Ode to June

You are the shade of laughter

The colors of your sighs

Burst into bloom with flowers

You are earth's paradise

You murmur in the willow

You whisper in the pine

And in the maple tree you dance

You dream in columbine

With peony and lupine

You open summer’s gate

We are a world of children

Where long-held dream-lands wait

Your cape is made of roses

How comely is your smile

Your morning is a chorus

That sweeps earth’s emerald isle

You are a sprite, a flower

A lush and lilting tune

That unravels the hour

And thus unravels June

© Janet Martin

Hearts and Family...

Sometimes feeling a little less stressed is as easy as a humongous exhale followed up with a cup of tea...something like Bengal Spice maybe?

Sometimes life’s best soft parts are a like simple cup of tea

Because sometimes life’s best hard parts are hearts and family

We give all that we’ve got and sometimes it is not enough

And all that we can do then is to love and love... and love

Sometimes we cannot mend what we would like to fix like new

We want answers but in the end questions will have to do

The way from here to there can be quite tender and quite rough

And all that we can do is pray and pray and love and love

Love is patient and kind; it does not envy, no, or boast

It does not seek itself but looks to others first and most

And sometimes its best soft part is a little cup of tea

While we cherish love’s best hard parts of hearts and family

© Janet Martin

I’m guessing we each have our own version of ‘best hard parts’ that teach us far more about love than all the soft parts put together!

From Star-dust on a String

 June 3rd, 1988 Wedding Day

In the Mennonite culture we grew up in the bride wears pale blue.

This past Christmas is the most recent picture I have of the two of us now...

I suppose

None of us are

The same person we were

Twenty-eight years before

Life and love

Left their quiet proof

And reproof

On our brows

And in our hearts

As we grew together

Or apart

While Time drew its art

On our skin

In our eyes

With surprising

Haste

And we realize

We have no Time to waste,

For who knows how far

We have left, my dear

With who we are

From who we were

Where ‘my, how far

We have come’

Above

Those star-struck days

Of

Young,

In love

Where the love we choose

Is a sturdy, weathered Thing

Compared to

Newly-weds

Holding

Star-dust on a string

© Janet Martin

 

 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Matt.19:26

Anniversaries don't happen because keeping vows is easy, but because it is right.

That is what makes anniversaries most special.

Sometimes when I read marriage advice I am filled with great despair at my/our failures rather than remembering the joy of our successes. 

That is why I like this poem here so much!

Here are a few good marriage/family tips from a teeny book I found years ago...

New Again...

I found this poem in a book yesterday and it made me want to start where I stand.

How about you?

Somehow, while boughs were silver-brushed

And vespers hushed with stars

While the moon was a bark un-rushed

On midnight’s far-off bars

Somehow, before the lark awoke

And stoked the dark with praise

Or morning like a victor broke

Night’s yoke with Mercy's gaze

...while noise was shy and silence bold

And Time, a silk-wheeled train

Somehow twixt dusk and dawn the old

Became new once again

© Janet Martin

 Here it is, all shiny and new again; Today.

The Glorious Fact of the Matter

Ps.23:1-3

Through come and go

Of high and low

And joy and woe,

Fail, try,

Through laugh and weep,

Through crawl or leap,

Awake, asleep

Smile, sigh,

Through dark or light,

Through stay or flight

Whatever life

Betides

He will not move

And He will prove

His faithful love

Abides

© Janet Martin

If we think He did not or has not proven it yet, maybe it is because we have not seen Him, or Heaven.

Yesterday this verse struck me anew as I read it:

However, as it is written: "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" -- the things God has prepared for those who love him…1 Cor. 2:9

‘No human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him!'

 Just think about that! 

It makes one re-evaluate who/what we love, no?

...and not to try so hard to know how Heaven will be because 'human mind has not conceived'!

but to focus on how we will be ready when the hour comes to see Jesus face to face.

"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

Matt.24:42