Showing posts with label regret. Show all posts
Showing posts with label regret. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

On Conquering Futility


If we as gardeners only focus on what isn't growing or blooming
the way we had hoped or planned for,
we would miss what is!
So too in the garden of Life!


It's been years since I've grown snow-on-the-mountain flowers
and it's the first time for larkspur, 
(which could be why I am sharing SO many larkspur-shots)😅
 thanks to some seeds given to me
last Christmas from one of my gardener-friends.
I am delighting in their splendor! 
however, I thought the larkspur would be taller than the snow-on-the-mountain 
so the tiered flower-garden isn't quite what I had pictured,
but we enjoy what grew rather than what didn't...
like the straw-flower seeds I planted behind the marigold.


This sunflower below, as it grew larger began to obstruct the passage and the view in the arbor...

so I snipped it off for a centerpiece!




Here's to each of us to making the most of Today's 'garden'.!

Futile to wallow in regret
That no thought can undo
Better to focus on the Yet
Now runs its fingers through

Futile to pine for what once was
Leave Bygone on its shelf
And focus on what Is because
No day repeats itself

Futile to wish for what is not
With longing and lament
Better to give the best we’ve got
Before Today is spent

Futile to waste away in want
Better to kneel in prayer
And ask God to vanquish the taunt
Of defeat and despair

Futile to bear yesterday’s loss
Or surf Past’s frozen tide
Better to take up today’s cross
And trust God to provide

© Janet Martin

“‎"The best of men are just men at best.― Alistair Begg











Friday, November 20, 2020

Confession is Good For the Goal

 PAD Challenge day 19; write a confession poem

Oh look! He fills dawn's gleaming stair
with Mercy's 'try again'



I am not always meek and kind 
I sure wish I would be 
I hate the shells I’ve strewed behind 
In verbal mutiny 

I am not yet a model of 
Wisdom’s perfected clay 
I am still a student of love 
Learning what not to say 

The tongue is not like ink and page 
A mouth cannot back-space 
A word, when it has fled the cage 
No technique can erase 

One would think after all these years 
Of practice I would know 
What not to say, but oh, my dears 
I fear it isn’t so 

God, rich in kindness hears my prayer 
He makes forgiveness plain 
For look, He fills dawn’s gleaming stair
With mercy’s ‘try again’ 

Thus, I press t'ward the Goal once more
And ask God to renew
His watch to guard the Sacred Door
That all my words pass through

© Janet Martin

Psalm 141:3
Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.

James 1:26
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, 
he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.


Proverbs 13:3
He who guards his mouth protects his life, 
but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin.


Psalm 34:13
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.


Proverbs 21:23
He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from distress.

Psalm 19:14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart 
be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Well! I wrote this post
then turned to read today's Daily Bread Devotion...
(a very-worth-one's-while-read)
This: Eph.4:29-32
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, 
but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, 
that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, 
with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 
 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, 
brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 
 Be kind and compassionate to one another, 
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Thank-you Lord!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

For Time I Didn't Take...

PAD Challenge day 26; For today’s prompt, write a regret poem. 


For time I didn’t take
For what I didn’t do
Here is a thank-you prayer, my Lord
For today, fresh and new

A beaming ‘try again’
Of mercy-misted hue
To take the time I didn’t take
For what I didn’t do

Then, pray when day is done
When its beacon has set
I’ll know I did the best I could
With humble ‘no regret’

© Janet Martin

 

Monday, November 9, 2015

Lifeline



PAD Challenge day 8:For today’s prompt, write a submerged poem. 

One can get lost in thought; submerged by sadness of regret
A surge of years converging like oceans inside a head 
Echoes can be like shrapnel in a wound that will not heal
And it is easy to get lost in the cost of appeal


Time is a fine tap-dancer with quick feet of silk and steel
A cool, cut-throat romancer who cares little how we feel
Darling, if wishes were kisses then we would drown, I guess
Caught in a riptide of regret, hunger and loneliness

But we cannot afford a stone-cold sinking in despair
Because we let regret be like a noose about our prayer
Darling, how will we move on if we cling to yesterday
Imbibed on brew of wish-I-knew and what-I-threw-away?

Once upon our learning we did little to appease
The Point of No Returning that slipped through our touch with ease
...One can get lost in thought, submerged by sadness and regret
But for Today; a lifeline held by God who's faithful yet

 Janet Martin

Monday, November 4, 2013

Rendezvous with Regret

 

November's PAD Challenge Day 3.For today’s prompt, write a “the last time I was here” poem.

