Better The House of Mourning

 Yesterday we attended the funeral of another one of my mother-in-law's sisters. 

She was in her 88th year, spending most of them in quiet, humble service to her family and fellowman.

This verse was read in her funeral message of comfort and caution...

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: 

for that(death) is the end of all men; 

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Eccles.7:2

Better the house of mourning

Its meeting to attend

Than to ignore the warning

‘Soon life’s short stint will end’

Better the house of mourning

Where solemn heed is paid

To an orbit adorning

Life's dust-to-dust parade

Better the house of mourning

Than wine and feast's embrace

Lest we fall prey to scorning

The gravity of grace

Better the house of mourning

For there meek thought is bowed

Beneath Love’s tender awning

Resisted by the proud

Better the house of mourning

As mankind lays to heart

The crux of this sojourning

Where flesh and soul will part

© Janet Martin

While chatting with my oldest sister at the luncheon after the service, I mentioned that when I get home I need to tend to 2 Bu. of beans waiting to be preserved.

Guess who showed up at my house as soon as she could?!! Yep, Cheryl, my oldest sister.

Sometimes secretly I think her name might be Tabitha and this verse(Acts 9:36) 

in modern day could read something like this;
In Wallenstein there is a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Cheryl); 

she is always doing good and helping the poor.

SO glad Sat. night's picking is preserved...

  ...before we begin today's batch.

Ambient Allegience and Dave update and Happy August!!

The combines have begun humming...

the harvest has begun and golden, waving vistas are about to disappear into the steel jaws of Past

We hailed the hold of budded boon

Of mossy trail with violets strewn

Where wooded grail restored the tune

Of maple-linnet bower

The color-wheel of nature bled

Beneath, around and overhead

As earth Her somber mantle shed

For fairer frocks of flower

The hills that wowed our gaze with green

Don shrouds ablaze with golden sheen

In days where thrill of May had been

We sense a soft undoing

Like innocence of youthful bride

Succumbing to time’s stringent stride

And currents in a wresting tide

Of elemental wooing

A curtain falls across the place

Where mothers call and children race

Through doors that cannot bar the chase

Of summer’s fading beauty

While farmers bear the harvest home

And dreamers stare across the loam

That hearkens to a metronome

Of adamant entreaty

…and then the halo of new morn

Silvers with frost stark stalks of corn

And what we thought was quite new-born

Is brittle, bent and weathered

The sweep of countryside is still

Stolid, the line twixt sky and hill

Where we bear witness to the will

Of breath by breath untethered

© Janet Martin 

On Sunday evening Jim and I visited with Dave and Karen for a little while. Although he is feeling much better in some areas, his arms above his elbow/shoulders are still not healing properly so they plan to do more x-rays to see what is going on. 

They deeply appreciate your continued prayers for healing and for much-needed patience for everyone! 

Dave, summer-lover!!! is watching it slip away and though I KNOW he counts his blessings(it could have been SO much worse) he struggles with bouts of restlessness as he thinks of things he wishes he would be able to do!

So, again, please keep praying!
p.s. I was glad to hear his hearty laughter is back and his deep love for the Toronto Blue Jays has not suffered a bit;-)

Without A Doubt

The end of a dock serves up much food for thought!

Do you ever gaze at the clouds and wonder how it will be on That Great Day...?!

"Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory."

Mark 13:26

While we marveled at twilight's beauty a sudden rain came out of nowhere to further enhance the dusk...

...and as suddenly as it came, it passed; NOT so with eternity!!

We prepare for many uncertainties; 

pray we do not ignore the one Certainty and thus fail to prepare for it; Death and its Everafter

 

The above words are lines in a sermon from the book A Man Called Peter written by his wife Catherine Marshall

Summer Siesta or Summer Sea-yes-t-a-h-h-h

Where blue deep meets blue height

And wild blooms sweep each knoll

And streets are sand where hand in hand

Sweethearts and children stroll

Where song of sea and bird

And sigh of sleepy breeze

Delights the bystander to time

With melded melodies

The measure of tick-tock

Deploys but does not rule

It fills its nooks with tea and books

And twilight’s purple pool

The wherewithal of days

A splash of silver swell

As ripples break across a lake

Then fade into farewell

© Janet Martin

'Sea' you soon

(taking a little blogging siesta:)

...because summer is fading fast

and soon its lot of bloom is cast

and soon we will look back once more

to hear its echoes lap a shore

that slipped from gladsome grip to where

only our thought can

stand

and stare

...to scenes dearly beloved

that summer filled and felled

ere deep and utter whispers

of

Laughter and longing meld

Here is a peek into why I have barely touched a book, a bike or a cup of tea so far this summer...

but I have had more than my fair share of hugs and kisses,
and sound, sound sleeps that only complete exhaustion gifts;-)

Yesterday this little girl declared, Oh Janet, I love it SO much at your house! 

Sometimes I think there is just nothing bad in you..."I reassured her that, 'oh yes there is but her words make me happy all the same and I'm so glad she loves it here!'

... moments money and long bike rides cannot buy:)

We played 'Laura Ingalls' and pretended we were pioneers...

while we podded peas

...played with Baby

...and 'Pa' prepped lunch:)

...but we all need a break from time to time so here's to hopefully 

a bit of book-bike-tee-tea time;-))

between baby-bouncing-on-my-knee, of course!!

Something like this; Softly to  the Sea
(I'm SO in love with this artists music and photography!)

On Choosing Happiness

 Above is the front of a birthday card from one of my sisters...

the quote mom wrote in my card is this; 

Happiness is the art of making a lovely bouquet of the flowers that are within reach

 Here is a glimpse of literal flowers within my reach this morning...

The cover over new today rolls back to spill time’s gold and gray

Earth’s hills and vales a metaphor of love and life’s uneven floor

Where, in its course of no and yes we choose the bloom of Happiness

In spite of hunger’s hidden war we find much to be thankful for

Life’s circumstance and consequence will test the best of good intents

The wiles of us cannot evade the aftermath of choices made

So then, sometimes the path of Must is riddled with crossroads of trust

 There we pursue with consciousness the avenue of happiness

How hard to watch dear loved ones ache because of foolish choice I make

And harder still to watch them pay the price of love; kind, faithful stay

When oft I know that I had earned much more than ‘the other cheek turned’

And I am stunned by forgiveness that helps me find true happiness

Humility can never reign where pride is god of heart’s domain

The hard knocks life let’s to the chin sets whetting stones beneath our skin

Where wise men hone hope’s humble will while fools lament their tent of ill-

Fortune; without words we confess the measure of our happiness

© Janet Martin