Life's Hold...and The Hobbit-hole

After a year of praying, worrying, praying, God's answer to my prayer that Melissa finds a good friend in TO was answered. One of her friend's from here moved there yesterday... they found an apartment to share. Thank-you Jesus, for a day where you were so Present in the move, helping us in so many ways!

 

After unloading all their 'little stuff' while we waited for the furniture to arrive...

 

we took a stroll down-town to see what interests are close by...

 

  Before we left the girls had transformed this cubby into their 'living-room'.

 

 

 

and another corner into a dining-room!

We prayed together that God would fill their little place with His love and light and that the girl's truly sense His Presence and peace...because He is there when we (mom and dad) are not and sometimes its hard to let our 'little' loved ones learn to fly...

 They've dubbed their home The Hobbit-hole:)

Life holds within its cup of Must

So much we cannot know

But this we do if we so trust

God cares and loves us so

Life holds within its leap of faith

Much none can commandeer

But by the power of God’s grace

His peace releases fear

He is the Caretaker of us

His kind gaze does not laugh

Or pause, as we fumble and fuss

He pleads on our behalf

The havoc of sin’s consequence

Yields evil’s bitter fruit

The mercy of God’s providence

Makes possible life’s good

Life holds within its waning spawn

God’s ageless Majesty

His faithful Presence cheers us on

To this; eternity

© Janet Martin

About Her...

Her face has grown familiar with the tender trace of tears

Her heart is like a stronghold held in place by prayers and years

Her hands have learned the art of folding close while letting go

The tug-of-war that tests the best of Her, her joy and woe

She dances while the dew of death wreaths every breath of life

She watches though she will not see the full-fruit of her strife

She labors though Her spoils of toil may seem a humble prize

She runs her race for more than Fame’s delight of hollow sighs

She values words like Family and Husband, Daughter, Son

She cherishes the happiness of smiles;  ‘I love you, mom’

She does not count for nothing, second miles nobody sees

For she has learned how soft and smooth Time seals its reels with ease

Her face becomes a maze of love-lines, glazed oft-times with This

…the silver-lining from the mold of have-and-hold’s keen kiss

But still, she asks for nothing more, for heaven understood

And bent to kiss Her brow and crown Her days with Motherhood

© Janet Martin

We hardly had any 'just-us' days this summer, Victoria commented off-handedly to me the other day.

She didn't see my heart lurch with greedy sorrow:)

Off to make some memories, Lord willing, in the friendship of an answered prayer...I might share more tomorrow. We'll see how the day goes.

Happy, Happy, Happy...September!

Time’s sickle fells hours

Where flower and field

And bent orchard bowers

Shower earth with yield

Man grapples with learning

A yearning-shod chase

Of kind no-returning

His journey, pure grace

…while feet trample ages

Time wages its will

Washing dirt-hurt pages

Until it stands still

Futile to resist it

Its mist-morning swell

Though kindly we kiss it

Insists on farewell

….time’s sickle fells hours

And no one can keep

What never was ours

Flowers and fields sleep

© Janet Martin

Prayer For The Morning, Noon or Night

Lord, guard my heart from apathy

Lest heedlessly I dare

To scorn Thy sacred sympathy

That gilds night’s thinning air

Lord, tune the Want that fain doth sprout

To harbored plots within

Where tares of arrogance and doubt

Set snares beneath my skin

Lord, keep me from the cunning path

That seems to fit my plan

And yet the end thereof is death

Veiled in the ways of man

Lord, teach this shell of dust to trust

And let its lone worth be

The love that first You gave to us

Then we return to Thee

© Janet Martin

Of This Romance

Anne Shirley: Can't you even imagine you're in the depths of despair?
Marilla Cuthbert: No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God. 

From Anne of Green Gables 1985 

 

If I allowed my heart to lead 

then I would wallow in the blue

of letting go; Summer's end weds

With the intent of 'missing you'

and so instead I'll tell my head

to tell my heart to dream and dance

lest in the blue of 'missing you'

I miss the bliss of This Romance

It's become tradition for us to watch/listen to Anne of Green Gables while we preserve peaches. This year a few great lines struck me with fresh appreciation.

 Anne Shirley: Don't you ever imagine things differently from what they are?
Marilla Cuthbert: No.
Anne Shirley: Oh Marilla, how much you miss. 

 (I hope you've had the delight to meet Anne with an 'e' even if you are not a kindred spirit it is worth the read!)

Through the Eyes of the Mind

 

This time of year it is not hard to find beauty for the eyes but, the mind must see it first!

I could be over come with the color of blue as summer soft-slips from Time's avenue...so,

May we find, as much with our minds as our eyes

The beauty of life’s lovely ‘thank-you surprise’

Lest in the hard fought delights of the day

Time is a teller for trouble’s dismay

But oh, if we look then thought soft-realizes

That life is a vendor of lovely surprises

And we are the spenders of it; may we find

Its lovely surprise with the eyes of the mind

© Janet Martin

We see through the eyes of our minds…

in love everything is, if not always beautiful, still at the least, bearable.

Happy Monday!

Of One-time You and Me

Yesterday's suggested stroll through zinnia's and marigolds had to be put on hold so as not to interrupt the bees;-)...today the only visitor I met was a grasshopper.

Zinnia's are sort of like snowflakes, Victoria remarked, so many somewhat the same yet so different!

Sort of like people too, huh? We may seem quite different in appearance yet we are also quite alike;

...we need to be needed and love to be loved!

Hair,

Eyes,

Nose,

Mouth

And a pair of ears

We are all somewhat alike

At first        glance,       it appears

But if         we look more       closely

Then ah,         we will         surely see

That there        is only       one of you

And only one of me

So, since 

we are a            one-time Us

Oh, wouldn't             you agree

That we         should 

 not bicker            and fuss

But ever          strive to be

The best  version,           by God's kind grace

 Of one time            You and Me

Janet;-)