Life's Wrestling Match

Oh-ho life’s wrestling match can press hearts hard against the ropes

They reel beneath the body-slamming keel of dreams and hopes

Earth’s four-wall ring of seasons binds time’s wounds with nature’s laws

September’s crickets fling their stippled praises without pause

Time does not weary; only we who struggle and compete

The countdown of moments urges us back up to our feet

Oh, pray that we fight to the point of blood, sweat, prayers and tears

Until the gong sounds and the last round of time disappears

Sometimes the ropes that hold us in are green with sheen of spring

Its referee a peony, flash of tanager’s wing

Sometimes the ropes are cold and startle us and steal our breath

September’s gold rolls like a brave opponent daring death

Oh-ho, life’s wrestling match can catch a crowd-gazer off guard

September’s charm sounds an alarm; left-right, soft-step, now hard

The champion of a challenge does not quit; hope spurs him on

A prize can only be collected when the fight is won

© Janet Martin

Let's Show We Care

   (all I can see when I look at these pictures are the little guys we babysit and how they are lavished daily with hugs, smiles and kisses...)

image source

Let’s share what we have

And dare to be brave

Let’s care with more than the fruit of our lips

Let’s become wild

With the love for a child

And not stop our hurting for them…

with one click

of the mouse

© Janet Martin

What are we doing to show we care,

 and how accountable will we be held?

...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. 

Luke 12:48

Life's Hold...and The Hobbit-hole

After a year of praying, worrying, praying, God's answer to my prayer that Melissa finds a good friend in TO was answered. One of her friend's from here moved there yesterday... they found an apartment to share. Thank-you Jesus, for a day where you were so Present in the move, helping us in so many ways!

 

After unloading all their 'little stuff' while we waited for the furniture to arrive...

 

we took a stroll down-town to see what interests are close by...

 

  Before we left the girls had transformed this cubby into their 'living-room'.

 

 

 

and another corner into a dining-room!

We prayed together that God would fill their little place with His love and light and that the girl's truly sense His Presence and peace...because He is there when we (mom and dad) are not and sometimes its hard to let our 'little' loved ones learn to fly...

 They've dubbed their home The Hobbit-hole:)

Life holds within its cup of Must

So much we cannot know

But this we do if we so trust

God cares and loves us so

Life holds within its leap of faith

Much none can commandeer

But by the power of God’s grace

His peace releases fear

He is the Caretaker of us

His kind gaze does not laugh

Or pause, as we fumble and fuss

He pleads on our behalf

The havoc of sin’s consequence

Yields evil’s bitter fruit

The mercy of God’s providence

Makes possible life’s good

Life holds within its waning spawn

God’s ageless Majesty

His faithful Presence cheers us on

To this; eternity

© Janet Martin

About Her...

Her face has grown familiar with the tender trace of tears

Her heart is like a stronghold held in place by prayers and years

Her hands have learned the art of folding close while letting go

The tug-of-war that tests the best of Her, her joy and woe

She dances while the dew of death wreaths every breath of life

She watches though she will not see the full-fruit of her strife

She labors though Her spoils of toil may seem a humble prize

She runs her race for more than Fame’s delight of hollow sighs

She values words like Family and Husband, Daughter, Son

She cherishes the happiness of smiles;  ‘I love you, mom’

She does not count for nothing, second miles nobody sees

For she has learned how soft and smooth Time seals its reels with ease

Her face becomes a maze of love-lines, glazed oft-times with This

…the silver-lining from the mold of have-and-hold’s keen kiss

But still, she asks for nothing more, for heaven understood

And bent to kiss Her brow and crown Her days with Motherhood

© Janet Martin

We hardly had any 'just-us' days this summer, Victoria commented off-handedly to me the other day.

She didn't see my heart lurch with greedy sorrow:)

Off to make some memories, Lord willing, in the friendship of an answered prayer...I might share more tomorrow. We'll see how the day goes.

Happy, Happy, Happy...September!

Time’s sickle fells hours

Where flower and field

And bent orchard bowers

Shower earth with yield

Man grapples with learning

A yearning-shod chase

Of kind no-returning

His journey, pure grace

…while feet trample ages

Time wages its will

Washing dirt-hurt pages

Until it stands still

Futile to resist it

Its mist-morning swell

Though kindly we kiss it

Insists on farewell

….time’s sickle fells hours

And no one can keep

What never was ours

Flowers and fields sleep

© Janet Martin