Soon Simply Memories...

Simply Memories...

some we savour and try to slow down 

and some we shoo away with a mop and broom as fast as we can!

What a start to the year! 

We celebrated with a flood of family and friends...and water!

 It was a most memorable New Year's Eve indeed!

Monday night's downpour turned what started as a relaxed evening into a race against a river!

 What a nightmare!

... from approx. 2-3:30 a.m. was the worst;

after everyone left we realized the water that was rushing in through the floor drain was picking up speed, and gaining on the sump pump, and the lower part of the basement was going to overflow which meant the whole basement would be flooded so Jim and I lugged pails and pails and pails of water up the steps, pouring it out the window...
we felt like sailors trying to keep the ship afloat!
But it was worth the effort and finally the gush released some of the pressure and the pump is keeping up so far; yes, it is STILL running in.

Now we need to call Mr. Fix It to get to the 'root' of the problem!

...around midnight the men are trying to attach all the hoses 

we can find to take the water as far from the house as possible!

The red quilt was a bit of a dam to channel it into the lower basement to where the pump is.

Well, I can't wait til this whole 'event' is simply part of 'remember when?'

How soft and swift time’s daily gift

Of bend-and-lift unwinds

The color wheel that sets adrift

The pictures in our minds

How smooth and suave, morn’s pink and mauve

And high noon’s sun-lit bars

Slip, like a crimson disc far-off

Into a vault of stars

How tried and true time’s sky-wide blue

Grows dim and disappears

Always adding a new day to

One’s view of yester-years

How shadow-lined our frames of mind

Fill wall-less galleries

With pictures of days left behind

Simply called Memories

© Janet Martin

Because Some Days We Miss and Happy New Year

 Take a bow

Here's to a year 

of making the most 

of Now and Here

this picture is my New Year's Tradition;

A picture of a greeting card my grandparents received many years ago.

 

Because some days we miss, it seems

A blip of busyness and dreams

Before they meld to misty reams

On sentimental seas

Because some days we miss so much

A perfect blend of taste and touch

That hastes through have and hold and such

Into fond memories

Oh, stippled stairs of hugs and prayers

Of love-you, miss-you, tugs and cares

Of tending-spending-mending flares

That fade on dusky west

To reignite upon the east

Because some days we miss the Feast

That begs the beauty from a beast

That roars with toil and test

….and teaches us the crucial art

Of life’s most elemental part

Love challenges both hand and heart

With hunger and hooray

And reminds us to humbly peer

Into the nimble Now and Here

Because some days we miss more, dear

After they slip away

© Janet Martin

  

And The Crowd Goes Wild

Sum of a Year

Wink-blink

Ope-close

Here it is

And there it goes!

Like mist that melts from morning’s verge

Like airborne-tides that ebb and surge

From dawn to dusk dust leaves its mark

Like sparks that spiral on the dark

As expectation’s hopeful cheer

Reflects upon a soldered year

Of heaven-tendered highs and lows

From its first scene to curtain close

The crowd goes wild, stands to applaud

The unwavering grace of God

Eyes fixed upon a mystic Door

Where nobody has been before

Where faith, not fear will be our Guide

For Love Unfailing will preside

Hallelujah.

Amen

© Janet Martin

Happy Last-day-of-2018!

a tender look back on what has been

 As humble hope hails Majesty

From a highway hinged to eternity

All cupped in the Ever-Able Hands

Of He who pours and snuffs time's sands 

 Jude 1:21
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

The One Thing We Can Always Choose; Response

Not gonna lie

Oh, some days I

Could fill the sky

With loud lament

But would good is

A tantrum’s hiss

But proof of this

Proud discontent

We cannot choose each circumstance

Only response to what it grants

© Janet Martin

Two examples of response from the Bible that always impact and humble me; 

one from the Old Testament...

Job Loses His Health

Then Job's wife said to him,

 “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”

 He replied, "You are talking like a foolish woman. 

Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" 

In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

Job 2:9-10

...and one from the New

This is from the story of the angel coming to Mary,

 a young virgin, to tell her she will have a baby,

 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. 

 Luke 1:38

and, on the bright side, this piece of art was lying on the driveway this morning!

 

A Fine Intermingling

  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, 

and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. 

Are you not much more valuable than they? 

 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

Matt.6:26-27

 

The way flood waters rise and ebb leaving drenched aftermath

The way the wind will leave chaos in its riotous path

The way the sun will rise and set tinting the land and sea

And stealing our very breath amidst adversity

This is the way of love and life; Beauty and brokenness

A fine mingling of joy and strife and chosen happiness

Where fear will drive its victims mad but faith will set us free

Where hope will make our hunger gladder than doubt’s misery

Where what we cannot see ahead is like a tender dare

To trust in He who calms our dread and hears each humble prayer

This is the way of love and life; fine-mingled want and need

As we surrender He provides His strength to intercede

© Janet Martin