Sometimes We Drink...

 Will we be water-carriers today or is it our turn to drink?

Which ever it is, whether we are receiving or waiting-working and believing,

I wish you a wonder-and-joy-full last day of the first month of 2017!

Sometimes we drink

Sometimes we carry

The water so others

May quench their thirst

Sometimes we think

We would like the honor

Our brother or sister

Is granted first

Sometimes we work

Neighbor helping neighbor

While waiting to harvest

What we hunger for

Sometimes we wonder

As we watch another

Receive while we labor,

If we could have done more

Sometimes we pause

Learning kindness because

Someone in front of us

Reached out first

Sometimes we drink

Sometimes we carry

The water so others

May quench their thirst

© Janet Martin

  A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. 

Prov.14:30

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  

Gal.5:14

Matt, our son, asked me recently if Elvis sang any gospel songs! He sure did!!

Of So It Goes...

Everyone seems a little more giddy today,

(with the exception perhaps, of students studying for and writing The Dreaded Exam)

 ...might it be the return of the long-lost sun?!

Hearts are full of hallelujahs after gray is crowned with gold!

Laughter, like ten-thousand diamonds

Spills from hunger's hidden hold

Without lows there could be no highs

Without goodbyes there could be no hellos

Darling, I wouldn’t change the order if I could

Of so it goes,

So it goes

Without tears, laughter would lose lithe joy

Colorful May less blithe without December too

If I could I wouldn’t change a single thing

Darling, would you,

Would you?

Without absence who would ever wear

The river of gladness in greeting’s giddy gaze

Without trouble who would be humbly aware

Of better days,

Better days

Hello-goodbye, yes-no, low-high

 March-July, oh my, ouch, a thorn, oh, a rose

What waits to unfold from the gray-gold-blue sky

Nobody knows,

Nobody knows

© Janet Martin

House of Love

 We are like little houses, not?

There is nothing quite like a baby to make humble 'houses' burst with joy...

this little guy (our grandson) is almost a month old...already!!

The walls that wear our skin

Beneath the grin and tear and sigh

Cradle a gallery within

Of precious, precious days gone by

The window where we watch

As loved ones come and go and go

Frames farewell's glib, glist’ning gamut

With kiss of tear, bliss of hello

The door that stands ajar

Shaped like a heart, big as the sky

Always makes room for ‘just one more’

Before dusk dims its lullaby

This form of blood and bone
Holds more than anyone can see
It harbors storms of grit and groan
And blips of heaven-on-earth spree

The roof wears glints of snow

It tops a house of darling dreams

Time scatters seasons as we go

And strews the yard with stars, it seems

© Janet Martin

Live, Laugh, Love

 We are celebrating the first sunrise in weeks;

a wonderful way to begin this second-last day of January...

and who knows what else?!

The longer that we live

The more the memories we make

Each day destined to leave

White ghost-like glimmers in its wake

The longer that we laugh

The more we come to understand

The dearness of its gift

The nearness of sorrow’s swift hand

The longer that we love

The more we come to realize

The bitter-sweetness of

Time’s satin glove filled with good-byes

© Janet Martin

We spent yesterday with Brantley's other grand-parents visiting from Nova Scotia, 

realizing how, as we shared and reminisced about our own children as babies,

 we all share in common, (the older we get)

 a bittersweet sorrow at the swiftness of it all

Like a Shawl Full of Holes

The snow stretches cold, like a shawl full of holes

Thrown over the shoulders of earth

The Weaver of days fills the scope of hope’s gaze

With Season and Reason’s rebirth

The planter of prayers climbs the slope of faith’s stares

Up to heaven’s Giver of grace

Where, to have and hold like a shiver of gold

Tumbles through our inept embrace

The woodland is draped with starred silk from a cape

That no mortal merchant can hawk

This beauty at large is offered without charge

Mercy’s master-peaceful backdrop

Desire is quaffed in white silence, snow-soft

The whim that besets foolish deed

Is wonder-replete as we kneel at the feet

Of a God who knows just what we need

These hours that spill like a sheath that we fill

With belief and the offspring thereof

Is of such design the no one can decline

Its heaven-to-human-race-love

The grace that it grants is far more than mere chance

We dance on trust-dust called today

Where snow wraps its cold, like a shawl full of holes

This holy, slip-slipping away

© Janet Martin

I was reminded this morning by something I read that we should do whatever it is we're doing with all our heart...

 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Col.3:23

It ties in well with tomorrow's Sunday School lesson..
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

 Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Prov. 6:6-8 

..so. on that note, here's to tackling to-do lists 'heartily, as to the Lord'!