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  

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,...

In Loving Memory of my Sister, Lucy

This is the bitter-sweetest poem I have ever written...

Dear Lucy,

Your garden shoes at the back door

Your jacket on the hook

Your beautiful flowers galore

Your latest favourite book

Your mementos of such and such

You thoughtfully arranged

All leave behind your tender touch

Death suddenly estranged

The datebook you kept in your mind

How we would marvel, dear

At the methods you used to find

The day, the month, the year

With ‘I remember this because

We picked the pears before…

We went to…(then) how the weather was

And what outfit you wore’

While we would laugh and marvel at

Your sentimental trove

You turned to gifts of this and that

To touch someone with love

And shape part of the thing that Death

Both takes and leaves, in sync

The life we lived; as gifted breath

Spills in permanent ink

Dear Lucy, daughter, sister, wife

Mother, grandmother, friend

Your legacy of love in life

Was faithful to the end

Where part of you is silenced now

Yet much of you lives on

Love never fails, no matter how

We wish you were not gone

Our God who ordained all your days

Before one came to be

Though we cannot fathom His ways

Will help love (us) faithfully

To bear all things, believe all things

To hope all things, endure

His pardon that salvation brings

Holds living hope secure

Thus, we have no cause to rebel

Against His perfect plan

But rather, to live each day well

And love while we still can

Dear all of us who yet remain

Who only see in part

God never fails; He knows our pain

He heals the broken heart

Yes. I know we will dearly miss

Dear Lucy’s smiling face

Her cards and notes, signed, love, your sis

Her words of cheer and grace

Her questions, oh, her questions, and

Her quirky observance

Her always ready helping hand

Her lovely compliments

But, as we contemplate our store

Of precious memories

We cannot help but thank God for

Love’s favours, such as these

Farewell for now, dear sister-friend

Although our teardrops flow

We know that this is not the end

But just farewell, for now

In loving memory of my sweet sister, Lucy

Janet Martin

Lucy took a kind and generous interest in my writing and poetry blog,

often checking in to see if everything is okay

if for some reason a few days passed without a poem!

I will really, really miss writing, in part, for her!

Love… bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never fails.

1 Cor.13:7-8

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