To Today's Response Team...

“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them”

 ― Epictetus

Nobody seemed to mind that it was no one's birthday...

there was a candle they each had a turn to blow out,

there was singing and there was leftover cake with blue icing!

  

Touch it

Tease it

Taste it

Squeeze it

Shake it

Break it

Walk,

Leap,

Sit

Stumble-

Tumble

But

Don’t grumble

Life is what

We make of it

© Janet Martin

Moment-montage

 I have no idea why but listening to this...

 inspired this...

If moments had sound

would they splash the ground like rain

or dash like pelting sleet

Would they run in rivulets

down the lane

to pool in poems at our feet

Or would they land

like sugared sand

on outstretched hands and tongues

Where we would twirl

And twirl

like yester’s girl,

forever and ever 

young

If moments made noise

would they be

like a blushing school boy’s 

 bravado

Or would they dance

In footloose romance

like Bach’s 

violin concertos

Or maybe they would surge,

in salt-spray splurge

of rhinestones 

...a gold and silver shiver

tossed against a

backdrop of twilight’s

purple 

and turquoise river

If we could hear a moment

would it fox-trot

or tango

… or pop like a 

rainbowed soap bubble

Would it melt

 like a flake of snow

or, fade like the afterglow

of trouble

if we heard a moment

ah,  would it

 tiptoe out of bed

all sleepy-headed 

looking for

a bit

of buttered bread…

© Janet Martin

Premeditated Praise

 A rare not pre-planned day so I went on a few-hour trek...

The good part of living where all the neighbors are friend/family

is the free reign to any 'back-forty' one wishes to wander;-)

...and ponder the somber shades of life as well as the glory-glints!

The Creator tints every single slope... with Hope. 

Hallelujah, even when the scene is blurred with tears stars!

Oh, isn’t He just Someone to behold

He washes out the dark with seas of gold

The leafless tree is decked in diamond dust

And yet…somehow we are averse to trust

Oh, isn’t He just Someone to adore

His majesty no mortal can ignore

He gathers up the ashes of spent fire

And scatters it ‘neath dashes of desire

Where footloose, fancy-free soon snares its feet

On vines bent with Time’s treasure, bittersweet

For oft the rush of who-what-when-why-how

Makes us forget His gift of here and now

Oh, isn’t He just Someone to applaud

No one and nothing can compare to God

For who of us the art of earth begets

Or boasts because the sun rises and sets

Oh isn’t He just Someone to entrust

With life’s soul-suffused follicle of dust?

Where in and out of season His design

Births bud that bears the fruit that bends the vine

© Janet Martin

For The Far Bigger Picture...

 Lest we under-estimate 

(during our love-hate relationship with life's gifts and crosses)

...the bigger picture

Fit for far more than task galore or fingertips that feel

Their way along rock-shores that jut beneath time's foaming keel

This surging splurge of come and go, of urge and its respite

Tackles the apples of time’s eye with death-designed delight

Twixt truth and make-believe youth tosses darling daydreams high

She poises on Her tippy-toes to almost touch the sky

Ballerina in middle-twirl; then Time collects its dues

It gathers up the little girl and steals her dancing shoes

For we are fit for far, far more than wish-worlds beck and call

Or worn-out work shoes weighting feet where seasons rise and fall

As Time goes by we realize Love’s Grand Futility

Without a far, far higher Prize than simply what we see

The one True God that cups Favor’s Façade in days and years

That strips the petal from the bloom that pricks our smiles with tears

Made us for far, far more than this mist, frost-kissed shadowland

There is a heaven waiting for the one who holds His hand

© Janet Martin

 Carry One Another's Burdens
…The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; 

 but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

 Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. 

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.…

Gal.6:8-10

visited my sister-in-law Karen last night...she is in good spirits
(with a mischievous grin she added 'morphine is a beautiful thing')
but of course she would love to be home!
 Pray she can see a specialist soon, and for her INR issues to be resolved so it is safe to leave the hospital without fear of blood-clots.

 

Brighter Than The Break of Day...

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Cor. 5:7

 Have you noticed? 'break of day' is happening a wee bit earlier than it did a few weeks ago...yay!!

The Light that draws the veil of night from city streets and countryside

Is more than golden bloom that breaks the bud of morning open wide

It streams beyond the scope of sight to where hope sets its hungry stare

And beams its never-failing Light through life-appointments of despair

Earth’s art that reappears where darkness hid its loveliness from view

Is like the heart, once dark with fears after the Light of faith shines through

Then, though we do not know what high or low this ergo might bequeath

Our passage through life's picture show is cupped in Light above, beneath

‘Great peace have they who love God’s law’; with trembling might faith grasps a rope

That tolls a bell; for fear is hell but heaven anchors holy hope

Then, from the belfry of God’s grace a song of peace and purpose peals

His law is love; ah, human race is cradled in a law that heals

His Light is brighter than the light that breaks the dark of night with day

It beams beyond the scope of sight where students of faith learn to pray

And dialogue peppered with words like ‘if’ and ‘when’ and ‘hopefully’

Feels through the fog to find the Lamp that lights the way we cannot see

© Janet Martin

" Still don't know much. 

They did ultrasound last night and more blood work 

so hopefully when the Dr comes this morning we may know something."

...above message from my sister-in-law Karen, this morning who is still waiting as Dr.s try to 'fix' the condition that caused a great scare on the week-end.
(her body now rejects the blood-thinner she has been on for years)

Please continue to pray for her, 

for the doctors,

and for the family, Dave, Josh and Krista and Jessica