We Thank You, Dads...

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads of the world...

What an undertaking you have; the training up of a child! 

It's sweet, watching our son-in-law be 'daddy'!

Photo by lianarhodenizerphotography.com

Praying for all dads and God bless those who look to a higher Abba to lead them

For learning how to laugh and joke

And seek life’s greater good

As you shoulder the salient yoke

Of tender fatherhood

For letting go of dreamer's quest

To tie a tiny shoe

To recognize that living’s best

Is looking up to you

For giving with nothing to boast

But little hands to hold

Because, what a small child needs most

Cannot be bought or sold

For balancing check-books and chores

And learning to love noise

For many interrupted snores

By doors and girls and boys

In place of freedom, love’s sweet bond

The bliss when baby smiled

In place of fantastical Want

Practical need of child

For sacrifices overlooked

And underpaid, for debt

That trains the heart, oft overbooked

To trust God for The Yet

For all the second miles you trod

To make a wee one glad

We ask strength and blessing from God

And deeply thank you, Dad

© Janet Martin

 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Prov.22:6 

So thankful for my dad, a humble role model to a family of ten 'youngsters' :)


‘“The Lord bless you
    and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”’

Num.6:24-26

Of Age-old New

 This is the day the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ps.118:24

‘This is the day the Lord has made’

A gift to humankind

How much more dear its promenade

If we keep this in mind

From formless deeps its goodness seeps

Through fathoms none can scale

The faithful light of morning keeps

His words that will not fail

Dawn dances on dew-dappled girth

It haloes petal-plume

It pours Time’s newness from a berth

Beyond earth’s living room

Then praise the Lord for all things new  

The old never replayed

Then we should raise a new song too

For this day He has made

© Janet Martin

It's Almost Summer

It dawned on me at dusk...we are halfway through June.

How can that be?! Slow down, sweet June night-morning-afternoon...

 I babysit for a few teachers and the school-year end is a highly stressful time. Tonight as I said 'hang in there, it's almost summer' it struck me....how those three words are surely one of the best combinations in the world! It's almost summer, not yet started meaning it's not quite close to being over yet! What do you love best about summer? For me it's everything!
(next day; okay, so I thought of one thing that I might not fully love about summer...
never-ending window-cleaning!:)

It’s almost summer

The land of fence lines

Laced with flowers wild

The place of high-noon holiday

And happy-go-lucky child

Of garden green

And shadows lean

On twilight’s golden slope

Of raindrop rivers overflowing

Wilted hearts with hope

Of flower-friends

And paths that bend

Up to the sky-wide blue

Of busyness and happiness

Of summer-life to-do

Of shores that splay

The waves that lay

Their songs upon the sand

Where bare feet loll

And lover’s stroll

The boardwalk hand in hand

Where morning pours

From honeyed jars

And youth is not an age

Where chicory

Bewitches ditches

Where brooks are fringed with sage

And gardens brim

With veggie-vim

And harvest hymn prelude

Where we drink in

The mauve-pink grin

Of platinum sun subdued

Of flip-flop feet

And iced tea, sweet

And pools of shaded deep

Of locust drone

Of lawns, fresh-mown

Where we lounge, half-asleep

Of work and play

And stay up late

And listen to the stars

And trespass where

The darkened air

Runs paler on dawn’s bars

Where pantomime

Of silk-spun Time

Is drenched with dust and dew

Where worlds are washed

With wonder of

Winter-long dreams come true

It’s almost summer

Land of roses

Sun-kissed, freckled grin

For, where the door of

Fair Spring closes

Summer rushes in

© Janet Martin

When It Rains...

 

When it rains kitchens become havens of slower, simpler joys

Tea and cookie celebrations; mom with little girls and boys

Supper salad veggie-ventures; rainbow-splashes in a dish

Upsy-daisy little fellow, eat as much joy as you wish

Pitter-patter, chitter-chatter, look, a hummingbird, that’s cool

Diamonds dripping, dancing slipping to a green-leaf garden pool

‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ oh

Afternoon is like a tune out of an old-time picture-show

When the sky unchains a strain of plush percussion, low then high

Kitchens like a midday beacon beckon loved ones to stop by

Humble home-sweet-home oasis graces lips with laughter’s vim

While outside a crooner traces twig and sprig with nature’s hymn

Silver sliver of a river quivers on each frond and flow’r

Wakens wilted wisps with heaven’s life-anointed mercy-show’r

Kitchen windows, doors swing open to welcome songs from the sky

Earth is like an Eden jeweled with glass rhinestone run awry

© Janet Martin

Very little equals the joy of listening to the music of a much-needed rain...
while dabbling in culinary arts!

Short and Sweet

What's filling your short sweetness these days... Below is a glimpse of mine;-)

This Dust of trust and lust and Must

Of fear and tear and kisses dear

Ordains intrinsic heart of us

With hope and faith and humble cheer

For what we have and hold soon folds

From here to there where far or near

The echo of love’s grays and golds

Drift back from Bygone’s belvedere

So then the yen of when-how-why

Does not let thought admit defeat

Because life's ken of try-try-try

We come to see, is short and sweet

© Janet Martin

This little gal is the epitome of short and sweet!