I Love to Loiter at a Brook

It's hard not to be a bit delirious with delight

when February is more like end of April!

So I took advantage of every opportunity this week to 'play' outside!

On Tuesday the brook was still breaking free!

Today, after a few melt-days it rolls and chuckles without any snow to slow it down!

Be Still and know that I am God

Ps. 46:10

I love to loiter by a brook, to listen to its timeless tune

To taste life’s purest pleasure without wishing for the stars and moon

To note, with tender satisfaction that which progress cannot press

To find within its sanguine song a kind of child-like happiness

To chuckle as its chubby chortle cheers hearts without sound advice

A lithesome lilt of silver sparkles and deep darker tones suffice

I love to linger in the counsel chambers of willow and birch

Or, perch upon a makeshift pew in nature’s treetop frescoed church

And there to hear the voice of God uninterrupted by my plea

As awe silences reasoned-why with nature’s gentle empathy

With whispers from the wizened pine, with warble from the little bird

To remind me Whose will prevails and whose purpose is undeterred

I love to set aside my sack of sorrows on brook-banks, to sit

And ponder He who holds tomorrow and knows every bit of it

To listen, then to catch this joy; 'be still and know that I am God'

Ah, nothing is impossible with He who rules sky, sea and sod 

And nothing quite compares to sitting at His feet beside a brook

To be content with wonder-plunder, I don't find if I don't look 

I love to loiter by a brook, to court its buoyant countenance

To reconcile the recompense of youth with Truth’s resilience

To want for nothing as I listen to its unfatiguing tunes

To count among my most treasured mementoes those fond afternoons

When I would leave behind the grindstone filled with constant care and chore

When I would loiter by a brook and find what I was looking for

© Janet Martin

I love to linger in the counsel chambers of willow and birch

Or, perch upon a makeshift pew...

 in nature’s treetop frescoed church...

Sunrise Symphony

The past few mornings we are being treated

 to being greeted by

much appreciated welkin symphonies

after a long stretch of gloomy daybreaks!

An introduction starts to play from welkin symphonies...

An introduction starts to play from welkin symphonies

It fills the threshold of Today with thrilling harmonies

As melodies of blush and gold unfold the hailing sphere

While we, with rapt’rous gaze behold night’s shadows disappear

We lift our eyes above the stage of trouble’s wage unfurled

To feast upon the music page God hoists above the world

To bow on morning’s grandstand with stutter-uttered ‘oh my’

And join the worship anthems no lyrics can satisfy

Hope celebrates its anchor as pink hallelujahs peal

Joy’s chipped cup runneth over with mercy’s refurbished zeal

Faith transcends fear’s foreboding as welkin symphonies spill

To drown dread’s dismal goading with thunders of ‘peace, be still’

Exaltation’s hymn overflows before our lifted gaze

The introduction crescendos and sets our sights ablaze

Earth and sky’s voices coalesce, they cannot be ignored

In the Beauty of Holiness we worship you, oh LORD

© Janet Martin

Exaltation’s hymn overflows before our lifted gaze

The introduction crescendos and sets our sights/hearts ablaze...

Psalm 96:9

Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!

Tremble before Him, all the earth.

I Set My Hope on Jesus

 

 

An Evolving Evaluation (of Evidence)

Today's poem began with a 'blush hush/rush' soon filled with workday noise!

 Happy workday, everyone! 

(and my heart/prayers go out to all who wish they could work and can't)

I hope today's poem grants a splash of joy and good cheer!

This poem kind of evolved with the dissolving of daybreak...

from texts from Young Mother...

...from rumble of industry

 

from not knowing where to begin

to count the ways of Evidence of Him...

all on a backdrop of Mercy's evidence renewed...

Dawn’s blush hush/rush fills with workday noise

Nature’s showcase unveils fresh joys

That none can claim with boastful pride

Where colors of the countryside

Like ever-changing works of art

Amaze the mind and thrill the heart

Evoking a hymn, like a prayer

In praise to One beyond compare

Whose ways we cannot comprehend

Whose faithfulness will never end

Whose Word is trustworthy and true

Whose promises naught can undo

Where, as dawn slips on workday hues/shoes

As industry resumes its dues

And motherhood its sacred charge

As dawn unmoors its teeming barge

How humbly wonderful to know

Whose goodness none can overthrow

Whose hope is sure, whose hand will guide

From break of day to eventide

Where nature’s showcase spills God’s heart

In unparalleled works of art

Where earth and sky declare His name

Inviting/compelling us to do the same

A wealth of wonder waits. Ahoy

Nature’s showcase erupts with joy

We hardly know where to begin

To count the frames, we see God in

Creation’s cradles stream and brim

With countless evidence of Him

Making more pitiful the clod

Who clings to denials of God

Making meeker all who believe

Because of the grace we receive

Making gladder the humbler prayer

To He who knows each creature care

© Janet Martin

Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—

his eternal power and divine nature—

have been clearly seen, 

being understood from what has been made, 

so that people are without excuse.

