How Do You Do?

 We know the curves of our everyday landscapes by heart...how the hill reaches up to touch heaven's deep

But beyond our sight who knows, but One, how far, how high, how low the way of life will sweep

How do you view what hovers before you?

We peer through keyholes to paths veiled in mist

How do you dare to prepare for landscapes

Breathed into being as moments untwist?

How do you hope for Future Uncertain?

Time holds a curtain before our eyes

How do you find strength of mind and body

To venture forth where untrod Unknown lies?

How do you do where  ‘guess’ overpowers?

Faith versus fear, tell me, which do you choose?

How do you press to the crest of an hour

Where joy and sorrow align with their dues?

How do you do life and love with fervor?

Is it a hope-for-the-best forward-fall?

Or a step-by-step trust-God endeavor

As you hold onto He who holds it all?

© Janet Martin

 Before the mountains were brought forth, 

or ever you had formed the earth and the world, 

from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

Ps.90:2

Around-and-Around-We-Go Medley

 With Sunday School lessons and potlucks to prepare for this morning, all I could manage was a quick dash out the front door for a few camera-clicks to capture a few keepsakes of a beautiful Worship-day Wonderland...

 

...got home late this afternoon because we had choir practice for the Easter Service after the potluck.

What was waiting to greet me? A HUGE pile of dirty dishes from all the food prep + potluck empties:) and I thought about how long it took to fill those dishes, how quickly they are scraped clean, how we fill, empty, wash and dry dishes, go to bed and, Lord willing, get up and do it all again. Hallelujah!

(I can sing hallelujah because the dishes are washed now...my first word when I came in was more like UGH!!!) until I remembered how blessed we are!

Though each day turns dormant

Its measure is rife

With the haste of moments

That soon makes a life

Time’s river runs rampant

‘Neath foothills and stars

Its morn melts the heavens

That twilight unbars

Spring, summer, fall, winter

How seamless they flow

Whatever the weather

By God’s grace we go

Wash and dry, wake and sleep

Work, play, pause, oh my

Dance and dream, loll and leap

Hello and good-bye

Life-circle of seasons

Spill ‘til death’s divide

There beggars and barons

Slumber side by side

...though each day turns dormant

Its measure is rife

With moment on moment

That becomes a life

© Janet Martin

March Mosaic

I love the above poem!

...because I love March

because...

...the tapestry that clothed the land has holes worn in its crooks

Yon slope dotted with sleds and skiers loses its allure

And everywhere we stare we hear a rush of newborn brooks

Streaming toward that fairyland of flower-laden moor

Those steps that hurry-scurried home to fire-friendly hearth

Dally, for oh, the valley is a panoramic treat

Of hope and dream for things soon green where long this girth of earth

Wore white; the sight of holes in it puts bounce back into feet

The sky sings hallelujah for a winter-season spent

The sun splashes a patch-work quilt of thatch onto the snow

And feather-throated choristers regale the firmament

With praise for days more suited to their flitting to and fro

The sill upon which will and want seem to agree at last

Is filled with laughter spilling from like-minded fellow-men

Who love a little slower and don’t hunger for the Past

Because they know that March will bring them springtime once again

© Janet Martin

 

The sun is trying hard to be March-like today!

A Good Day

Last Saturday(above photo) was a dazzling ice-dipped world. 

Today's window-scape is a seamless sweep of gray

...waiting to be undone by the sun.

From founts that none can fathom waning skies announce new day

A good day for returning to, while beginning anew

A good day to express the joy that only smiles can say

Come darling, for this day is young and we have life to do

Time’s line of hours strung together that none can behold

Save in the things we fill them with, is an elusive strand

How hardly we have held it then its nuance starts to fold

The sum of it dissolving like snowflakes upon a hand

This is no pretty ornament to set upon a shelf

This is the day the Lord has made; a well-spring without fame

To wring from it each drop, not in vain servitude to self

But with kindness and gratitude, to He from Whence it came

Unravel it with laughter, love and let time’s rafters ring

With praises poured in cups of tea, with labor meek and glad

For time is such a slippery sweep of gossamer, its string

A Thing we hardly hold before it is the day we had

© Janet Martin

 It's a good day for dreaming too!
Each morning on our computer Bing automatically posts a new desktop background.
Today's picture sparked dreams of going to Madeira ( a collection of islands near Portugal) to see these laurel trees!

Here-by We Go

With this little bit of time

With this ‘leap before the grave’

May we learn to make the most

Of who we are

With what we have

With this up-and-at-it wink

With this twinkle in time’s eye

May we chose to use each day

As God’s kind gift

To you and I

With this little have-and-hold

Before that last, letting go

May we live and give our best

To He whose grace

Here-by we go

© Janet Martin

I was going to begin today's duty-list,

then I hopped over to YDP to see what today's treat was
inspiring another quick bitty-ditty!

Jayne is sharing a good one for all of us.

You can read it here.

Hope you have a fabulous Friday!