Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seeds. Show all posts

Thursday, January 12, 2023

We Will Go Forth (and a few more Thursday Thoughts)


We cannot outlive the Unknown
or challenges we face 
But look, each moment's steppingstone
is anchored in God's grace

Faith's substance of things we hope for
will someday rend the veil
Revealing the complete splendor
Of love that did not fail

***
The sunless stretch continues...
not sure what happened to last week's forecast for this week's yellow...


It could certainly have the potential to dampen our spirits if we let it!
But...

If we would fixate on the weather we might be quite glum
It's been a dose of dreary, drippy, damp, sunless ho-hum
But love and life are so much more than covers of a book
So much of what is written is hidden until we look!
Then as we turn the pages where God's goodness overflows
We find ourselves quite speechless, awed by blessings He bestows 

***


Seeds are so very, very small
Sometimes we doubt their clout
And dare to wonder where they fall
...until they start to sprout 

Seeds look like nothing much at first
Mere crumbs, mundane and mute
But from the crumb, when it has burst
Comes all manner of fruit 

Seeds seem to be too slight and slow    
To hold much harm or good
But as the sprout begins to grow
Seed's clout is understood 


***

Our worlds are often mirrored in the shimmer of a tear
Or lightened by the laughter of someone we love so dear
Or sweetened by the banter of a breeze, a child, a bird
Or brightened by the candle of a kind and gentle word
Hard knocks are often softened by a handshake and a smile
Making the world that shimmers in a tear, so worth its isle/while

***

Tick-tock tempo laps the shoreline of  a winter afternoon 
Like the summer-blue momentum of lake-lyrics lazy tune 
Like a breeze undresses tresses of its leaf-shaped souvenirs 
Tick-tock tempo falls and rises until winter disappears

***  
This morning's foggy shroud inspired the beginning of this poem...


We will go forth then, you and I
The view of what yet waits withheld
Like a masterpiece made of sky
Vaulted above the mist-veiled veldt
While the clocks unrelenting toll
Unfurls and collects, synchronized
In breath-sized billows as they roll
Through hopes salvaged from dreams capsized
Undoing what we thought we knew
With sudden, foreign points of view

We will go forth because, my dear
No choice awaits but to proceed
Faith spurs us on and spars with fear
As scars forge wisdom’s crown and creed
Where delight, like a diamond stud
Dazzles dark backdrops of dismay
Where hope, like an unbroken bud
Reminds us of blooms held at bay
Cheering us on as vast unknowns
Unfold flowers and steppingstones

We will go forth but not alone
Goodness and mercy follow still
Where thoroughfares of grin-and-groan
Are never all down or uphill
The valley where shadows are cast
Like creases in a color-world
While the Master pieces the Past
With present grace on grace unfurled
His able Hands cradle the sky
We will go forth thence, you and I

© Janet Martin

(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
2 Cor.5:7

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Once Upon Many a Wistful Morrow (have been here and gone)

Happy September!!!


And to Adam He said:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten from the tree
of which I commanded you not to eat,
cursed is the ground because of you;
through toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your bread,
until you return to the ground—
because out of it were you taken.
For dust you are,
and to dust you shall return.”

Gen.3:17-19 (BSB)

We have toiled 'by the sweat of our brow', haven't we?!!
And Lord willing we are not done yet!
And we have eaten, haven't we?!
Thank-you, gracious Heavenly Father!

While not everything may have bloomed, obedient to expectation's hope, 
as we planted seeds, seedlings, and bulbs,
we are thankful for what often exceeds hope and expectation! 

From Fancy's Dream of a plethora of colorful dahlias....

to bushy reluctant bloomers 


that buried the planters until I moved them


From barren field with dust flying to a sweep of golden butterfly-like flutters...

From blank canvas....


...to our Creator's Masterpieces!!



A reflection and reply to this poem from May...


Spring's Wistful Morrow-World, my dear, has now been nearly spent..
Its planted plot and furrow unfurled in fruit-testament
Hope, giddy with spring's fantasy of flowers, bears the yoke
Of disappointment and delight; for blooms are not bespoke
And so we choose to cherish what was granted, midst withheld
Before the present perishes as past and future meld
Where we, all struggling students 'neath the tutelage of God
Are learning patient prudence, for no hand can force a bud
Or undo, what in Eden, routed man's eternal rest
As Eve and Adam doubted and put God's Word to the test
Where the infested ground we till still yields to human race
The bread we eat, the flower frill, like emblems of God's grace
Where, though spring's Wistful Morrow may not unfold as we planned
We know both joy and sorrow's plume are cradled in God's Hand

© Janet Martin

And the sunrise was no slouch either!!!




