Heart and Goal

A calm hour with God is worth

a whole lifetime with man.

-Robert Murray McCheyne- 

What goal fires our purpose?

Is it temporal or eternal?

 1 Peter 1:24
For, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field;

 the grass withers and the flowers fall,

So much seeks our full attention

Weak or strong are not immune

To the ethereal dimension

Of the dreamer’s private room

Where no mortal master governs

What no guard can chaperone

In thought’s invisible caverns

Where the heart becomes a throne

…where the one who reigns upon it

Breaks through flesh and blood façade

By the way we weigh life’s moments

Serving either Self or God

By the object of our wonder

By the comforts that console

Where each moment draws asunder

The gap between Heart and Goal

© Janet Martin

Making The Most of What's Left of May/Life

I dare not waste the haste with which May’s merry moments sparkle through

A freshly-unfurled canopy, an apple-blossom-dappled flue

The color-friendly flower-side that warms the hearth of dreamer’s hearts

Makes us so glad to be alive in the happiness May imparts

The bud that clenched its teeny fist relents and almost overnight

The barren branch is filled with hymns of leafy sigh and shadow-light

I dare not shut my eyes lest the surprises I’ve come to expect

Are scattered at my feet and no amount of grief can resurrect

How swift the gift of seasons strews its wrapping paper vapour to thin air

A rift twixt fingertips and past’s echo-established thoroughfare

The freedoms that we balance where duty’s insistent ties entwine

We ought to savour like those moments just before we rise and shine

I dare not waste the haste that turns May into June, June to July

Until another year adheres to sentimental me-oh-my

Come, let’s do lunch beneath the maple-green umbrella’s umbral arc

For May will soon slip into June like daylight turning into dark

© Janet Martin

 ...and don't sweat the small stuff!

The Way of Life...

 
Isaiah 51:12
I, even I, am He who comforts you. 

Who are you that you fear mortal man, 

or a son of man who withers like grass?

The hour like a flower blooms then fades to days of yore

Unlike the love of God; His love abides forevermore

All that we have weaves ties that bind until its tether breaks

But God, so rich in mercy, never leaves us or forsakes

How hard life’s little leap would be if it was nothing more

Than dawn’s constant crash-landing or the slamming of dusk’s door

Hooray, this way of life after its hold and letting go

Leads back to where it all began… to He who loves us so

© Janet Martin

 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.'
Acts 2:28

May-hem or May-break

 Little Girl and I picked flowers yesterday...(tulips and fern-leaf peony)

this morning as I was writing/painting this poem her mom texted me;

' Little girl is thrilled by the flower's sweet smell

but suddenly concerned that they are dying!'

I replied, "aw, sweet little girl is already being introduced to love's bittersweet;

the thrill of holding and the heart-tug of letting go."

Unfortunately these peonies bloom at best, only a few days

but oh so pretty in their passing!

May heals the hearts that winter wounded; wows us with its vim

Where verdant verve of virgin green lavishes land and limb

As Wand of May breaks soldered seams that quarantined the gem

And teases from bud-bondage Bloom's unfettered diadem

To thrill once more, since days of yore, all who pause to applaud

With never-failing wonderment, the handiwork of God

May breaks sod’s seal with eager abandon where Time is chief

And so begins another blur of seasoned joy and grief

A vexing intermingling of love’s laughter and lament

Beauty bound by the law of life’s momentous covenant

Unraveled ‘neath a blue-sky gavel poised above earth’s bars

As buds spill red-pink-purple-gold pillage of petal-stars

Now we take longer looking-breaks to wander where the world

Is like a freshly painted banner gloriously unfurled

With some parts plowed and planted, some nature’s free-hand release

But all together lovely like an Artist’s masterpiece

Where May breaks through the barriers that held blossoms at bay

The leader of a Grand Parade that blooms summer away

© Janet Martin

This past week our world turned green as it burst into bloom (in our area in southern Ontario)

where in this month we have gone from winter to summer in short order

...we are in the midst of a heat-wave with afternoon temps feeling like 34-36C!!

Oh Lord, Our God

Oh, Source of hope divine

That bids heart’s storm be still

What blessed joy and peace is mine

When yielded to Thy will

Oh, kind and faithful Friend

The well-spring of Thy love

Has no beginning and no end

Immortal and enough

Oh, Name above all names

The Way, the Truth, the Life

Thy Word assures where reason blames

And longing wields its knife

Oh, Lord of Heav'n and earth
Creation's architect
Originator of all birth
To whom all is subject

Oh, bulwark for Belief

Compassion’s offering

You long to gather us beneath

The Shelter of your wing

Oh, fountain filled with grace

Thanksgiving overflows

For what You bore in our place

To save us from hell’s throes

Oh, steadfast strength and Stay

Oh, mentor for the soul

Instill in us today, I pray

The faith that makes us whole

Amen

© Janet Martin

 Eph.3:14-19

 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 

to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

 May be able to comprehend with all saints 

what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, 

that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.