God is Good and Faithful...

No matter what we do, say, deny or believe, God is good and faithful still 

even when we cannot explain His pure and perfect will.

The art of word cannot defer

Nor from the heart and soul deter

Those things that God to life ordains

Of human hurt and sorrow-pains

Lest we, in laughter’s lease forget

That God is good and faithful yet

This load that we are called to bear

Of living’s give and taking care

Is but the little leap whereby

We traverse to the by-and-by

And all must submit to death’s chill

Where God is good and faithful still

The art of word cannot estrange

The heart and soul from the exchange

Of transient to eternity

As flesh dons immortality

For naught of thought annuls the soul

Where faithful God is in control

© Janet Martin

Even though my Uncle Abner knows that God is good and faithful still, he sorrows now in the death of his wife and soul-mate, Almeda(mentioned at the end of this post) who passed away yesterday.

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 

Deut.7:9 KJV

The Love of June

(really wet then quick cold to hot is making for a brief peony season;( so we enjoy now as much as we can!)

Here is my weekly wikem on June:

June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year. Wikipedia

If lent the chance my feet would dance across Her flowered dress

Without a break for slumber; unencumbered by Due’s call

Where she has spread above our heads a great celestial ball

And planted earth in gardens spilling rainbow happiness

If nature had a law that could be bent it would be June

We would extend the hours of Her stay and stretch the place

That seems to tease and put at ease the care-worn human face

Kissing us with appointments beneath arc of willow-tune

Even the critic is hard pressed to pinpoint valid flaws

She tilts his chin to marvel at the colors of her smile

And fills the fields with daisies; clover-hazy lanes beguile

The most industrious of creatures to relent and pause…

…to taste the haste of honeyed-noon dripping from heaven’s spoon

To drink the pink of peony and ponder as we stroll

The bud and how it holds within its folds a perfect soul

And proof of our ineptness to improve the love of June

© Janet Martin

Lessons, Love...and Thriftstore Finds:)

God grants approval; dark fades into bloom

Dawn is a whisper unfolding the sky

Into a flower that fills heaven’s room

And spills from fathoms eye cannot descry

Morn is newborn, oh, but not so for long

Hello and heave-ho drift up to the stars

And disappear where a sheer ancient gong

Kisses upturned face with laugh-lined scars

Life is a tug-of-heart 'meet-part free-fall' 

Extolling lessons in strange age-old ways

(When it comes to love we are scholars all)

Learning the art of its lingering gaze

…where God grants approval and fills time’s classroom

With unmarred sheaf; we don its silk glove

And wince as thorn of its rose pierces through

Just like the fierce complexities of love

© Janet Martin

...in the middle of an early morning post my daughter e-mailed me saying she would be at her pick-up point in 20 min. (30 min. away) so I dropped everything. We are home again (almost noon)after a tourist-y morning of thrift-store shopping and coffee-sipping:).  

Here a a few favorite finds...

green magazine rack and the brown-handled crockery rolling pin to (for my collection)

 

black and white framed prints and feather quill-pen

wooden box...and below, a green chair from a few days ago(displaying previous thrift-store finds;)

 ....then the best way to find 'treasures'; at the end of driveways marked...

don't worry...this one is not intended for riding! I fastened the wheel with string and am mulling over its possibilities...stay tuned.

On Rehearsing Farewell

I taste the word slowly

Like the long last tolling of a bell

For it seems I am unready

To say farewell

I touch the word softly

Swift through the heart seasons fell

Leading to the unrehearsed sorrow

Of fond farewell

I test the word bravely

Stunned by how two syllables

Can stir a lifetime of memories

Farewell

Farewell

© Janet Martin

Someone asked me today if I'm sad because this is my last school  picnic. 

(Victoria, our youngest daughter graduates Gr.8 next week and we will bid farewell to the school-family that has been part of our lives for 18 years!)

While I have always known this is the natural order of things, the 'best wishes' that began today caught me off-guard as I began to realize how much-loved these teachers are and how much-missed they will be!

This song above has been going around in my head as I painted the bathroom this evening.

 (the plumber came in to change taps on an old pedestal sink that has been here as long as the house so he had to remove the sink from the wall to install the taps which resulted in a wall needing a bit of repair which resulted in the wall needing paint which resulted in an unexpected chore this evening;)

I was going to post a few pics but the internet is too slow...if it doesn't change I might need to quit blogging. It is a severe test of patience to post...

About Today

 Dear fellow-creatures, praise our God of love

That we are so admonished that no day

Of conscious trial be a wasted day... 

 W.H.Auden from Canzone

When I try to bear tomorrow’s care

It steals the strength I need

To do the task that this day asks

Of me…

Tomorrow’s care is always there

So help us Lord, I pray

To seek to do our best for you

Today

To borrow from tomorrow we cannot;

Time's forward flow

Pours from a place where by God's grace

We go

© Janet Martin