The last pic in my spring post made me a bit teary...


These tots seem so much bigger already!




Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Handful of Seeds?

 



For today's prompt (the first Two-for-Tuesday prompt of the month),
write a make sense poem and/or don't make sense poem.


It doesn’t make sense that something so little and brittle should kindle such joy
The rush of elation roused by contemplation of what waits within its employ
Of places to wander and graces to ponder as wonder its plunder beholds
Completely breath taken by what will awaken, that raindrop and sun-kiss unfolds

Each April as surely and sweetly and purely as winter’s traces disappear
A feeling comes stealing, nay, reeling and pealing like bells tolling in the new year
As seeds for the garden (so seemingly common) then, utterly awe and amaze
And fill heart-recesses with thrilled happiness-es that spill into anthems of praise

Because we remember stunning petal splendor, the fruit of our labour’s reward
The way that a kernel begets virgin, vernal abundance of goodness outpoured
Instilled with cool bowers, bright rainbows of flowers, provision for needs great and small
So little and brittle, ah, handful of miracles; Perhaps it makes sense after all

© Janet Martin

Because we remember stunning petal splendor, the fruit of our labour’s reward...





the fruit of our labour's reward...










Thursday, December 9, 2021

Like a Wind-swirl or a Splash...

Explanation to this photo at the bottom of this post...💝

This post inspired in part by Luke 8...
in part by scattered seeds, 
soon bearing blooms of consequence, 
and in part the momentum of moments...

Therefore consider carefully how you listen.
Whoever has will be given more;
whoever does not have,
even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
Luke 8:18

“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.
Luke 8:25

“Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”
Luke 8:39

Where clocks unravel so much more than morning, 



noon ...

and night...

(While I was writing this post my mom called to tell me 
my Uncle (Ernie Frey) passed away last night,
making the point of this poem ever the more poignant! 
He was in his 80's but the moment life ceases, the span of
100 years is but a spark and one breath eternity)


Between the bars of birth and death a sacred field unfolds
Where scattered seeds of no and yes soon shatters nascent molds
To strew beneath our hands and feet the fruit of consequence
Where tots follow, so pure and sweet, cloaked in Brief Innocence

What may seem nondescript at first, bursts tick-tock’s tiny glove
The loom of living blessed and cursed with faith or lack thereof
Where clocks unravel so much more than morning, noon and night
The Judge’s gavel poised above the roar of dark and Light

We all have this in common; death’s Summoning of the Soul
The seeds we scatter matter; only faith can make us whole
The Word of God anchors Unknown with Truth’s Security
Time's speck of sod man’s stepping stone into eternity

...this stanza added after mom called💖🙏

Ah look, life’s book of seasons is soon turned to dust and ash
Thought’s tilt-a-whirl of reasons like a wind-swirl or a splash
Where soon the wheel of day-to-day that shapes life’s clay will cease
Ah, pray we hear God say, ‘your faith has saved you. Come in peace’

© Janet Martin



I have one tot in my childcare
 who loathes the sound of tick-tocking clocks right now,
and so we have been trying to allay her fears by bringing clocks up close 
and smooth-talking/soothe-talking time away😅
It's quite an awakening to the adult mind to try to explain time
in terms a small child can understand!!


Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The Gravity of Seeds

 

We all want a healthy harvest but wanting isn't enough;
to harvest what we hope for takes the long, hard work of Love

Hang in there, fellow field-hands!


All a man's ways are pure in his own eyes, 
but his motives are weighed out by the LORD.


Through dad's life he proved the deed/'seed'
above was far more than 'getting in mother-in-law's good books.
His life is a legacy of helpfulness.
And isn't it ironic how even in harvest time 
we are planting and watering.

Gal.6:9
 Let us not become weary in doing good, 
for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Sometimes we are so weary and tempted to despair, but God is faithful...

2 Thess. 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you 
and guard you from the evil one

Prayer for Today.

