Of Love Well-lived (or Life Well-loved)

Better to be keenly aware

Of all the kindnesses that you bequeath...

Aware…of how you run your fingers through my hair so casually

And trace my face with lines without excuses or apology

Your touch, oh Father Time, is such, that none can tame or duck beneath

Better to be keenly aware

Of all the kindnesses that you bequeath

…in spite of all you steal and how we sometimes feel at loss for words

To spell the knell of farewell rolling through each season undeterred

Aware of heartstrings pulled and tugged in every tender way but loose

While a new generation fills

Our hugs and thrills to rhymes of Mother Goose

Aware of how vital prayer is; where we never know what we’ll meet

Aware of how your kiss, oh Father Time, is both bitter and sweet

And how the stage of middle age runs rife with life’s curious surprise

Aware of how a friend in deed

Is better than anything money buys

Aware that truth won’t change its mind no matter how we twist our pleas

Aware that youth will soon find out time is a mist of memories

And not on their side after all; as they turn into acrobats

Trying to balance hopes and dreams

On tight-ropes of less glam-matters of fact

Aware that our relationship should work in me, as years go by

A gentler attitude and more subdued approach to 'me' and 'my'

Because oh Father time, you are a teacher with uncanny ways

To reach beneath exteriors 

And turn want's restless passion into praise

Aware that we grow too soon auldt and too late schmart, as we become

The generation of old-farts/folk, out-of-fashion dad and mum

Aware that each day is a gift that we cannot afford to waste

But rather gather into hearts

The echo of fond, love-well-lived keepsakes

© Janet Martin

Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
8Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.

Prov.30:7-9

Lyric About Life

 

Happy Birthday, Emily💗

Twenty-nine years ago you made your dad and I parents!

Thank-you for its journey of joy, 

however unconventional joy's footpaths may be!😉😊

Last week as I chatted with a young mom she asked how it was

to have our second daughter home for a while

(she moved back to the city a week ago)

'It's so great' I replied.

 'While they grow up the focus is on parenting, training, etc.

With adult children it's friendship/relationship.

They know what we believe and support and what we don't.

(of course, it will always be friendship

under a mother's watchful eye and words of caution etc.

and a ton of prayers; those seem to increase, not decrease with the years)

but what a precious privilege to relate to our children,

adult to adult and stand with them

through life's highs and lows

by the grace of God.

Dear Emily,

God bless you on your special day

even though your son wailed and wailed last night,

begging you to skip your birthday because he doesn't want you to change😂

Unfortunately he is wishing for the impossible!

I pray for you, God's guidance through 

all the challenges and changes life is bound to bring!

Life leads us by the hand sometimes

In flowered nooks it bids us sit

A gladsome thing that makes us sing

And dance for the sheer joy of it

Life grabs us by the scruff sometimes

And sets us firmly in God’s grace

A heavy hand of reprimand

To remind us of our place

Life takes us in its arms sometimes

In kind, parental sympathy

To dry our tears and calm our fears

As we rest in God's sovereignty

Life is a teacher all the time

We never grow too old to learn

As highs and lows and joys and woes

Fill Bygone’s sheaf of no return

Life makes us older day by day

Pray that it makes us kinder too

As we embrace the Hand of grace

That every moment-gem runs through

…to forge the weight of wisdom’s crown

Then pray as yester-years increase

Beauty unveils what never fails

Love’s holy, humble Masterpiece

Life takes us by surprise sometimes

In spite of its muddle and mess

It fills the heart with life’s best part

Wild, unorthodox *thankfulness

© Janet Martin

* I first used the word 'happiness' instead of thankfulness

but changed it because without genuine thankfulness

genuine happiness is impossible!

“this is my prayer: 

that your love may abound more and more 

in knowledge and depth of insight, 

so that you may be able to discern what is best 

and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 

filled with the fruit of righteousness 

that comes through Jesus Christ

—to the glory and praise of God.”

 Philippians 1:9-11 

For We Who Tread The Thread of Numbered Days...

 

The ice-cream truck was such a special thrill last night

to celebrate a whole bunch of family birthdays!

I kept saying 'ch-e-e-e-ese' to try to get their attention, but, well...

they were deliciously distracted! 😋😄

So much birthday-joy already

celebrating so much to be thankful for

to the Giver of life's gift!

Meal cooked by one daughter and son-in-law...(last night)

 

Cake baked by another daughter for double celebration;

both parent's birthdays...

