In the Light of Letting Go...

Ps.145:10-14

The Lord is good to all;

he has compassion on all he has made.

10 All your works praise you, Lord;

your faithful people extol you.

11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom

and speak of your might,

12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts

and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

and your dominion endures through all generations.

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...

(Read the whole glorious chapter HERE)

The road to life's highlights runs

rife with anticipation

The road from;

with fond memories

We spent a special weekend with some old and some new friends;

a weekend eagerly anticipated for some weeks then BLINK! and it's over!

Whether its outings, or a simple meal or seasons, 

as gifts of earthly pleasure slip through our bearing

as we touch, taste and treasure, while ever growing older 

we learn to expect and even cherish

the bittersweet pangs of letting go

that are bound to follow the embrace!

These bittersweet pangs hide in beaming pink peony-pom-poms,

...soon felled

in growing children and grandchildren

and in every fond fellowship/relationship God grants 

with people or nature!

Love imparts in profound measure, both pleasure and pain!

...like the pleasure of anticipating ice-cream

to celebrate the first day of summer

before the pain of disappointment.

Sorry guys!

The ice-cream shop is closed!

(we were informed of the closure ahead of this photo but

had to make sure) 😅

to respect privacy I won't share the kind of photos from the weekend

 most people most enjoy...of people!

but here are a few other pleasure-treasures.

Blue-heron dusk primping-routine

Canada geese on a leisurely paddle...

Sunset 

'ride' on The Big Chute (photo is the the boat ahead of us)

The chute is lowered into the water till boat/boats are properly boarded

then the chute via cables lifts the boats over the highway 

and lowers them into the water on the other side!

Summer's fresco

White Falls...

...and a poem-memento to remember to treasure what we hold

all the more because of the letting go! 

Love imparts in profound measure, portions of pleasure and pain  

As hearts overflow with treasure only farewells can sustain

Nothing in life lasts forever; tears and laughter ebb and flow

  As we learn to love with fervor, 

in the light of letting go

 Brave the fleeting bliss of flowers in spite of the kiss that waits

 Like a seal on Bygone's Bowers brimming with Delight's licked plates 

Let the music of love's moments rush the soul with holy 'ooh'    

For Love spills a sweeter cadence 

in the light of letting go

Love imparts with raw precision climaxes of joy and grief 

Suturing heartache's incision, bud by bud and leaf by leaf 

Meanwhile drawing ever nearer Heaven's reassuring glow 

While love's holding grows much dearer 

in the light of letting go  

© Janet Martin

I went in search of an oldie hymn (Lyrics below)

 this morning as I pondered the weekend and shed some tears

and prayed some prayers esp. for my brother-in-law and also friends 

who have bid (some very unexpected) farewells to their spouses in the past year,

and are suffering love's ultimate earthly letting go, 

no longer able share both love's profound pleasure or pain!!

Parting Hand

Author Anonymous

1 My dearest friends, in bonds of love,

Our hearts in sweetest union prove;

Your friendship's like a drawing band,

Yet we must take the parting hand.

Your presence sweet, your union dear,

Your words delightful to my ear;

And when I see that we must part,

You draw like cords around my heart.

2 How sweet the hours have passed away,

When we have met to sing and pray;

How loath I've been to leave the place

Where Jesus shows His smiling face.

Oh, could I stay with friends so kind,

How would it cheer my struggling mind!

But duty makes me understand

That we must take the parting hand.

3 And since it is God's holy will,

We must be parted for awhile,

In sweet submission all in one,

We'll say, "Our Father's will be done."

Dear fellow youth in Christian ties,

Who seek for mansions in the skies,

Fight on, you'll win the happy shore,

Where parting hands are known no more.

4 How oft I've seen the flowing tears,

And heard you tell your hopes and fears;

Your hearts with love have seemed to flame,

Which makes me hope we'll meet again.

Ye mourning souls, in sad surprise,

Jesus remembers all your cries;

Oh, taste His grace, in all that land

We'll no more take the parting hand.

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...

 

Dear Lucy...Traces

Yesterday I received a pretty card in the mail

from a dear lady Lucy loved, and who loved Lucy

and we met after her death though I felt like I knew her a little

already through Lucy. 

Thank-you M💕

 I have a number of  new

'Lucy-friends' special in ways I could never have imagined;

Priceless traces of a beautiful life!

Job 7:9-10

9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone,
    so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
10 He will never come to his house again;
    his place will know him no more.

The above verses impress me like never before,

esp. when I drop in at Lucy's place.

Her girls and husband valiantly

perform the domestic duties of home

and things are still neat and tidy

but their place will never again know Lucy's presence

save in tender traces everywhere.

While I was there the other day watching her grandsons while

Granddaughter went to the dentist I puttered about

 sweeping corners where the wind had blown in some debris,

watering planters etc.