"Lord, let us sense the seeds we strew
and recognize the recompense
when harvest time comes due,
In Thy Name we pray
Amen

It matters, for we scatter seeds 
Through every high and low 
Where words and prayers and fruit of deeds 
At Harvest Time will show 

It matters, what we think upon 
Where, who we choose to serve 
Will either make us weak or strong 
When life throws us a curve 

It matters, how we proceed thus 
Trailblazers of a kind 
For little feet that follow us 
Not very far behind 

It matters, what we say and do 
The ‘why’ of yes and no 
Like little seeds we strew and strew 
That grow and grow and grow

It matters; Every. Single. Day
No matter where life leads
Its ups and downs will soon display
The gravity of seeds

It matters. No one can mock God
The hand reaps what it sows
Where what seems hidden in time's sod
The harvest will expose

© Janet Martin 


Proverbs 20:11
Even a young man is known by his actions--
whether his conduct is pure and upright.

Matthew 7:20
So then, by their fruit you will recognize them.



Monday, June 29, 2020

The Awe of What Yet Waits...(or The Forwardness of Time)


 Yesterday, at the close of our worship service our pianist thanked God
not only for what He has done but for what He is going to do!
Isn't that an amazing Anticipation to start a new week on...
the hope and assurance of what He yet will do!



The forwardness of time is something none of us can overpow’r
And who of us can force the bud or pull its petal into flow’r
The finer things of love and life are not its passions we pursue
But rather the peace He will tender as we surrender anew

The ether tulle that tints the crepuscule that snuffs the dimming day
Soon dons the brush that spawns the blush that yawns the hush of night away
To kindle in the dwindling barge a charge that sparks the sacred toll
Where time’s sliver of light we see is but eternity’s keyhole

The say and do of me and you in time’s grand scheme may seem minute
But ho! The seeds of words and deeds will without fail unveil its fruit
And what seemed of small recompense when falling from our hands or lips
Becomes the bedrock or the bog whereby somebody stands or slips

The way we are can scar a soul without the holiness of God
He grants the grace that makes us whole in spite of holes in our façade
Where without Him the forwardness of time is a grim enterprise
Because it leaves us without hope when death has cut us down to size

The forwardness of time does not return us to yester’s despair
Its ladder that we climb is anchored in God’s everlasting care
Where all that he has done does not exhaust the mercy dawn makes new
But ushers with the rising sun the awe of what He yet will do

© Janet Martin

"Oh God, will you give me the song to share today?"
I prayed before I clicked Youtube 
And the song below was the first 'suggestion'!!
perfect.
No better words to start a day or week on!
Thank-you Lord!

 

A friend sent me this song today after reading this post.





Saturday, June 6, 2020

Of Receiving What We're Given and Seeds


Last Sunday we drove through the farming community 
where Jim delivers a lot of cattle he brings from the west
(Badger Rose/Dundalk...)
Gorgeous countryside! 

The land is flooded with June’s green for everyone the same
The Giver of each good and perfect gift knows all by name
And we, created in His image all hold equal worth
None less or greater in the eyes of God of Heav’n and earth

Faith’s substance fits inside a seed; and all depend on He
Giver of life, of sun and rain to sustain earth’s bounty
Not one possesses power to refill wellsprings run dry
From which we all draw water as on Mercy we rely

We, all creatures of need by now should surely recognize
That none are least or greater in a Loving Father’s eyes
For He loves all His children, shame on we who are unkind
God grants to all the breath of life for purpose He designed

Then, lest an evil seed takes root within our heart of hearts
Let’s consider where we would be without what God imparts
Inhale, exhale, warm lips wear smile or scowl, we make that choice
As our hearts pump means whereby He gives His children voice

Let's untwist flawed perception and hate's awful prejudgment
Let's think on things true, noble, right, lovely and excellent 
Let's spur each other on toward more love and its good deeds
 Mindful how all that grows begins with nothing but small seeds
 

© Janet Martin

 “I am the vine; you are the branches. 
If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; 
apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5


I was baffled for a moment yesterday as I wondered
at what was sprouting among the rocks in the front flower garden
then I recalled an incident earlier this spring...
Grand-sonny was helping me fill the bird-feeders
but finding the full feeder to heavy to maneuver as his short legs tried
to climb over the rocks he heaved/threw it ahead of him 
and it landed in three pieces on the next layer of rocks planting many seeds!
'It was an accident', he wept, and Grandma reassured him
there was no harm done and we can fix it,
and we did and smiles reigned once more.
'We all have accidents' I told him.
It got me to thinking about how many seeds we plant by accident...
Oh, if only our accidents were as easy to fix as a bird feeder.

Heb.10:23-24
Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess,
for He who promised is faithful.