Game-changer

"I would go CRAZY after about 30 minutes of your life", remarked one of my dearly-beloveds

 as they helped themselves to a bowlful of homemade granola, (before heading out)

while surveying the wreckage of living in the 'not-so-background music' of tots!

Well, replied I, If it was the mere mechanics of Doing it would be dull indeed...

Life would be a doleful, soulful hole full of fear and despair

It would be a lonely, loathsome, longing-laden weight of care

Toil would be a mundane, mocking, morbid money-driven taunt

Where its filthy lucre’s purchase would be lacking what we want

And the most that we could cope for is to hope for bitter death

Without Heaven as the outcome as it severs soul and breath

But for this gear-grinding, mercy-finding, sorrow-binding Best

Love; ah love and only love makes worthy all the rest

© Janet Martin

 Love is the game-changer, I continued,

It makes all the difference in all we do!

I love making life lovely for those I love.

So, it's not always what we do but why that makes what we do worthwhile!

Though we give our bodies to be burned and have not love it profits us nothing...

1 Cor. 13

January and Juxtapositions

It's so cold

and so awesome!

Hard to hate a postcard heavy with the handiwork of God

Worship overcomes the burden; love makes worth each mile we trod

Beauty begets humble wonder while we bear The Ways of Life

Of Night always hinged to morning; of joy always hinged to strife

Of hope, always hinged to heartache, of delight hinged to dismay

Of desire hinged to blessing, of heaven hinged to today

© Janet Martin

For Old Man Winter's Shining Hour

 I found the above old book a few months ago, 

a chapter for each month written by a woman (after my own heart) in Connecticut...

but very relatable in Canada as well!

Weather certainly has come in capital letters this week!

Hubby is in Winnipeg with a brand new truck and frozen fuel!

Fellow, famous for your grit

For our love or hate of it

You don’t seem to mind a bit

Owning center stage

Seething in each crease and crook

Stirring love for tea and book

Making home the sweetest nook

While your tempers rage

While you tweak cheeks, nose and toes

While you shake Nature’s repose

While you make yourself at home

Right outside each door

Tumbling, rumbling, reeling g-r-r-r

Big, burly, breath-stealing b-r-r-r

Sparkling stillness, starred silver

Want and wonder war

Season of quilted desires

Frozen water-pipes, home-fires

Icicles like crystal spires

Fringe each rooftop’s edge

Where earth’s frozen floorboards creak

Where our hasty footsteps squeak

Where the birdie fills its beak

With God’s seeded pledge

Shovels, skates, skis and snow-shoes

Landscapes draped in hoary hues

Vantage filled with varied views

Of you, foe or friend

Old Man Winter, shine your hour

Flaunt your frigid super-pow’r

For with each day you devour

You hasten your end

While you leap with cold, bold stride

Fling your fortune far and wide

We smile at your foolish pride

Knowing one sure thing

With each flurry that you flail

With each fierce frost bitten gale

Slowly, surely you unveil

Earth’s rebirth, sweet spring

© Janet Martin

Like Quaint Quilt Patches

On Sunday a few friends and I marveled at the artistry

 in the quilts on display at a local restaurant (Crossroads:) 

A quilt is a one-of-a-kind-work-of-art!

A little like each of our lives; bits and pieces stitched together!

Today's moments would make quite the patch-work quilt,

 I thought as I 'arranged' some of its colors while others spilled, splashed and crumbled into place...

I love snowy kitchen-days and the tots didn't seem to mind either!

A few today-quilt-patches...

Good to be busy and thoughtful and thankful

Good to be glad in Time’s tête-à-tête verge

Good to be helpful and happy and humble

Making the most of mere moments that merge

Like quaint quilt-patches into the big picture

Drawing us oft to a soft, surreal cast

To marvel at the fine stitches and tincture

That turned from everyday life into Past

Good to be gentle while tuned to a spindle

Holding a wheel that unravels the thread

Weaving a fabric of freckle and brindle

Pink, periwinkle, gold, green, sapphire, red

Gold and gray shimmers of dirt-floor and rafter

Pastel and neon frays of hand and heart

Turning the colors of yearning and laughter

Into a one-of-a-kind-work-art

© Janet Martin

On the other side of the window B-R-R!!
On this side, COZY!
Thank-you, Lord

With Whisper and Heave-ho or On The Bright Side

Well, on the bright side, I said to myself, after some recent turn-of-events,

At this point I will never be tempted as in the parable of the rich fool, to say

"Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years;

take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry"

 Luke 12:13-21

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns,

 and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not much more valuable than they? 

 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Matt.6:26-27

Time is a troubadour etching its verses

Into the fabric of wish-weathered strife

His hearty hunger never reimburses

That which becomes the sum of love and life

We choose the attitudes whereby we carry

Worship or worry into dawn’s domain

While with each whisper and heave-ho we bury

That which will never pass this way again

Change is a constant but so is God’s mercy

Trust is a prayer-warrior oft put to test

Hearts are both battle-grounds and humble havens

Cherishing comforts, accepting the rest

© Janet Martin