Whose hope is sure, whose hand will guide

From break of day to eventide...

The Beautiful Blessing of Family to Love

It is Family Day in Ontario...

We bring out the best or the worst in each other

Through blood-bond (or bondage) of sister and brother

Of father and mother and uncles and aunts

Of Niece-nephew-cousins, and gramma and gramps

A lineage of names, frames and faces are we

Comprising the faction, that we call family

Fabric work of freundschaft, (relatives) of hand-me-down traits

Of stature, demeanor, chins, noses and gaits

Of quirks we don’t notice or question because

That’s just the way our family ‘does’ /was

A birds-of-a-feather Forever are we

By a genetic tether that we call Family

We banter and bicker, share laughter and tears

Because blood is thicker than water or years

We bear a fond bond, whether near or afar

Of a sense of belonging wherever we are

Because what makes ‘us’ transcends geography

Distance cannot sever cords of family

Of father and mother and brother and sis

Precious imperfection and terrible bliss

A beautiful chaos of ancestral ties

Grandpa Joe’s cowlick and Granny’s blue eyes

A come-from-a-long-line-of-proud pedigree

We are and will always be family

We are much more than mere faces in frames

Or leaves on a branch on a tree full of names

We are love-pray-for-and help one another

We are a thank-you God for father, mother

Where no one can take the place of you or me

When it comes to our part in a family

We gather 'round tables, 'round cradles, 'round graves

We celebrate triumphs and weather grief's waves

And wonder, where in God's wide world we would be

Without the dear people we call family 

Where, pray that we never lose humble sight of

The beautiful blessing of family to love

© Janet Martin

My first family

Photo Sept. 2023

Mom and dad and all ten of us...

(Celebrating my parent's 60th wedding anniversary)

My next family

After 35 years of marriage...

photo Nov.2023

Thank-you, Lord

In All That We Achieve...

 Inspired, in part by a paragraph from this book previously mentioned here

In all that we achieve today, however common its demand

If we approach its come-what-may, with willing heart and open hand

And humble consciousness of holy ground beneath each step we take

Aware of how footfalls compound to leave a pathway in its wake

Then we will not forget to ask, ‘Dear God to purify each quest’

And we will find within each task an impetus to do our best

And face each challenge that we meet with more than self- int’rest in mind

Because, a world of little feet, are following not far behind

Where it is up to us to show, without a shadow of a doubt

Through ups and downs of yes-and-no, Who, what we do is all about

So pray, in all that we achieve, as aftermath of pathways wend

In sacred steppingstones we leave/weave, they lead to Heaven in the end

© Janet Martin

Ps.119:105

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

And a light to my path.

Today's part-inspiration!

below continued from above...

I love how the paragraph below is a metaphor for life!

 

On Living In The Moment

Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met...

Because God is without beginning or end,

there will be no end to goodness!

Sometimes I am guilty of forgetting this,

 falling prey to doleful dread, 

believing the good days are over for good 

rather than finding the good in each day,

and thanking God for it by honoring Him with it

 in every way I can!

Ps.31:19 

(click reference link to read the whole glorious Psalm)

How great is Your goodness

which You have laid up for those who fear You,

which You have bestowed before the sons of men

on those who take refuge in You!

I do not want to stare too long at sanguine scenes in Bygone’s glade

Nor covet echoes of a song, much softer now than when first played

Lord, give me ears to hear What Is before its music disappears

Open my eyes so I don’t miss the font that soon fills yesteryears

Beneath the hand of Time harsh sorrows and raw edges smooth, it seems

Washed by a tide, primed with tomorrows, rolling through a world of dreams

Darling, ere you and I awaken on the other side of This

Let’s be sweetly and humbly taken by the melody that is

For, far too soon Bygone’s infinite isle will claim tunes turned to mist

So, let’s not waste one precious minute while today's lyrics untwist  

Look! morning’s epic entrance thunders with moments we’ve never met

Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet

© Janet Martin

Oh, let’s not grow too old to wonder at mercies not tasted yet...

Dawn's eyelids were heavy with snow-shadows!

It's been a while since Old Man Winter

 lugged out his white-wash bucket and tipped it over the earth...

I almost have First Snowfall thrills!

Goodness of God

For Oh, So Many Ways We Didn’t Dream (That Love Would Be)

Happy Valentine's Day!!💘

But, as I type this greeting

my heart aches for those who, from our vantagepoint

seem to have their love stories cut short far too soon!

It reminds me to humbly treasure the measure of Today 

and all its opportunities to 'love one another'!

