What Makes a Successful Marriage?

 

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For all the words written, repeated and referenced

For all the books gathering dust on our shelves

Marriage must be a constant endeavor

To put the other before ourselves

‘Easier said than done’, that’s a promise

It seems that Self is a dominant voice

Subtle and always eager to be noticed

Willing to be our soothing first choice

Two become one but with two opinions

Two become one in new love immersed

and Marriage will be a beautiful union

Only if each puts the other first

Alone it is hard to apply resolution
The tie that binds two hearts near and dear
Must be secured by a Third divine portion
God will enable us to persevere

© Janet Martin

Love-lessons in marriage are endless! On Monday hubby and I, Lord willing, will celebrate 25 years of learning! The analysis of what I have learned is this;

Two selfish people= disaster.   

One selfish person= abuse.  

No selfishness= Happy marriage
(or instead of no selfishness perhaps simply; each seeking selflessness)

We have experienced seasons in each of these categories.

It Must be May...

When the whole world is washed with green

And splashed with lilacs in between

Indigo heights and emerald tray

Then I think that it must be May

When latticework of scrawny limb

Is traced and graced with leaf-lace trim

And sudden showers come to play

Well, then I think it must be May

When sparkling brooks laugh through the land

To chatter over sludge and sand

In ribbons blue and silver-gray

Then I am sure it must be May

...the gold of dandelion rush

The pink of apple-blossom blush

The rainbow of tulip foray

All seem to sing, 'it must be May'

It must be May when all the world

Is nature’s virgin bud unfurled

As earth dons garments floral-green

Where winter’s faded robes had been

© Janet Martin

I am always rather reluctant to relinquish May...

More Than Mouthed Repetitions...

 

I should never want to take

For-granted all the pleas I make...

'Lord, help us seek the true and good

And fill our hearts with gratitude

Lord, keep us safe and watch, I pray

Our thoughts and actions; what we say

And help us this day not to waste

Its moments in dull, heedless haste

Lord, fill with gladness every task

And teach us what we ought to ask'

© Janet Martin

An inexplicable wave of wonder surged through me as I prayed with the school-kids before they left this morning. Often a prayer’s words seem repetitious, yet our needs are new every morning, just as is God’s mercy!

Heart or Mind?

 

Is it the mind that shapes my thought

In images of unformed art

Within this cage of flesh and blood

Or is it after all, my heart?

I cannot separate the two

And yet they bicker constantly

The dreamer and task-master feud

Where mind and heart oft disagree

Is it the heart that drives the mind

Or must the mind persuade the heart?

Often it seems I cannot find

A way to tell the two apart

© Janet Martin

As I studied verses on thought they spoke mostly not of the mind but of the heart. H-m-m-m...here a just a few of those verses.

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6:45

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Prov.4:23

 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Matt 12:24

It Seems the Mind is Filled With Thoughts...

 

It seems the mind is filled with thoughts

Of meager livings toil and spoil

Of mysteries God’s hand allots

Upon this sorrow-stricken soil

The mind; it bears our fantasies

The onslaught of love’s fears and tears

It shapes upon its hidden seas

The hunger of life’s little years

How is it that the mind can bear

The weight of wars that test us so

While hope runs whispers like a prayer

Across its capricious plateau?

The tender turmoil of farewell

Re-echoes through its corridors

And in its alabaster shell

The breakers dash against its shores

The mind endures both joy and grief

The fickle foibles of the flesh

It reels in wordless disbelief

As surrender and strength enmesh

It is the cup where faith and fear

Mingle in contrasting alloy

Spilling into the atmosphere

As hand and heart and mouth employ

© Janet Martin

 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Phil. 4:8

Of Moments, Miles and Memories

Dream a Little Dream of Me

If we could rearrange moments and miles

And draw back yesterday from ether-blue

So we could bid careless farewells adieu

To kiss and cradle long those parting smiles

We would; but we cannot retrieve one sigh

Nor force into the bud the unfurled bloom

How swift the flower spills its fragrant plume

And bleeds its perfumed petals to the sky

Mingling with mortal merriment and tear

A flicker on this tiny blue-dot sphere

Passion and parting rend our inner deep

Moments melt into nothing, like the snow

An hour has no reins, its lilting flow

Shaping the miming memories we keep

The tempest of its echo stirs our tears

Yet there is no merit in looking back

Weeping for yester-years unyielding track

For even now this moment disappears

Leaving its little love-line on our face

And in our hearts a memory to trace

Moments of love, longing and loss converge

Future, present and past; they coalesce

To ravage our thought, keen and noiseless

Stealing our breath within their potent surge

Yet, thought is powerless to rearrange

The days that murmur twixt our cooling touch

As the expanse of moments, miles and such

Compile to shape the ache that comes with change

Sometimes I wish that I could shift those miles

To kiss and cradle long love’s farewell smiles

© Janet Martin

Take the time today, to kiss and cradle loved ones within reach

Tomorrow, today will be washed away like a footprint on the beach

And none of us can say who will be here; who will be gone

So take the time today to hold and kiss and cradle long…

J~

My Almost-Poem

Snuffed, like a candle by the weeping wind, your tendrils drift

Unchained, unwoven, melody of mist on silver sage

Un-etched in ink against a blotted page

Where do you rove, oh, dear and darling wisp?

The echo of a moment almost kissed

Have you found for yourself a home, sweet home?

Do you fly now; free as a kite with no string

Or did you plummet to the dirt like a bird with a broken wing?

Will you be a vagabond, forever to roam?

Are you happy; my dear, darling almost-poem?

I would have held and shaped you, sweet shadow-thought

But you slipped away beneath my glance

Melting to the brawny breeze, now you dance

Far from my touch; or have you perchance been caught

And by the pen of another poet, taught?

© Janet Martin

Life-song or Dirge?

This rain-song spilling over hill and plain

Or hissing beneath tires on the street

And gathering in puddles on the lane

To taunt the eager tread of childish feet

Is it the merry melody of May?

This canticle of silver eighth-note splurge

Heralding the dawn of a new day

Is it a life-song or celestial dirge?

Minute eclipses wash in moment-tides

From shore to shore; we live, laugh, love and learn

For who can see the brink where we collide

With mystic fathoms from which none return?

The flower lifts its cup to heaven’s draught

We lift our hands to partake of an hour

Before its filament dissolves to naught

Within the triumph of mute moment-power

Time is a drop tipped from a phantom grail

Its pier a grain of sand held in the clutch

Of ever-after’s infinite exhale

Where none escapes its everlasting touch

Who can translate the lilting doggerel

Of rain-song as it falls, a silver surge

Of pitter-patter greeting and farewell

Is it a life-song or a solemn dirge?

© Janet Martin

This morning the rain falls like a love-song…gentle and steady. For some of us it is merely a stanza in our life-song, for others a farewell dirge.

Live, laugh, love,

Dance in the rain,

For this day will never

Pass by again!

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:14