The Way to A Good Day, Always

Some people will ask - you have only a small bag?” the interviewers asks.

“Yes.”

“And you bring your dog?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I love my dog!”

Check out this link and scroll down to find the video-clip of Aslan, 17, from Damascus, with his dog Rose.

There will always be days that are better than others

But even the worst wear kind loveliness too

If we have love and someone to love us

Because it is love that carries us through

Glad days and sad days and all around bad days

Put them together and what do we see?

Love is the beauty in everything, always

So then let us love and let all the rest be

© Janet Martin

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; 1 John 4:7

 

Saturday Afternoon

It smiles and beams like a grand prize waiting to be taken

Today the foothills of its skies with pewter rains are shaken

But still, its tea and cookies and a sun that will shine soon  

For nothing dampens spirits on a Saturday afternoon

Somehow its isle seems kinder and its troubles light of heart

And we are drawn toward each other instead of apart

The bond of duty eases and we sing a little tune

Where simple beauty pleases us on Saturday afternoon

Old books are new in younger hands that hunger for lost charm

The taste of words turned slowly on the tongue are sweet and warm

The air is like an apple pie, the hour like a spoon

And everyone is hungry on a Saturday afternoon

Its shops are full of stragglers with a carefree hour to spend

And though we’ve never met before we greet as friend to friend

For there is something different about this weekly boon

And no one is a stranger on a Saturday afternoon

No matter what’s behind us and no matter what’s in store

Today is a tea-kettle with an afternoon to pour

So take that cup and lift it up, then sip or slurp, for soon

Twilight will draw its shutters to this Saturday afternoon

© Janet Martin

I wrote the first line in my mind when the afternoon began... we decided to toss to-do lists and Victoria and I had a Saturday afternoon excursion to our favorite thrift store to hunt for treasure-aka old books;-)

If the book talks to me on the first page its mine!
(my dilemma; which one do I read first?!:)

 

For We Are Guests

What right have we to plunder through earth’s wonderland; the eye

Though covetous by nature should regard earth’s fields and sky

As more than dripping eaves and sheaves whereby mankind is blessed

These are the floor and roof in God’s house and we are His guests

What right have we but this; to treat with utter courtesy

Each day-to-day as God extends His hospitality

This come-going commission is no coincidence

For we are guests, not owners of His faithful Providence

Then bend to share the burden of a fellow-traveler

And tend earth’s ample garden like a grateful visitor

This passing-through and much ado of what thought-want suggests

Sometimes causes us to forget that we are God’s house-guests

Ah, what a privilege to wander heaven’s foothill Halls; to see

Its walls, a panorama of the Artist’s Majesty

And perhaps we would all be happier in living’s quests

If we remembered God is earth’s House-Keeper, we, His guests

© Janet Martin

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein. Ps. 24:1

Always a Lady...

 (Before the rain began I was working at cleaning summer-tatters from the gardens...I began to empathize with Her; September-summer)

 

September-Summer slips her hand to the crook of Time’s arm

His cue of tinted tresses is not hard to understand

Her dances and caresses are inept, she cannot charm

Him, but begins the preparation for his next demand

She does not argue though it seems she lingers tenderly

And spreads beneath the walnut tree a memento of tears

The tug of his insistence urges her passionately

But she is like a mother counting moments now, not years

Yes, she has known it all along, that it would come to this

Still, she was unprepared for the deftness with which Time flies

She tilts her chin beseeching him to postpone farewell’s kiss

He shakes his head and flower-tatters scatter in her sighs

She curtsies; the Gate-keeper stands erect and then salutes

For she is a fair lady, even in her latter bloom

Though he sees she is trembling; letting go is hard to do

But she clutches Time’s elbow like a bride beside her groom

Maturity has shaped her into more than wish and whim

Her beauty is a lady by experience refined

September-summer smiles, he looks at her; she nods to him

Then waves; her gentle laughter leaves a trail of leaves behind

© Janet Martin

While Man Argues...

 The earth is filled with your love, LORD; teach me your decrees. Ps.119:64

While man argues, bickers and boasts

And demands proof that God exists

He breathes on berm of breaking day

And heaps skylines with amethyst

While man fusses, frets and forgets

Bent on becoming, I AM keeps

The bud; it bursts in bloom and bread

Replenishing dust's still-life deeps

While man pushes, pulls, plans and pleads

And probes earth's pantheon for clues

God tends the universe and seeds

He deepens dusk with blue on blue

While man demands, dreams and derives

And depends, as he laughs-loves-lives

And while he takes and takes and takes

God gives and gives and gives…and gives

...while man argues, debates, denies

Demanding proof that God exists

He thunders in night's star-still skies

And breaks its dark with amethyst

© Janet Martin

We are blessed with much harvest being gathered in these beautiful, sunny days of September!

My mom was at the St. Jacob's Farmer's Market yesterday. She remarked how stand after stand was loaded with colorful goodness and my, how much we have to be thankful for!

Matt woke me when he got in last night...to tell me how amazing the sky looks.
 I told him this morning I really wish I would have gotten out of bed and marveled at the stars with him,
but after being up LATE the night/morning before to finish up some canning I was a sort of Zombie when I crawled out of that first deep sleep to try to understand what he was saying...
There is something intensely moving to stand beneath God's sky of lowered stars.

Thursday Thought's On What Is Happening Before Our Very Eyes