Where Petals Lie...I Don't Want To Miss a Moment

Nature’s slate that long lay dormant

Beams with beauty’s enterprise

I don’t want to miss a moment

Of its poem-paradise

Wild-bloom gardens spill at random

Blue-strife, daisy, chamomile

I don’t want to miss a moment

In the full of nature's smile

Where winds usher I will follow

Hollows rife with flower-joy

Rhapsody of rose and rainbow

Halos earth’s common employ

Dawn unveils Time’s glimm’ring progress

Somber tide that none can tame

Summer rolls through brook-lined gorges

Strums the soul of shimm’ring grain

Gilds the goblet of a lily

With a sip of honeyed dew

Drains a carpet green and hilly

Where its season-song runs through

Tunes our touch with tender rev’rence

Soon noon turns this silk-spun Now

Into thought’s forgiving romance

…thorns fade in dusk’s afterglow

…and, I don’t want to miss a moment

Where Duty and Dreaming vie

For the darling-ness of summer

Slipping to where petals lie

Sweep of mist-anointed Rembrandt

 Sweet, swift summer skims the sod

I don't want to miss a moment

Of its green-leaf gift from God

© Janet Martin

My friend Donna inspired this poem. 

She said she drove the other night, with the sun-roof open and her heater on 'cause its summer and she doesn't want to miss a minute!

I feel the same:)

Homage to Home...and Welcome Home, Dave update!

Too, too many 'broken' homes...

 How do we make a happy home?
With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Eph.4:2

Let's do all we can to make home a haven from life's storm, then...

Here the cares of life grow lighter

Here heart-hunger heals its groan

In the joy of the familiar

And the love of home, sweet home

Here the pull of give and taking

Fills a hull of wood-brick-stone

Here the memories we’re making

Turns a house into a home

Here a precious treasure; people

Here the grace by which they come

Makes us humbly, holy thankful

For this place that we call home

Here we gather, father, mother

Sister, brother, grab a seat

Happiness, a simple supper

In the peace of home so sweet

Here the bond of fond, fond laughter

Here the tenderness of tear

Here echoes that linger after

They have gone so far from here

Here the bud becomes a flower

Petals pressed into a poem

For here is life’s kindest hour

In the love of home, sweet home

© Janet Martin

Dave had one goal in mind as soon as the pain began to ease...to go home!

Tonight's first-day-at-home update from Karen Ropp-Martin
Hello everyone,

I would like to thank everyone who is praying and helping as we adjust to a new normal for a while! Yes, Dave came home around 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon. Last night he slept in one recliner chair in our living room and I slept in the other. We had a good night. He seems able to rest comfortably in the recliner. This morning Janet(Dave’s sister) came by and did a little cleaning. Donna H dropped in with coffees. She hung out, as well as folded some laundry and also picked up a few groceries. Pam W dropped off some stew for us and some homemade cinnamon buns. YUM! It is so amazing to have so many family and friends helping us through this time of trusting. We appreciate it greatly. All these little things add up to SO much and lighten the load so that I can just look after Dave. Luanne from Church is bringing supper tonight for the whole family and Dave’s parents are bringing a different recliner for Dave to try; one that tilts forward to make getting out easier.

I do admit it is so nice to have him home. I’m able to put my feet up and rest when he rests and be here for him when he needs something (especially at night) and it is going more smoothly then I thought it would. Things will probably come up, but with family, friends and God we will make it through.

A lot of people wondered how Feebee (our/Dave’s dog) did with Dave coming home. She was excited but she did really well. Josh had her on her leash so at first she was just so excited because she thought she was going for a walk, then she noticed Dave and just went up to his chair. Joshua made sure she didn't jump on him. Feebee is now eating because everything is back to normal!

Thanks and please continue the prayers as I’ve said many times before. We sure do feel them!

This is Feebee when I left Dave and Karen's house the other night.
I dropped some things off and was expecting the usual

jump-wag-knock-me-over greeting

but that night she just followed me with a question-mark on her face...

Greater Still...and Exciting 'Dave-Update'

 Deuteronomy 31:8
"The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; 

He will be with you. 

