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"They're only memories if we actually remember them"

One of my 'wise-guys' replied yesterday 

when I suggested they go make a memory for family-day!

Photos are great memory-savers...

funny how a photo wakes pages long heart-preserved!

Today's page holds a 'hey Jim, remember when the basement flooded  in the middle of winter

and you were home because you were recovering from your bladder-surgery?' 

But with life's 'lows' come lots of 'highs'

today,a visit from Uncle Oscar,

Roses a few days ago (thank-you again, Lucy and Karen)...

...flowers from our church family...thank-you!!!

I admired these purple beauties longingly last week...

...when I dropped in to Foodland to pick up strawberries for Valentine's Day dinner,

  ...and last 

but not least HIGHLIGHT!!!,

 Tessa and Scott win gold!

...memories; some we make, some we simply take!

This page of time we hold but once

Then fold, oft without second glance

Where much we touch, like lost Rembrandts

Scatter where thought cannot ensconce

For long the wants and wars we wage

Before dusk falls and turns the page

This interplay of sound and sight

Of hold-me-tight before farewell

Tables love’s ache within a shell

Cognizant of time’s fading light

Fills pages scattered in a hall

Like tatters we but half-recall

This hope-and-hunger thoroughfare

Of happy highs and lonesome lows

Of here-it-is and there-it-goes

As ‘oh-no’s learn to turn to prayer

Takes moments, some soon lost, some saved

On pages in the heart engraved

© Janet Martin

Universal Betrothal

We rebel to the knell of years in vain

Betrothed, as if it were to Father Time

Where none escapes the clock's possessive chime

But learns to grapple with its startling reign

We cannot quell the toll that sweeps the earth

From sprout to golden wheat to harvest hymn

The light on eastern skyline soon grows dim

As daily death usurps dawn’s daily birth

What have we here, but hints of Something More?

Where Something More makes worth the while of this;

The laughter dear, the tear of farewell’s kiss

Where little tittle, Time, is but a Door

Darling, life’s eventide is ebbing near

-er, nearer with each rise and set of sun

Soon dies the Thing we thought barely begun

Set in a silhouette of yesteryear

We, beg and borrow shod, are each denied

Access to the entrance where echoes cling

To tatters of an ever-fraying string

That soon points out the pointlessness of pride

Therefore we, kindred folk of circumstance

Because of our betrothal to tick-tock

Should make the most of its ephem’ral stock

And live as if This might be our last dance

© Janet Martin

 Man, who is born of woman,
            Is short-lived and full of turmoil.

      “Like a flower he comes forth and withers.
            He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

Job 14:1-2

The Morning After The morning Of...

Good Morning. Dear blog-reader family!

Letting you know the surgery went well and we will find out at Jim's post op what the diagnosis is!

Continued prayers appreciated.

As I sat for most of the day first in pre-op then in post-op
I noticed one thing each patient had in common no matter the reason for the surgery...

Before...

Baby-blue gowned nerves

After...

sweetly sedated

No photo:)

Janet~

The Morning Before the Morning Of...

(...and who really knows what 'this is the morning before the morning of'!)

love these guys! love this song!

"We are cupped in a calm we credit to prayer" 

is the best way I could think of to describe how we feel

when someone asked how we're doing pre-hubby's-surgery scheduled for tomorrow...

(removing a small tumor in his bladder)

Continued prayer is valued deeply.

Thank-you to the many friends who called, messaged etc. to let us know they are thinking of us.

This is no blasé statement when we say

'all we can do is trust'

 We are in good hands when we are in God’s hands!

Don’t worry then

Don’t fret the ‘When’

That tests the ken

Of you and I

The One who holds

What grace unfolds

Designs the molds

That shape each ‘why’

Don’t try to bear

Tomorrow’s care

While standing where

Today brims full

Its escadrille

Of good or ill

Enough to fill

Life’s push and pull

This is the day

The Lord has made

Its throughway laid

On Mercy’s palm

Don’t worry, then

But trust the Hand

That sifts the sand

We walk upon

© Janet Martin

Trust tests the footing of fear with faith

Trust does not mean carefree or careless but care-blessed;

because it is life's care that oft inspires prayer 

Trust has no 'point of view'

It is letting go and trusting God to help us through

Trust is more than platitude-garble...

It is clinging to God,

 our refuge and strength, 

a very present help 

in trouble.

Ps.46:1

 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

” Philippians 4:6-7

 “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

 Psalm 56:3

Best Love of All....

Our love would be nothing...without its Author!

We would have nothing to celebrate

Hope could not exist

without the Father and the Son

who loved first

Let’s contemplate The Greatest love of all

For our transgression,

He took the fall

For our debt of guilt

He took our stead

Beaten and pierced,

His body bled

For our boastful pride and shame

He bowed His head

Jesus is His name

Let’s think upon the perfect Son of God

Sinless, yet He became

sin for our sin

Immortal exchanged

Heaven’s throne for sod

Put on a humble servant’s shroud of skin

For our gain He suffered

Utter loss

Obedient even to death;

To death upon a cross

Let’s think upon the Love that sets us free

Forbid we turn our backs

On Calvary

where on that tree

He suffered every gore

…even Abba forsook

The form that bore

All sin of man on Jesus’ sinless limb;

‘Til all earth shook

With the agony of him

Let’s contemplate The Greatest love of all

For our transgression,

He took the fall

For our debt of guilt

He took our stead

Beaten and pierced,

His body bled

For our Victory

God gave His Son

And sealed hope's destiny
with 'it is done'!

© Janet Martin

Of Fist-a-cuff and Kiss-Me-Love

Let's face it...love is not always coochy-coo.

sometimes its gritting our teeth and forging through

But the thing that makes it worth the fight

Is knowing love will make everything right!

Love is not for the faint of heart

Nor for those self-inclined

Its fist-a-cuff and kiss me, love

Involves body and mind

It sets us free yet binds us close

Its comely fellowship

Makes possible the miracle

That heals wounds it inflicts

The way we are is not enough

Without the tender thrall

That wakes the whole where tug-of-soul

Makes warriors of us all

How hard the thorn of love can prick

And we would miss the rose

But sweeter thus, the bloom, because

We hold the whole stem close

Love is not for the bullish lord

Not for the faint of heart

Where fist-a-cuff and kiss-me-love

Makes love a work of art

© Janet Martin