We get stretched out of comfort zones with or without approval’s nod

We start to feel in joints and bones the impact of life’s tug and prod

Futile to wish we could turn back the hands of time taking its toll

But take stock of this skin-bone rack; it is the Chariot of the Soul

We start to feel the subtle keel as scales of age begin to tip

Toward a stage, once so surreal, before our wheels began to slip

The stern command and upper hand of Father’s Time’s insistent gait

No matter how craftily planned, nobody can manipulate

This gift that always steals the young collects itself in numbered years

It peals from daybreak’s golden gong then rolls westward to join its peers

And takes us by age-old surprise; Time is both gentleman and brute

He tames the tiger in our eyes with Wonder’s sweeter substitute

How common day-to-day appears to we, aboard time’s teeming barge

Where one-by-one we disappear as death collects its chosen charge

Where none can order or predict who will be next to disembark

And meet the Giver of life’s gift as time flies upward like a spark

Cherish this gift but bear in mind the fugitive flight of its toll

This dust-to-dust we leave behind is but the Chariot of the Soul

An essence that remains concealed until that solemn, sacred day

When the gift’s Purpose is revealed as mortal wrapping falls away

Because life is a gift from God we do not authorize or choose

The why or wherefore of its rod, the tender tenure of its hues

The precious part of you and I is to revere with grateful praise

The One who grants the grace whereby we tread the thread of numbered days

© Janet Martin

Job 14:5

A person's days are determined; 

you have decreed the number of his months 

and have set limits he cannot exceed.

Sing For Joy or Worth It

"folding is my least favourite part' said Victoria just now

'but the fluffiness makes it worth it!'

...as she labors patiently at folding in the egg-whites

for her dad's belated birthday cake;

Coffee Cream Sponge Cake

😋

Her cakes make our family sing for joy.

She's got the touch!

Psalm 95:1

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalm 66:1

Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth!

The irises are bursting with 'joyful noise' these days...

A lot of early perennials have a very brief bloom,

but the joy they bring while blooming is so worth it!

...it's so windy this morning the irises were like trying to

get toddlers to pose for a picture...

they wouldn't stand still.

One morning this week Toddler arrived sporting her latest fashion trend;

Sister's (clean) undie-hat😂

Tots can be extremely draining, but the joy they bring is SO worth it!!💗💗💗

Lift up your hands and sing for joy where loveliness abounds

In spite of all that breaks our hearts, annoys, dismays, confounds

God is still good; He cares for us; He helps us so we may

Deny ourselves; take up our cross and follow Him today

Morning runs rife with heartache in each day the Lord has made

Sorrow stalks ev’ry step we take and fear seeks to invade

Be not afraid but sing for joy; let God’s goodness console

For nothing on earth can destroy His Absolute control

The earth and its fulness thereof, yon boundless galaxy

Cannot contain God’s perfect love He proved at Calvary

Greater is He in us than He who is in-of the world

Then sing for joy; let love’s truth be triumph’s banner unfurled

When we are tempted to despair because of what must pass

Cry to the Lord in earnest prayer; He keeps His promises

And, lest the stones cry out where doubt has silenced our song

Lift up your voice and shout for joy to He who does no wrong

Bow down before the One who has declared His sovereignty

‘Heaven, my throne, earth, my footstool; what have you built for me’

Come, humbly yield to His command and tremble at His Word

And sing for joy beneath the Hand of justice undeterred

What may seem ignored by the Lord is not; be of good cheer

Someday God will reward what may seem so forgotten here

Then sing for joy (if you believe) after this grief and strife

It will be worth it, as we receive everlasting life

© Janet Martin

a few more joy-peeks at what makes everything else SO worth it...

6:30 a.m. play-dough time?!

His grin says anytime is play-dough time!

Isa.66:1-2

Thus says the Lord:

“Heaven is My throne,

And earth is My footstool.

Where is the house that you will build Me?

And where is the place of My rest?

For all those things My hand has made,

And all those things exist,”

Says the Lord.

“But on this one will I look:

On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,

And who trembles at My word.

Matt.24:6

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars:

see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,

but the end is not yet.

Above, Beneath and All Around

No matter how perverse or adverse man is,

God is faithful and always keeps His promises.

A rainbow is a symbol of the covenant of God's faithfulness,

given first to Noah and his family after the flood

Genesis 9: 12-17

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, 

and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

  I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 

It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 

and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; 

the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant 

between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 

And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant 

which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Above, beneath and all around the loathsome deeds of greed and lust

The earth and its fulness abounds to clothe with life, death’s cape of dust

In stark contrast to the disgrace where human race is vile and brute

God’s faithfulness prevails to trace the bud with bloom, the seed with fruit

He makes the rain to fall on all, whether we worship Him or not

The sun to rise and fill the world with light, not one corner forgot

He replenishes mercy before dawn breaks and awakens, we

Who are utterly dependent on the One who gives and takes justly

We, on our own would come to ruin; all that we have, God’s goodness grants

He threads the shuttle of the loom that bursts with life; man, beast and plants

Ability and genius (lest any boast) are by Him willed

We, lavished with love’s uttermost; mortal with immortal instilled

He cares for us, whether we praise Him or live deaf and blind to He

Who numbers our days and knows exactly when their end will be

Above, beneath and all around the fountains of creation bless

Where goodness and mercy abound because God keeps His promises

© Janet Martin

Gen.8:22

"As long as the earth endures, 

seedtime and harvest, 

cold and heat, 

summer and winter, 

day and night 

will never cease."