He will not fail you or forsake you. 

Do not fear or be dismayed."

So great the prayer-pleas

We lift to God’s throne

Sickness and sorrow

Faith for the Unknown

Strength for our labor

Provision for need

Love for our neighbor

No matter their creed

Safety for travel

Wherever we go

Around the corner

Or across the globe

Prayer for the hungry

The homeless, the poor

Suffering among us

Pray we love them more

For ears to hear

The Good News and receive

Salvation’s promise

To all who believe

In this world of warring

Lord, we pray for peace

Kind words and loving

Lest conflicts increase

For teacher and preacher

For father and mother

For citizens, leaders, the imprisoned,

Each other

For workers and warriors

For farmers and fields

For trust and not worry

For what harvest yields

So great the prayer-pleas

On this mortal sod

But oh, sweet, sweet mercies

Still much greater, God

© Janet Martin

 Today's exciting/a little scary update!

Hi everyone,

Well, today was an exciting and emotional day all in one. It began with my arriving at 8 and Dave sleeping. He didn't want to wake up this morning. He did wake up long enough to eat breakfast and then went back to sleep until the physiotherapist came to take him for a walk. ( I thought this was gonna be one of those down days) He went for a long walk, went to the end of the hall and when they came back he decided he wanted to go longer so they did and then he sat up in his chair until lunch came. He was too tired to eat lunch in his chair so he went back to bed. After lunch he decided to go for another walk. The physiotherapist said that Dave improved so much over the weekend that instead of transferring him to Rehab we will set up a Rehab program at home. Someone will come to our house and work with him there instead. We agreed to go with that.

About 2 hrs later, a lady came in and said she thinks she can get everything in place so that maybe he can come home tomorrow. Dave said the look on my face- my eyes almost popped out. I said right away I don’t think so. He hasn’t even taken a shower yet, or did stairs or anything. I was just so overwhelmed!! She said she will leave us to talk for a bit and then come back to see what we decided to do.
My parents were there and we talked things over for a while and decided to go ahead with the plan. When the lady come back we told her we are OK with it once I know he can do the personal thing and stairs. He is also to have an ultrasound on his right shoulder to find out why he can’t use it. So he is not able to go home until he has the results from the ultrasound which is booked for tomorrow. He also needs to be able to do the steps at our house. She said, maybe tomorrow, if not then closer to the end of the week.
The nurses and the physiotherapist were so impressed in the improvement from last Friday when they saw him last.
I am so excited to have him home again but so scared also-- at the hospital everything is at the right height and the nurses are there if help is needed. It will be so different the first few days at home- and probably some difficult situations when he comes home.
So please pray that they will not send him home before he is ready. Pray for the strength for me to be able to take care of him when he gets home.
Thank- you for all the prayers so far and I know they will continue when we get him home.

Never Again...

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,

2 Cor.4:16-17

 

Keep on…

With push and pull

And give and take

And joy’s heartache

And hope and trust

After the pain

Of try again

After this main

Of dust to dust

Out trust will see

Mortality

Exchanged

Forever

Never then

Will we return

To teach or learn

Or beg or earn

Ever again

© Janet Martin

Sweet-Sweet July

Oh, the melody as

July slides its blue-sky bow

over supple strings 

Sweet, sweet July

Forever-sky

Of bluest blue

Tints sleepless sea

It draws our feet

To tread a street

Of sun-drenched sand

And wave washed free-

Dom; overhead

Our gaze is spread

With pergola

Of green-leaf glade

That spills a pool

Shady and cool

For book and tea

Or lemonade

As shiver of

Yon poplar grove

Beneath the bow

Of barely-breeze

Quivers where noon

Drips from a spoon

Like honey

To sweet memories

While bloom-bells brim

With bee and velvet

Vim; a hymn

...earth’s ebbing toll

Slips from stoked stems

Like petal-gems

Their weightless weight

Tugs at the soul

Because we know

The ebb and flow

That tunes the tide

Of sweet July

Surges, recedes

A splurge that bleeds

Gold, purple reeds

Into goodbye

© Janet Martin