As Time goes By

So sorry! Supper was half over before I remembered that I was going to take pictures of it. 

We had slow-roasted beef, fresh from the garden potatoes, carrots and coleslaw. 

I did remember a picture of the best part...the birthday girl and cake.

God bless you, Melissa, on your 22nd Birthday

As time goes by we learn a thing or three about its clocks

How round and round the hours go in teeny ticks and tocks

And all the while we smile and bear the cares of now and here

Tick-tock, tick-tock whispers the clock and steals another year

As time goes by we try to make the best of its demise

We grapple with the gray and gold that tumbles through our sighs

And learn how swift the gift of holding turns to letting go

How soft the tick and tock of time delivers blow on blow

As time goes by we realize its bite-size bit by bit

How nothing stays the same for long so we should cherish it

Tick-tock, tick-tock, whispers the clock and turns summer to fall

Sometimes it seems like time does not leave us much time at all

As time goes by it leaves behind the way things used to be

Its give-and-take a subtle, aching synchronicity

And often we are shaken by its bitter-sweet finesse

Tick-tock, tick-tock whispers the clock with double-edged caress

As Time goes by we sense a silent but undeterred Force

How, the longer we live the nearer we come to its Source

Tick-tock-tick-tock, whispers the clock that only God sustains

Tick-tock, tick-tock, whispers the clock ‘til only Soul remains

© Janet Martin

Unbaked Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/3 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (I used broken Choc.-chip cookies)
1/3 cup melted butter
Mix and press in 9" springform pan.

Filling:
2 (250g each) pkg. cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 envelope or 2 1/4 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
4 squ. semi-sweet chocolate, melted
1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped

Beat cream-cheese until smooth. Blend in sugar. Set aside. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water. Let sit 5 min. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves then blend gelatine mixture into cheese mixture. Beat in melted chocolate. Fold in whipped cream. Smooth over prepared crust.

Melt 4 ounces( 4 squares) semi-sweet chocolate. stir in 1/3 cup sour cream.
Spread on cheese-cake.
Garnish with fresh raspberries (optional)
Chill 4-6 hours before serving.

Of Sneak-peeks and Sky-prizes

 Here is a sneak-peek at supper prep...

Have you ever wondered how it would change our whole perspective if God allowed us one sneak-peek into Heaven?!

If God would grant us one sneak-peek

At ‘I go to prepare a place’

If he would allow one wee glimpse

Of his eternal gift of grace

…then our sole/soul passion would be

To prepare for eternity

We would press on and not forget

The Prize in the Skies that is waiting yet

© Janet Martin

One More Try

 Yup, on we go, for better or worse, but by the grace of God!

Hope it's a good one, all!

I'm off to make a birthday-cake and then a birthday supper!

I'll share the menu later because as the German phrase goes ,

'Goot guplanned is holva kshafft'
(just guessing at the spelling)

Loosely translated...

'A good plan is half the work'

I think I've got the 'good plan' but it is still at the mercy of the worker...

On we go,

While ebb and flow

Of dawn to dusk

Dwindles our days

As past expands

Its Never-lands

And future refills

Morning’s trays

On we go,

Now high, now low

The rise and fall

Of live and learn

Carves from its care

A thoroughfare

Falling where no one

Can return

On we go

A new hello

Spills through the dark

And fills the sky

Thank-you Lord

That you reward

Our woeful score

With one more try

© Janet Martin

Greatest Want of All

 What, in this very moment is your greatest Want? 

Success? a house? Beauty?

Athletic body? freedom? health? wealth? fame?

world peace? a good meal?...the list of wants is endless...

Last week I mentioned my Grandmother who was a storehouse of quotes, proverbs and wisdom. I remember her repeating this one from the Bible when we wished for things...

 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Tim.6:6

We want, oh. how we often want what lies beyond our reach

And yet the Want of it stirs us toward what waits to be

Then oft in the soft rush of years, while tears and laughter teach

We learn to Want with wiser wish and lesser fantasy

The Wants of daily strife are part of human life, it seems

Some hound the groping hand while others spur the heart to hope

This world is a buffet of great temptation and daydreams

As what we feed the mind becomes the means whereby we cope

Want, when honed by a Higher Call can lead to achievement

But oft by foolish Want we stray and oft by it we fall

Oh, pray that in its crash-course of full-force relinquishment

Heaven becomes our heart’s desire and greatest Want of all

© Janet Martin

Some C.S.Lewis quotes addressing our Wants...

 “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
― C.S. Lewis

 “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

 “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. ”
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

 “Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
—C.S. Lewis