In stark contrast to the disgrace where human race is vile and brute

God’s faithfulness prevails to trace the bud with bloom, the seed with fruit

1 Peter 5:6-7

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 

that He may exalt you in due time, 

7casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

That's Marriage, Ladies and Gentlemen

 Celebrating thirty-three years of 'us'!

Photo credit: Brittany Ruppert

 

Just now...phone rings (9:30 p.m.)

Me; Hello?

Him; what are you doing? Why haven't you called yet?

Me; I'm trying to finish writing something for our thirty-third anniversary.

but WOW, it's really hard work at night with an old, tired head...

Him; oh good! I thought maybe you weren't going to do one this year!

Yes, he looks forward to seeing a daily blog-post even if he is not really a fan of poetry

(Jim, for those who don't know us is a truck-driver)

Knowing he appreciates it always helps to motivate me to at least try

 on days when it's really hard to squeeze it in...

(first stanza is inspired by a scene last Friday

and every. single. other. niece or nephew wedding. ever.!!!!)😅

We’re getting pretty good at it, he and I

I button his shirt while he fixes his tie

He steps into shoes I have placed at his feet

‘Getting ready for a wedding’ just hit repeat

Because for some reason there is always a delay

Come date-to-be-home-for-someone’s-wedding-day

He calls from the truck ‘run the water, dear

If you give me five minutes, we should be near-

Ly ready to go (wedding starts in ten)

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

‘For better or worse’ no matter what shape or size

Something will shadow/shatter the stars in love’s eyes

Sooner or later, we are bound to find out

What marriage vows are really all about

After the honeymoon (or on it?) when patience is tried

When love startles us with its less polished side

When words are tested with mettle of will

When love seems lacking its fire and thrill

It’s time to make time for each other again

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

This is forever, ‘till death do us part’

Where no one can sever what God joins in heart

For as we commit to be faithful and true

He ties a knot only He can undo

To love and to cherish, a most sacred oath

That takes the full faith and commitment of both

And trusting that what we will need, God will give

In keeping our promise as long as we live

As we renew love’s vows again and again

That’s marriage, ladies and gentlemen

© Janet Martin

I made the poster below when I was 16 or 17.

 (yeah, we were young 'uns when we started)

See our names down the side???😍

 

The Ten Commandments for Married Couples 

was given to us on our 10th Anniversary from my parents

When The World Is Full of June

 Twilight perches upon a dew and dust kissed pedestal...

The earth runs green with majesty of not yet sun-scorched grass

The sky is like a sweep of deep blue sea where cloud-ships pass

The garden is a wonder-world unfurled in flower-flares

And draws even the atheist to worship unawares

The countryside is like an errant splash of paradise

A free-for-all buffet where we may come and feast our eyes

On regal iris, courtly lupine, ruffled peony

To revel, nature-wealthy in June’s lap of luxury

We sense friendships rekindled with graces that we expect

Like hymns of feathered minstrels from limbs sun and shadowed-decked

Like the lush, rush of rivers that we hear but no one sees

As sweet and sassy zephyrs ripple through leaf-canopies

The parks are dotted with bobbing balloons with legs and arms

Chased by larger, slower balloons sounding caution’s alarms

Where picnics become anything but dreamy; yet its mess

Still has a funny way of turning into happiness

The river-bank is flanked with fishermen and fav’rite brews

Where some come to be young again and some to sit and snooze

And some to read and some to glean a poem-gem (or five)

And some who want for nothing, just content to be alive

The fields flaunt faith’s first answers; farmers pray for no late frost

Porches boast perfect planters, not yet to neglect’s ‘oops’ lost

The lily-chalice spills its port to butterflies and bees

As moments sparkle and cavort through almost-memories

Twilight perches upon a dew and dust kissed pedestal

A masterpiece that lingers longer on earth’s westward sill

So then we linger longer too, enchanted by a tune

That never fails to thrill us when the world is full of June

© Janet Martin

Maybe The More We Look ...

Happy June!😊

Maybe the more we look around we’ll find to our sweet surprise

That each new day is holy ground, an olive branch in a sunrise

Psalm 104:1

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

Maybe the more we look around we’ll find to our sweet surprise

That each new day is holy ground, an olive branch in a sunrise

And what we owe to God and man is simply this; to do our part

To do the humble best we can with willing hands and thankful heart

Maybe the more we look above we’ll find fresh courage here below

And trust the Greatest of These; love, to teach us to hold and let go

As we learn to forgive and live as if today might be our last

To make the most of what we have before dusk’s shadow-show is cast

Maybe the more we pine for less we’ll find what we are looking for

As the secret to happiness is not a secret anymore

Because in spite of want and woe, we recognize a promenade

Of blessings-founts that overflow in this new day the Lord has made

Maybe the more we count our joys the less reason we’ll find to fret

For gratitude always deploys faith for the day not journeyed yet

Where we are never far from He to whom we owe our ardent laud

Maybe the more we look we’ll see the glaring evidence of God

© Janet Martin