Saturday, November 9, 2019

Reflecting on the Greatest Love of All

PAD Challenge day 9: For today’s prompt, write a reflection poem. 

this prompt was perfect timing;
I've been reflecting on the word 'salvation' since we looked it up the other night...
Have you ever looked up the meaning?
or its antonyms?!
Have you reflected recently on the height, depth and breadth of God's love
and where we would be without it?
Does it then not fill you with humble awe?!
...and then, today's devotion;


The love of God, ah, who can find
In all the universe
More sure salvation for mankind
To break damnation’s curse

And who through all the world can boast
Save in what Love has giv’n
The love that gave His uttermost
To ope the gates of Heav’n

Where hope in He whose love secures
The soul from death and hell
Is the confidence that assures
Believers, it is well

Grief is not chief; or darksome fears
No sorrow can exceed
The love that ministers to tears
And supplies our need

The love of God unshakeable
Humble belief instills
And works in us the miracle
Our final breath fulfills

© Janet Martin

no one can return from The Great Beyond to tell us its Mysteries...
but one thing is sure; we will all find out for ourselves and who knows when?
Have you made room in your heart for the Greatest Love of All?


 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
    though you have not acknowledged me,
so that from the rising of the sun
    to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form the light and create darkness,
    I bring prosperity and create disaster;
    I, the Lord, do all these things.

“You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;
    let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide,
    let salvation spring up,
let righteousness flourish with it;
    I, the Lord, have created it.
“Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker,
    those who are nothing but potsherds
    among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,
    ‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
    ‘The potter has no hands’?
10 Woe to the one who says to a father,
    ‘What have you begotten?’
or to a mother,
    ‘What have you brought to birth?’
11 “This is what the Lord says—
    the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
    do you question me about my children,
    or give me orders about the work of my hands?
12 It is I who made the earth
    and created mankind on it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
    I marshaled their starry hosts.

Isa.45:5-12 NIV

Friday, November 8, 2019

Subtle Lightning Bolt...(or Savoring the Simple)

I came across an old picture of suppertime recently when all of the family still lived at home...
How ordinary that sacred scene seemed at the time!



I was really planning on posting this What's-for-supper Thursday last night
(click link for previous posts) but the old engine ran out of steam...
I thought I had a supper-menu planned until I cleaned out the fridge
and realized there are too many left-overs that need using
and I could not justify my original chicken dinner plan...
so, what to do with a bunch of less than stellar looking tail-end garden-gleanings?
Roasted Vegetables;
red and green peppers, carrots, beets, squash, sweet potatoes, brussels sprout and broccoli.
(last 3 veggies from store:)
Toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar,(a few tbsp of each) cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp)
 and sprinkle of kosher salt.
Bake at 400F til tender approx. 15-20 min. 

With the leftover hamburgers and mashed potatoes I tried an invention!

When Matt and Victoria asked 'what's this?' I wasn't sure what to call them so they are still
Hamburger and Mashed Potato Thingys.
Slice the burgers in half and put in a baking dish.
I had some 'tired' kale that needed using so I made a filling by browning in olive oil
 fresh chopped garlic, red onion and kale with stems removed.
Add a splash or two of apple cider vinegar, some salt and pepper.
I'm not mentioning amounts because I didn't measure and they vary
depending on how many people are being served.
Put a glob of filling on each burger half then top with leftover mashed potato filling;
To the potatoes I added pepper, paprika, parsley, two beaten eggs
splash of light cream and shredded cheese.
Garnished with a jalapeno pepper-ring.
Bake on top rack above veggies for same amount of time!

I'm realizing how quickly the numbers at the supper table are dwindling 
so I try not to take for granted the seemingly sometimes messy and mundane..
But the messy-and-mundane could be addressed while supper baked 
making eating time extra-relaxing! 
Supper hour minutes is a little later right now due to work schedules.
When I asked Matt for a verdict on the hamburger-potato thingys he said 
he thought of this scene from the movie What About Bob...😋


Life can draw us apart
The tide that furls and breaks
Turns what seems like common-place art
Into sacred keepsakes

Ah, Time can take its toll
Much quicker than we thought
Tying the strings of heart and soul
Into a tender knot

See how the daylight dims
So swift above earth’s prow
Gathering hours into hymns
With simple here and now

Where sometimes with a jolt
We are startled anew
By what the subtle lightning bolt
Of tick and tock can do

© Janet Martin

 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Ode to the Stretchy Skirt...

For today’s prompt, pick an article of clothing, make it the title of your poem, 
and then, write your poem.

 (below, a 'stretchy skirt' and shirt load enjoying one of our last nice laundry days; not today) 😁



Stretchy skirts are so forgiving
Room enough for give and take
After all, dears, We. Are. Women.
(Therefore men, we fluctuate)

Toss that scale out of the window
Why ruin a perfect day
Grab a stretchy skirt and sweater
Never mind what numbers say

Ask yourself…how are you feeling?
Do a two-step, whirl and twirl
In a stretchy skirt, no limits
You can feel like a school-girl

Don’t cater to fashion experts
Pulling, pinching, cinching, ouch!
Grab a stretchy skirt and sweater
And you will not be a grouch

Stretchy skirts are always perfect
Never out of season-style
Get a couple, it is worth it!
You will smile and smile and smile

Stretchy skirts are so obliging
Polite to a fault, (I know)
But they deserve a small homage
“Stretchy skirt, I love you so”

© Janet Martin




Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Opening Scene to What Has Not Yet Been Before

PAD Challenge day 6: For today’s prompt, write an opening poem.




Dawn yawns and stretches, draws the sun from edges brushed with pink
The trees long flushed with gold stand stark and dark against yon brink
Time’s seasons flare and fade like floats in nature’s grand parade
While we try to make sense of its intense, immense crusade

Where some of us are bystanders and some march left-foot-right
Some lounge, cool as can be and some are wound up way too tight
While the bronze gong is drawn up, up away from eastward verge
As we are swept into a resolute, momentous surge

…that always pulls us to the place where we are facing west
To watch the sun slip past skyscrapers, trees, beneath earth’s crest
And where we stood to watch dawn yawn and fling ajar its door
We peer into the darkness of a day that is no more

...where some take note of progress, some notice nothing too much
Some feel hope like a warm handshake, others want for its touch
Some stand tall as a stallion, others fall beneath the strain
Waiting for dawn to yawn and stretch and do it all again

© Janet Martin



Tuesday, November 5, 2019

To Everything There Is a Season...

PAD Challenge day 5: Today is our first Two-for-Tuesday prompt day. Pick one prompt for your poem today, or write a poem for each prompt, or write one poem that works with both. Today’s prompts are:
  1. Write a pleasure poem, and/or…
  2. Write a displeasure poem.
 A peek at past week's pleasure...

Pleasure is intoxication
of a leaf-imbibed farewell
Displeasure, the white invasion
covering the leaves that fell

Pleasure is the crunch and rustle
where the air wears leaf-spun toll
Displeasure is winter's hustle
invading our autumn stroll 

Pleasure is the painted parting
of summer and autumn's clime
Displeasure is winter starting
before its appointed time

Janet Martin 

(this poem may be experienced both literally and metaphorically😉)