’s shadow fall

Beneath a beaming breadth of sky

By faith we humbly hear

God, kindly whisper, 'here am I

To catch each falling tear'

© Janet Martin

My neighbour, walking from her house to mine, bringing last night's supper 💝

and last but not least

this morning's kind reminder devotion from the book

Springs in the Valley by Mrs. Chas E. Cowman

Love's Purest Harvest

Teach us to number our days,

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Thank-you, God, for the toil of rakes,

of pruning shears and petal-tears

and garden tours where farewell aches

with every tug and turn. As years

accumulate with searing ease;

sheaf upon sheaf

of memories

Thank you, God, for beggarly bliss

where happiness and hunger meld

where no morrow can cool the kiss

that weeps with joy at having held

and borne the sting of thorns to smell

the rose before

its petals fell

Thank-you, God, for the tender task

of tending graves; no cruel grief

is this; to linger thus, to bask

in the fullness of fallen leaf

and listen to the eulogy

that weans the whisper

from the tree

Thank-you God, for each little slice

of Heaven on earth’s dust-to-dust

season-altars of sacrifice

-es kindling utter wonder-lust

And humbler gratitude, to crown

Love’s tender teardrops

slipping down

© Janet Martin

A few more 'slices' 

of Heaven on earth’s dust-to-dust...