Showing posts with label thankfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thankfulness. Show all posts

Monday, June 9, 2025

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
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...
 






Saturday, April 26, 2025

To Life, So Rich With Lovely Things



There is an incalculable silver lining to sorrow!
It reawakens us to life's wealth of joys
overflowing from God's fount of blessing! 

Our personal 'wealth' may differ in the details
but the Hand that grants it is

Ps.65:8 
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
you call forth songs of joy.

A friendly book, a cup of tea...


The glory of heavens run wild...



The beauty of mother and child...



Each gear that turns the working world...
(are you ever blown away by how vital every single 'gear'
of the working world is?!!)







This life is rich with lovely things
The fount from which fresh morning rings...



This life is rich with lovely things
The fount from which fresh morning rings
As earth emerges, soft and still
To perch upon my window sill

A friendly book, a cup of tea
The precious gift of you-and-me
The humble happiness we feel
For handstitched quilt, or homecooked meal

The balmy breeze that melts the snow
The warm handshake to say ‘hello’
The smile across a crowded room
The bud instilled with perfect bloom

A front porch splashed with spring sunshine
A color-kindled laundry line
The glory of heavens run wild
The beauty of mother and child

The lamb that leaps in verdant mead 
That hand that doth the kindly deed
The laws of nature, undeterred  
The power of a gentle word  

Each fear in faith’s banner unfurled
Each gear that turns the working world
Each upsy-daisy where we fell
Each brook that tunes the sylvan dell

The green of youth, the sage of age
The thrill that fills the empty page
With lure of lyrics, wild and free
(The poet’s sweet insanity)

…for time and ink are not enough
Where the inventory of love
Pray, stirs a constant, conscious laud
For blessings from our gracious God

For unchartered, uncharted ‘new’
For common wealth of Task to Do
For much to touch and taste and learn
From Time's momentous no-return

Forbid, lest care our visage dims
We stumble on a vault that brims
With wonderment, God's goodness brings
To life, so rich with lovely things

© Janet Martin

Psalm 65
Praise awaits[b] you, our God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2 You who answer prayer,
to you all people will come.
3 When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave[c] our transgressions.
4 Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.

5 You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
6 who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
7 who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
you call forth songs of joy.

9 You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.[d]
10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
11 You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.








Monday, March 10, 2025

Take a (Humbler) Moment...


Yesterday we celebrated our sweet Victoria's 24th Birthday
Every celebration (esp. since Sept. 17) is raw with humbler awareness 
of life's uncertainty/vulnerability...
My sister Lucy's husband and daughter were a special part
of the celebration; unspoken sorrow tuning our laughter
with kinder joy...

It is with unspeakable tenderness that we treasure the halo of faces
around a dinner table! 

 
(I'm not sure why the beginning and end of 
the song is cut off) oh, well...

***

Ah, take a moment, drink it in; the clime of Time is hasting
Its dawn-to-dusk designed to win the present we are tasting
Where nothing stays the same for long; each season, farewell-smitten
While deathless lyrics to Our Song of Life are being written

Sometimes, while in the bloom of love eyes close, never to waken
The loom that weaves The Mortal Glove, by God given and taken
Then, take a moment more to treasure the halo of faces
Around the table; prize love’s pleasure nothing else replaces

Behold the bud of virgin morn, like a flower unfolding
Where soon the bloom of it is borne to Bygone’s holy holding
Each bud a little like a door that God opens and closes
So, take a humbler moment more to thank Him for life’s roses

For no one knows the day nor hour He will bend without pardon
To pluck another precious flow’r from this world’s wanting garden
Then, drink with mindful regard from a fount filled by life’s Giver
With Ink of Moments that become Our Song of Life forever

Janet Martin

Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by His own authority

( our community is in deep mourning once again;
last week a young husband and father of five,
lost his life in a tragic accident).


Behold the bud of virgin morn, like a flower unfolding
Where soon the bloom of it is borne to Bygone’s holy holding
Each bud a little like a door that God opens and closes
So, take a humbler moment more to thank Him for life’s roses...




Thursday, March 6, 2025

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  


Friday, February 28, 2025

A Give-Me Benediction

 And just like that February is over!!!


Don't you love the sound of a kettle whistling
the prelude to a cup-sized vacay?!!







Give me a kettle that whistles the lyrics
Preceding a cup-sized vacay
Give me a nook with a book and a window
To nurture a noon-getaway
Give me a morning, gold-polished with sunshine
And gladness for mercy renewed
Give me enough lack to keep me from nursing
A heart of ingratitude
Give me a child, innocent and eager,
Brimming with curiosity
Give me an ear that is always half-hearing
Snatches of untamed poetry
Give me the eye of Beholden Beholder
Where earth and sky glory abounds
Give me a cup, though its handle is broken
That joy over joy still confounds
Give me a will, not my own but contented
No matter what today brings
To trust the Giver whose Hand has oft mended
And tuned my oft off-key harp/heart-strings
Give me the goodness of grief-tutored chatter
Rich with mutual sympathy
Pleasureful cadence of voices and laughter
To frame in fond memory…
Give me love’s splendid delight, fierce yet tender
As season-tides rise and fall
Remind me when love cheers the charge of the duty
No task is too common or small
Give me the beauty of daylight departing
In backdrops of deep indigo
Give me a soul not afraid of the smarting
Waiting beyond every hello
Give me the kind of trust that kindles courage
Come whatsoever yet may
Give me a kettle that whistles the welcome
To a cup-sized holiday

© Janet Martin

Give me the eye of Beholden Beholder
Where earth and sky glory abounds...





Give me a nook with a book and a window...