'why are you doing this? queried her oldest grandson 

as I swept in front of an ornamental door...

 and I replied

'I'm sweeping the dirt away, just in case Grammy is watching' 

and we waved up, up

to the big yellow and blue sky

 and shouted 'hi'

and he laughed 

and I cried. 

'and' continued her Grandson turning back to the door,

'what is this door even for?!!'

Then I laughed out loud!

How like many males in my life he sounded;

What is the point of a door that doesn't open and leads nowhere 😂😂😂

(It turned out it inspired play-restaurant as he served me

every favourite food I could think of!)

I miss laughing with Lucy till we cried

over things impossible to explain afterward.

I miss sharing prayer-cares, recipes, gardening joys and tips,

a quick 'cuppa' or hearing her rattle off a poem or a quote 

because her memory was amazing!

Her place is filled with traces of loving care

and many have spilled over to my place too.

Last year she brought me a few plants.

Honeysuckle   

and Dipladenia...

 

Beautiful traces of her love for growing things.

This poem was also inspired in  part by something shared

on my friend's FB memory yesterday ...

(the kind of writing Lucy loved and lived)

“There is a beauty in the fragility of life,

a sweetness to be savored in its fleeting moments of joy.

For it is in the rawness of our experiences,

both the joyful and the sorrowful,

that we truly come alive.

We are not meant to shield ourselves from the pain of life,

but to embrace it fully, to let it shape us, to teach us,

to make us more human.

So do not be afraid to love,

to open your heart to the world,

even if it means risking heartbreak.

For the sweetness of love far outweighs the bitterness of loss.

And when the inevitable pain comes,

find solace in the beauty of the world around you,

in the simple pleasures of life,

in the memories of love and laughter.

For even in the midst of sorrow,

there is still beauty to be found.”

—Louise Erdrich

'For the sweetness of love far outweighs the bitterness of loss. '

Yes.

So on we go, cherishing and considering the bittersweet worth of traces

either forever left behind or being forever left behind!

So worth the joy of love

So worth the air we trace

That teems with tender flickers of

A bygone time and face

So worth the letting go

With tears farewell imparts

To trace the sweetness of hello

That echoes in our hearts

So worth the picture book

That wafts upon the breeze

Where oft we pause to trace the crook

Of precious memories

So worth each tender trace

Love scattered in life’s wake

While we discover ‘all is grace’

While our broken hearts ache

So worth the parting kiss

As Time's 'never enough' 

Begins to teach us sorrow is

So worth the joy of love

...so worth the tears that flow

And God gathers in jars

To trace the night with their halo 

(I think we call them stars) 

© Janet Martin

Ps.56:8

You number my wanderings; 

Put my tears into Your bottle; 

Are they not in Your book?

Content to be Content

Last night, due to fog etc. the older half of our small group

was unable to be present and I was the only oldie,

(because the host home was two minutes from my home...)

I listened to young parents as they shared delights and challenges of

babies and tots.

Sometimes, youth in its 'youthful loveliness' can make more weathered relics

 hanker for days, long spent and much forgotten,

until my 'leveler head' prevails 😅

Sometimes I hunger deeply for life before the loss of loved ones

 altered it eternally.

Sometimes that longing serves as a wake-up call to 

redeem my time wisely rather than in foolish, futile lament. 💔

This was the Lord’s doing;

It is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it

Ps.118:23-24

Don't wait until tomorrow to smell today's roses...

Sometimes, in foolish moments I hanker for days gone by

Where common scenes have softened until only love remains

Where lessons I once rued while youth unfurled its butterfly

Have settled like gold-dust in the wake of love's growing pains

And then I am content; futile, longing's lament because

Want wishes for a star-glossed world that never really was

Sometimes, in foolish  moments I am tempted to appeal

To once upon gone-good-old-days for laughter's freer vim

Until I turn to gaze at faces, kissable and real

Warm with the precious company of darling Her and Him

And then I am content with blessings too profuse to tell

Sensing a sacred cadence tuning hello with farewell

Sometimes in foolish moments I am blinded by a view

Surreal and sentimental, gleaming in yesterday's sun

Where time's redeeming brush has smoothed what once was troubled too

Where, rather than battlefields, a masterpiece has begun

And then I am content to relinquish Want's wanderlust

God keeps the Part that matters; all else is but dust to dust 

Sometimes, in wiser moments I am able to discern

The hues between the views that else would gleam in flawless poise 

I feel the faded sting of lessons we must live to learn

And even if I could I would not resurrect spent joys 

Content to be content though grief seasons the heart with scars

It grounds and guards love's feet from wand'ring lost, among the stars 

 © Janet Martin

I found this poem-gem in a book

I picked up the other day from our local thrift/treasure store