The Likes of You and Me...

Glimpses of lull, lilt and laughter to cheer the likes of you and me😉...

Just turned  8 yr. old girl: I got a Charlie Brown book for my birthday

Me; (cause I LOVE Charlie Brown:) Cool! are you a Charlie Brown fan?!

She: No.

Me, explaining that dry cows does not mean they are not wet;
it means they are not being milked because they are going to have a calf...

5yr. old Farmer Boy; "yeah, I fink dey stop milking dem because da fahmoh would be wowwied dat da calf might come out while dey'we milking it and dat would be 'vewy Stwessful!"
(still learning to pronounce 'r' and 'th' sound...so cute!

 4 yr. old girl; Janet, come quick! Hurry!!!There's something green on the slide
...and I think it might be poisonous!" (turns out it was an inch-worm)

"Blech, I know a time when bigger is NOT better",
 said 9 yr. old boy spitting... Peas are NOT better bigger!

This hustle-bustle-muscle through morn’s mayhem-amen mist

Will leave the likes of you and me forever farewell kissed

Before the view we’re privy to fades from the pastureland

The likes of you and me should pause ‘cause twilight is at hand

Delight is like a kiss from God where sod and sky and sea

Excites the soul-full senses of the likes of you and me

The likes of you and me are very different yet the same

For no soul can be saved except through Jesus. Praise His name

How easily the poetry of bud to bloom is penned

To keen the likes of you and me to life’s incumbent end

Do not despair; the care that begets prayer is like a stair

The likes of you and me are climbing to ‘you know Who, and Where’

Naps are a thing of beauty; beauty breeds happiness

Perhaps the likes of you and me should nap more and talk less

Well, well, the fell is yellow where yesterday it was green

The likes of you and me caught twixt what waits and what has been

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right; the likes of you and me

Are marching to the beat of moments making history

Laughter and love, midst all the ‘stuff’ not quite so gently streamed

Startles the likes of you and me in ways we never dreamed

© Janet Martin

From Mist-ry/Mystery To History

...and so the ebb and flow
of come and go
and surge and sweep
and wake and sleep
rolls over a prow
of here and now
where loosened ties bind
a shimmer of echoes left behind

A few photo of a few blips of Bygone

 ...And so it goes; eager helpers

 

...wander...

 

...to fonder pastimes!

Wishing you a blessed day of rest!


(once in a while lines to a stanza wake me up, seriously!)
The first two lines of this poem jiggled me awake so I didn't argue😏

Ah, who knows what today will hold

A fulsome flood of gray and gold

Where summer-winter coffers spill

One-way offers of good and ill

Ah, who knows what today bestows

A tender blend of thorn and rose

Where plant and harvest stokes the earth

With parables of death and birth

Ah, who knows what today will teach

Our have and hold is filled with reach

Where love and longing intertwine

In tendrils clinging to The Vine

Ah, who knows what today will bring

Hip-hip-hooray and suffering

Where soulful oceans surge and swell

And melt on shorelines in farewell

Ah, who knows what today will yield

Morning is like a mist-veiled field

Where we gaze with expectancy

To places only God can see

© Janet Martin

A Work-a-day, Holiday, Come-what-may Creed

 Young inventor trying out his vine-line...

 

"Hey, wait a minute," says young Grandson,"Who gave you permission to hang up

My Very Bestest Blankie?!"

Whatever our 'bestest blankie' is woven with may its binding always be love! 

What is the Greatest Command?

He answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your strength
and with all your mind';
and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Luke 10:27

With what we have and hold

And see and say

And think and do

And whether we

Are young or old

Lord, may we honour You

…with what we touch and taste

And hear and dream

And work toward

May every goal

That we esteem

Always honour you, Lord

© Janet Martin

Don't Miss Out!

Don’t rush without resting

Time’s trouble and testing

Is always requesting

A new set of hands

Don’t live in a tizzy

Always far too busy

Where goals make us dizzy

With Duty’s demand

Don’t miss out on flowers

And picnics and hours

Spent beneath broad bowers

Of summer’s plush tree

With Book, boy or baby

A blanket, or maybe

A biscuit and gravy

Or a cup of tea

Don’t fret about ‘getting’

Summer’s bloom is threading

Earth’s loom with the shedding

Of green-blush-blue-gold

So work, but remember

Soon it is September

November, December

Summer’s embers cold

Don’t run without walking

Slow enough for talking

Time’s tiptoe is shocking

It touches us all

With longing and laughter

Where mere moment-matter

Writes songs we hear after

Summer turns to fall

 

© Janet Martin

 ...the farmers will plant them
    and enjoy their fruit.

Isa.31:5 

Have you heard the story about the Fisherman and the Businessman?

 

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village.
As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite few big fish.
The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?”
The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”
“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished.
“This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said.
The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”
The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”
The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman.
“I am a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?”
The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.”
The fisherman asks, “And after that?”
The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!”
The fisherman was puzzled, “Isn’t that what I am doing now?”

Best There Is (from an autumn mother to summer-mothers)

Most days, thanks to doing child-care this house doesn't suffer from too much quietness😊

Don’t mind the mess; seems happiness grows best in mud and dirt

Soft, soon enough, dear mother you’ll be forced to face the hurt

Of tidy, quiet aftermath of garden paths and such

Where moment over moment winnows summer from her touch

Don’t mind the mess; seems autumn-ness comes quicker than we think

‘Those other, older mothers’ warnings happen in a blink

Where carefree chatter, little fists filled with wild-flower love

Are nothing now but treasured mist in mother’s memory-trove

Don’t mind the mess; its commonness weaves living’s ‘best there is’

Where weariness is worth this world of goodnight hug and kiss

From lad and lass of grass-stained knees and bare-foot heaven-ness

Soak in the bliss of ‘best there is’ and oh, don’t mind the mess!

© Janet Martin