I do not come here often
For I cannot bear
Its mantle of memory
Its grief and despair
But life hands us lessons
We cannot forget
Yet, I cannot tarry
Too long
In regret

The last time I was here
I vowed, not again
Regret is a futile
And profitless pain
After forgiveness
Though I may not forget
I must not return
To wallow
In regret

Janet~

"If we spend our time with regrets over yesterday, and worries over what might happen tomorrow, we have no today in which to live."
-­-Anonymous

Monday, October 28, 2013

Of Regret and Redemption





Every now and then
From some lost yesterday
I feel the haunting tug of things
That I let slip away

But all the could-have-beens
Pounding time’s frozen past
Cannot annul God’s grace that fills
This day soon memory-cast

Regret is but to die
To opportunity
And this new day is mercy’s
Patient gift to you and me

© Janet Martin

 Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord.Ps. 27:14

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Of Moment-tides





In the transparent hull of moments
We spill dreams, triumph and tears
Leaving in their wake behind us
Drops that turn to weeks, then years

Last night the still and sable hollow
Of deep-fall tranquility
In a foray of keen echoes
Hurled its torrents over me

Translucent, its mighty upheaval
Vexed me from Time’s tear-stained graves
Where the dream mislaid the dreamer
In sheer moment tidal-waves

But still the gossamer allotment
Of Love’s patient mercy-stream
Washes far the deep-night tempest
Where dawn’s virgin waters gleam

And we, with out-stretched hope approach them
Point our sterns into the glow
For the moment-faring traveler
Cannot quell its ceaseless flow

© Janet Martin

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Those Words


I hated what I was saying
Before it was fully spoken
I knew by your wounded expression
Your little heart was broken
But I could not reach to retrieve them
Those words, harshly uttered in haste
All I could do was kiss them
With sorrow, as they ran down your face

Janet~

'children' come in all sizes and ages':)

Words hastily spoken
Leave hearts quickly broken~
J~

Do you see a man who speaks in haste?
There is more hope for a fool than for him. Prov. 29:20

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold
in settings of silver. Prov. 25:11

Friday, February 18, 2011

Too Far Away....


I wish that I’d be gifted
With the perfect words to say
I wish that I could touch you
You’re too far away
I wish that I could take back
The things that I regret
But, it seems I cannot
Nor can I walk ahead
I simply have this moment
I hold within my grip
In it I make my choices
Before they softly slip
Into the dim-lit shadows
Of silent retrospect
I hear their distant echoes
As I pause to reflect……..

Oh, I wish that I’d be gifted
With the perfect words to say
I wish that I could touch you
You’re too far away………..

Janet~

Monday, February 7, 2011

Naked Truth.......


The nakedness of truth
Is a painful thing to see
Every hollow, every curve
Exposed
Clearly
As my gaze travels across its body
It spares no pain, hides no sorrow
Though I cover it with longing
It turns a stiff shoulder
To my sad and weak excuses
Tracing the outline of harsh grief
But for my wanting and my wishes
It can offer no relief
Though I beg and moan and plead
In the end, it is no use
I cannot satisfy my need
With raw guilt and naked truth

Janet~

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Lost at Sea.....


The night washed in around them
like a dark and restless sea
and there was no rhyme or reason
to its shades of misery
but it took more than an ocean
to erase a memory
and the night washed in around them
like an angry, storm-tossed lea
oh, the night washed in around them
vexed with kisses lost at sea

Janet~

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

If Only I Had Known


Oh my dear, if only I had known…
I would have held you closer
Whispered sweeter
I would have closed my eyes
And imprinted our last moment
On my heart forever
I would have danced a little longer
And softened my tone
When the tug of life was stronger
Oh, if only I had known….

Oh my dear if only I had known
I would have smiled more
And scolded less
I would have loved more fiercely
And done everything possible
To add to your happiness
There is no comfort
On the shoulder of a stone
I would have loved you better
If only I had known………..

So today I will hold closer
Whisper sweeter
I will close my eyes
And love deeper
There’s no way of knowing
When our last chance is gone
And we are left weeping
Oh, if only I had known
I could have loved you better
If only I had known

All Rights Reserved
Janet Martin