Mercy's Bequeathal

No matter how many we’ve soiled and stained

With love and its mistakes

No matter how little we have attained

When tide of twilight breaks

No matter how hard the fall or rise

Scarred with our ‘oops-es’ and ‘oh-mys’

God, in his tender-hearted way

Forgives the Past with a new day

No matter what lies behind, before

And all that it yet holds

Is like a gently-gaping door

To what future unfolds

No matter the fumble-stumble pain

God grants a ‘get-up-try-again’

Where Mercy has the final say

And answers with a brand new day

…then by the grace of He who grants

This prize on eastern skies

Before the evening shadow slants

Toward this ward's demise

Pray we with humble best attend

Mercy’s bequest of man’s best friend

Where yester-chase has passed away

And in its place, a brand new day

© Janet Martin

 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

Ps.25:6-7 

October's Rose

A week or two ago all the trees beamed like brightly colored blooms begging to be picked. Now the early bloomers are scraggly and bare...

Sorrow-joy, life's rose-thorn branches

Cups love's loss-longing alloy

No bold breath fully entrenches

Nor can quite fully destroy

Russet-gold-green-scarlet tatters

Sift past Autumn’s half-shut eyes

Nature’s kaleidoscope shatters  

Rearranging paradise

Umber monotone, the wind moans

Where the gauntlet of a sigh

Wafts, soft in the stricken framework

Like a ghost that cannot fly

Darling, after I have loved you

There are none I quite love so

Still, love is not jail or warden

You are free to come… and go

Inhale, exhale, my, how flowers

Falter in each breath of sky

Where the element of hours

Steals toward jilted July

© Janet Martin

Time's Treasure Hunt

Time’s road won’t always go the way

We wish that it would turn

But in each twist-and-half-kissed splay

We find something to learn

Time’s hill won’t bow to our design

While on and up we plod

But in its hope-faith-trust incline

We find the hand of God

Time’s valleys may not disappear

Where winds howl and annoy

But in the hardship of its tear

We find the heart of joy

Time’s highway runs through gray and gold

Each mile soon left behind

Where, in each twist-turn-have-hold fold

Today is all we'll find

© Janet Martin

While we shook and picked apples...

...we listened to the Jays world-series dreams take a major nose-dive!!!

(we strung a l-o-o-o-n-g cord out to plug in the radio;)

Kevin Pillar has wowed the crowd with spectacular plays but here he says it for all of us:)

image source

...but that doesn't mean we won't be here cheering him/them on today. 

Go Toronto Blue Jays!!!

We Can Do It

I can do it

I repeat

As I push-pull, fall-crawl,

Struggle to my feet

I can do it

I insist

As I tug-slug-plug away

At life’s to-do list

I can do it

I assert

As I slip-trip, stumble-tumble

Through life’s dirt and hurt

I can’t do it

I admit

Not by myself. It’s just too hard

To make the pieces fit

 

So I pray...

Hope is no fraud

Come what may

We can do it, whispers God

© Janet Martin

God may not always look like we think He should, 

but He comes to us in daily reminders of who He is 

if we look and listen...

Ask, and it will be given you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and the door will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives, 

and he who seeks finds, 

and to him who knocks it will be opened.… Matt. 7:7-8

Look around. Who can we help to help ourselves? 

Who can we touch to feel the love of God? 

Who can we pray for to hear Him? 

Who can we laugh or weep with to see Him?