John 13:34
A new commandment I give you:

 Love one another. 

As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.

And so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the rose...

Love is full of surprises, no matter what age we reach

Always so many new lessons it seems, still left to teach

For Love is a like a tutor, often testing you and me

With oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would be

No respecter of rank or race, or ‘reason-right’ retort

Love is patient and kind; all other replies fall far short

Thus, we learn to adjust the dust-scaffold of darling dreams

Because we are all subject to the laws that love esteems

Love is a lifelong (not a once-and-done) ladder we climb

As faithfulness fulfills its calling one step at a time

No easy-out, no masquerade, no detour to the prize

Love vexes Best of Dreamers with Lessons in Compromise

‘I’m sorry, dear, your favorite jeans are laundered but still wet’

‘Honey, why do you toss the keys, who-knows-where, then forget’

And why are we so stubborn in love’s sudden tug-of-wars

Instead of letting love be strong enough to settle scores

There is no finer splendor than love, weathered by its toll

Love, such a tender mender of the wounds of heart and soul

And so worth every effort dressed in plain workaday clothes

And so worth every prick of thorn to marvel at the rose

And so worth every task, that, without love would drive us mad

And so worth every up and down that we have ever had

And so worth every sacrifice, to safeguard vows we made

And recognize the precious bloom of ‘Now’ that soon will fade

Love crowns the commonplace with words like ‘friend’ and ‘family’

It treasures every day rife with fresh opportunity

It does not envy, does not boast, it is not proud or rude

And often reaps an awed reward of humble gratitude

Where, in the aftermath of stumbles we begin to learn

(In the light of God’s mercy,) love is not something we earn

But, because of its Author, love befits us faithfully

For oh, so many ways we didn’t dream that love would be

© Janet Martin

The Vows Scene in the movie

Woman of the  Year

Holds great reminders for all of us

loving/living out our own journeys of 

'for better or worse till death doth part'

Are you wearing red?

Asked Jim when he called this morning...

No. I replied, but I'm wearing fuzzy pink pjs with hearts on them

if that counts for something😂😂😍💗

(You know the ones I mean, ladies, right?!

Completely comfy but not much in the line of attractiveness??)

As we chatted about life's Glorious Ordinary,

plus a few extra ups and downs

today's poem gathered steam!!

As youth sheds its green and then middle-age, its gold

something far more precious

than first meets the eye, 

begins to unfold...

I will try to unearth something red to wear for

a very special dinner tonight,

 (no matter what is served at our kitchen table )

because Jim, most often gone on Valentine's Day,

 is planning to be home tonight!

1 Cor.13

 (My Favourite Love Poem)

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, 

I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, 

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, 

and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 

but have not love, I am nothing. 

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, 

and though I give my body [a]to be burned, 

but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; 

love does not envy; 

love does not parade itself, 

is not [b]puffed up; 

5 does not behave rudely, 

does not seek its own, 

is not provoked, [c]thinks no evil; 

6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 

7 bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

8 Love never fails. 

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; 

whether there are tongues, they will cease; 

whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 

10 But when that which is [d]perfect has come,

 then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child,

 I spoke as a child, 

I understood as a child, 

thought as a child; 

but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, 

but then face to face. 

Now I know in part, 

but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; 

but the greatest of these 

is love.

Morning (or Afternoon) Minuet

I needed to head out before I got this morning's post up...

Better late than never😅💗

I 'adopted' a bit of Anne of Green Gables' logic this morning

as I headed outdoors for my morning 'commune' with

my Heavenly Father...

In Ontario we are accustomed to white landscapes in February

making this year's gray-blue-bronze panoramas seem sort of surreal! 

The music of a new day starts to play upon the air

Earth emerges from beneath the soft surge of morning-tide

Where something like a greeting hymn and something like a prayer

Erases slumber’s eulogy from waking countryside

Hope’s precedence persuades us to face forward and look up

Where splendor of mercies renewed compels shadows to dim

And bids us by the grace of God, once more to hoist faith’s cup

And trust Him for whatever spills to overflow its brim

Then sing to Him, whose love anoints/appoints each virgin steppingstone 

And bow before the one whose perfect will, will lead the way

And worship He who shepherds us through valleys of Unknown 

And trust the Hand that orchestrates each moment of each day

The music of a new day crescendos and fills the sky 

A little like a lilting celestial serenade

Or like a welkin minuet that kindles love's reply

With raised voices, to rejoice in this day the Lord has made 

© Janet Martin

Psalm 5:3

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; 

In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.

Psalm 59:16
But I will sing of Your strength 

and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning.

 For You are my fortress, 

my refuge in times of trouble.

I Will Wait For You

Lamentations 3:22-23

English Standard Version

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;[a]

his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.