To Be or Not To Be... Vanilla

 I hereby testify that on this date of August 17, 2019

my (truck-driver) husband (in case you wonder why he calls) did call 

and not need to ask at all 

what I was doing (because he could guess)
because nine mornings out of ten I write...

and he did state that 

I am a different cat 

but he wouldn't change a thing 

or I would 'just be vanilla'.

I then thereby did respond that I will put his statement in writing 

as evidence that he did

on this day declare such a thing

and that I will bring it to his remembrance at such a time

when his opinion could justifiably differ!😊😂😜

...okay, enough silliness!

Here's to today's flavours and colours!

The first one I choose is coffee black!

To love or hate

Condemn, applaud

To trust in fate

Or gracious God

To pray a while

Or fret and fear

To sing and smile

Or shed a tear

To dash or stroll

Believe or doubt

Give half or whole

Give thanks or pout

To bless or curse

Deny, confess

For better-worse

For more or less

To be yourself

Or to compare

To dust the shelf

Or sit and stare

To stray or veer

Or stay the course

To crush or cheer

To free or force

To gripe or dance

With gratitude

Part circumstance

Most attitude

© Janet Martin

August's To-do List

 Ah-h-August!

...to oblige August’s smallest matters of must

Like soaking in saunas of sunbeam and dust

Like lying beneath boundless heath of blue skies

Listening to the flutter of leaf-butterflies

Or drinking the ink of pink clover or rose

Or tracing the lace of Queen Ann’s scattered clothes

To waste not a flicker of quickening reach

To taste wonder dripping like juice from a peach

To not be too hurried to take a tea-break

Complete with a slice of  Southern Lemon Cake 

To stand face to face with a handsome sunflow'r

And count only kisses, not the day or hour

To watch from grass-bleachers dusk’s nightly showdown

To wade through wildflowers, waist-deep and wind-blown

To walk in slow-motion floors stubbly with gold

Aware of an ocean no shoreline can hold

To ponder while sitting too long on creek-banks

Ten-thousand sound reasons for giving God thanks

(For of the four seasons we treasure and toast

I think in August I love summer most)

To touch time for what it is; His grace unbound

To take off our shoes as we tread holy ground

To gather the goodness of garden and field

Heedful of the harvest that Last Breath will yield 

© Janet Martin

Mid-August Memento

 With a tender twinge I wish you all a Happy mid-August!

Wind woos in woodland, across August’s main

Sun starts its trek to the west once again

Dream-lands of summer are starting to shrink

Fact scrawls its matter in memory-ink

Causing the mother and poet to pause

Beneath arbors of vibrant leaf-applause

Knowing that nothing can revert the path

That always leads to summer’s aftermath

Quickening pulses with a stirring sense

Of bloom-bowers bending with recompense

Where Beauty, brimming with barley and rye

Soon splays stilled sashes beneath brooding sky
Bidding, nay begging, our bustle to slow
Before our footfalls are muffled by snow

© Janet Martin

Secret to Joy

  I prayed for strength... 

He gave me joy

The joy of the Lord is my strength. 

Neh.8:10

There’s a sacred joy in living when we learn to find kind worth

In each day that we are given by God of Heaven and earth

When we start to serve the Master with a more determined quest

Then the heart is filled with honour and the urge to give our best

…and the task that may seem common to the seeker of ‘success’

Is not the defining factor when it comes to happiness

…and the stumbles and the tumbles and the messes that man makes

Do not seem quite as defeating as we learn from our mistakes

…as we hear the Higher Calling in whatever lot we bear

Then we start to learn the secret of a joy beyond compare

As we prize the priceless treasure of God’s grace whereby man goes

We begin to taste the measure of joy only He bestows

© Janet Martin