Of Heart-parts and Footfalls

 Celebrated three birthdays yesterday; 

Always a reminder of Time's precious,swift gift!

No time like the present to make the most of It!

My, the heart can throb with wonder

My the heart can ache with care

My, how it can quake and thunder

As we press it into prayer

My, time’s force of doors is subtle

My, the course of life is brief

Bitty baby kiss and cuddle

Before love’s incumbent grief

My, the matrix of Mere Moment

Steals our breath with death’s approach

Soft its seasons seal and augment

Present where Unknowns encroach

My, the mold that holds soul’s Bearing

Shaping names and frames we hug

Always keeps the heart preparing

For love’s next confounding tug

My, the Time we have is precious

Mortal with Immortal shod

Where the quick of tick-tock ushers

Every footfall back to God

© Janet Martin

Let's Just Wait And See...

So, after getting winter-weary spring-wishers all excited a month ago because they predicted a swift, sudden mid-March spring, forecasters are now predicting a 'slower than expected start to spring in Ontario'! which makes me repeat what I always do when I hear a long-term forcast; 

"let's just wait and see" Today I read that Ontarions can perhaps expect a cooler than normal summer.  A month ago someone told me they heard we might have the hottest summer on record yet! 

I guess we;ll have to wait and see!

Today, BTW, was GORGEOUS!

So I baked Lemon Poppy-seed Muffins...

Below is a delightful few lines from the book Bella Tuscany by Frances Mayes

Oh, let’s just wait and see

To guess at what may be

Is but to miss This Thing That Is

Slipping from you and me

Oh, let’s not fuss and fret

With words like What If, Yet

Let’s raise a cheer for Now and Here’s

Lithe bow and pirouette

Let loving fingers trace

This Very Present grace

Before we hold the ether gold

That softly took its place

So, let’s just smile and nod

As on we press and plod

Let’s make the best of Now’s request

And leave the rest to God

© Janet Martin

March Gardens

 "Oh my, Mom!" exclaimed my eldest daughter yesterday as I showed her my 'empty canvas'

(thanks to water troubles that began our new year!)

" I have to say a lot of words come to my mind before 'empty canvas' 

but if that's what you see then, great!"

( I use 'water-troubles' carefully because right now 

our hearts/prayers are with those in flooded Nebraska!)

 Don't you just LOVE March gardens? 

They bloom perfectly from books spread on tables and

in dream-lands without dirt!

From the forge of ice and snow

Gorgeous dreams of flowers flow

Gushing like a rainbow brook

Through thought’s every nook and crook

Time has tamed the wilding gale

Coaxed warm raindrop from its wail

Hope unfolds, gold-violet-vined

In grand gardens of the mind

Fantasy finds Brigadoon

Perfect blue-green afternoon

Hillside almost-heaven splays

Apple-blossomed milky ways

Happiness sings like a lark

Spring and morning meet its mark

Laughter is a daffodil

Where winter has lost its will

© Janet Martin

Look! Sweet Spring Is Here

Night melts like a pink popsicle

Gilding land and sea with bronze

Look, where darkness hung its mantle

Now the light of new day dawns

Moments meting want and worry

Melt like snowflakes on the tongue

Look, from winter’s frigid flurry

Surf and sod of spring is wrung

Where star-dust fell from yon rafter

Heaven spills a sun-beam urn

Look, the mute brook fills with laughter

As the sight of spring’s return

Look, where dormant tresses tremble

Hollows hint at halos, green

Look, where barren branch and bramble

Soon will be a blossom-queen

Look, where hope replaces hunger

Look where white worlds disappear

Look, where everything seems younger

Because spring, sweet spring is here

© Janet Martin

An Every Day Reality Check

 For some reason this song was just 'there' when I woke, like a morning prayer...

...then a quote I read by Charles Spurgeon; "My dear friend, I am a poor sinner still 

and have to look to Christ every day as I did at the very first."

...inspired this post.

Every day the way we walk is riddled with pitfall and snare

We are prey to he who stalks and lures thought’s ever-ready stare

Then when thought has sought redemption, hands and feet respond, well-groomed

Through the minefields of temptation, where without Christ we are doomed

Every day the life we live will take us through new highs and lows

So much touch and taste to tease us and to keep us on our toes

The ‘evidence of things hoped for’ may seem like a fairy-tale

Yet Faith is our only lifeline to the Hand that will not fail

Every day is like a buffet groaning ‘neath the weight of grace

Wooing from a wake of takers, help for hungry human race

Love, so rich in mercy offers (even scoffers) tender care

Where we all have equal access to the steppingstones of prayer

Every day is like a foothold drawing us to Time’s demise

We brought nothing to this world and it all stays when body dies

Pray the Lord we lay up treasure better than earth’s heap of Stuff

Lest life’s leap of pain and pleasure in the end is not enough

© Janet Martin