“…Grateful…”

Grateful 

Each family leaving, the struggle to breathe 

Winded, the air escapes my lungs to the sound - grateful!

I take a deep breath in, in, in…

Revitalized by the lives we have seen been around

Family now becoming “the only way I know how to breathe”

“And yet I can’t forget the days of old, the days I’ve heard so much about; I fix my mind on all you have done..” 1

The quiet morning turns to the chattering of voices, to a rambling up and down the stairs, to breakfast replenishing the youth,

Kids and crafts, grandkids so distracted by what they want to do next, life keeps pushing at them, pushing at them

Wood fire, ever burning and crackling, 

Leaning with life tiptoeing the banister

Laughter, ballgames, and the cheers heard in the warmth, in the background 

Dinners together, holding life itself

Finest China, from generations past, their faces, line the table places

Food, glorious food, so abundant -grateful 

Scorpacciata,2 (pronunciation) eating, living, what is in season before it disappears

Life’s skits remembered years ago and now new skits done and plays acted

Evening and the night we never want to end goes on with laughter, and “two words”- always grateful!

Today’s a good day 

So many firsts we’ve seen in this “time on earth like a shadow”

Each child and grandchild’s picture albums,

Now they study their own, pictures years past, eyes amazed as seeing their earlier days

Celebrating, passing on the story

The first Thanksgiving for our newest today 

Her smile warms our souls to grateful, savoring clothes, dressed for the season

Who says distance keeps apart

Today is a good day, a bright day

Not a shadowy day

Grateful day when miles apart seen close in our hearts 

“Sons like healthy plants as they grow and mature,

Daughters like corner pillars that decorate a palace..” 3

Faithful love, like the sun rising, comes so easily to family and freely to all.

"When the sun comes up, satisfy us,

before the day has passed us by

Before our hearts forget all your goodness

Satisfy us with Your love" 4 

Grateful, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta 

About this poem: Grateful is a poem about the anticipation of family times together, and the leaving when we feel the down and hope for the next time! During Thanksgiving, or any Holiday, families join together for lovely, cherished times. Although at same time working through struggles of any-kind; financial, emotional, physical, family problems, and mental struggles. Yet, each sun rising, creates the new opportunity to come together to celebrate all the days we are alive and to help each other in these times. “Consider Him our hiding place. Our shelter is alive.” 4 

1. Psalm 143:5  (VOICE)

2. Scorpacciata is a commitment to eating large quantities of what is in season before it disappears.   

     Read More: Word of the Day: Scorpacciata - Food Republic

    Clothing-really savoring different types of clothes that are especially appropriate for a given season

    Scorpacciata: Savoring Seasonal Fashion Like Food (gentlemansgazette.com)

      https://lunamag.com/fashion/three-adorable-timeless-baby-clothing-brands/

3. Psalm 144: 12 (VOICE)

4. Psalm 90 (Satisfy Us with Your Love)

     Psalm 90 - Worship Initiative

Grateful link to reel

“time and memory join…”

 

 

Time and Memory Join

“It’s like the morning light,

The sun rising on the cloudless morning”1

You’ve been to the place where time and memory join

Something, someplace, a smell or taste 

The town where we grew up

Part of me wants to go backwards in time

Turning around to touch the past

Part wants to keep going when you feel like turning back

The sound of fall leaves under foot

Or leaves blowing in a brisk autumn breeze 

Noise of mowers and leaf blowers on a sunny fall afternoon

The whiff of food from the kitchen in the backyard 

Freshly made bread

Fresh pressed coffee

Life was going on

Some awful things, and some dazzling

Regret for the things not said

Remember those in an unforgettable life for us, 

Thankful for meeting them, or knowing them 

Sojourners, our time like a passing shadow

Family Thanksgivings, Christmases, birthdays and any day together 

Times change, the universe changes. 

“Are we still the same people are the people around us the same”

The kids table, the laughter, 

the dead silence when adults come through swinging doors 

The ever-replenished vegetable tray and fridge filled with soda 

The afternoon and time till dinner feels like days, as time does sometimes

Wind chimes echoing a sound, a joyous Thanksgiving, 

Farm bell rusted from the years, ringing it, eyes squinted,  

Rust falling from our eyes like the time that passes,

Down our cheeks as we dare to look up

The downstairs family room, old toys remarkable treasures to today 

The warmth of the chimney, comfort, and smell of cranberries cooking

Simmering in an heirloom white enamel pot

The spare room an art museum, orderly and still with pictures lining the rail

Holiday trinkets, designating the place setting, of many carefully chosen 

The smell of the cedar deck, familiarity, and the sound of the swinging screen door- Family -as it sounds closing

Near the garage, that freshly smells of Life as we will know it as time joins and memories live

It said the time flies, but without memories there is no time

Memory glues the past and the present together.

Time just doesn’t exist “out there,” 

but depends on us to preserve times together 2

Everything is change

The swiftness of all that exists and it's coming into being 3

Memories, God like a weaver of heaven and earth 4

Time and Memory Join, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta 

About this poem: Time and Memory Join is a poem about how our memories provide a way to preserve the past by connecting to the present and providing hope for the future. Photos from the past are one means I see that this can happen. Many time old photo albums or boxes of pictures are stored away and could mean nothing to us but then if they would vanish due to fire or flood, they would mean everything to us. Recalling times from years or decades past can rekindle love for those we have had in our lives that made life worth living and revitalize love and joy in the lives of those we currently have the gift of experiencing life together. - Joe Holuta

1. 2 Samuel 23:4 VOICE

   "Is like the morning light,

        the sun rising on a cloudless morning,

        and the shining grasslands brought up from rain.”

2. How Our Memories Hold the Key to Time - Our memory of events glues the past and the present together.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/biocentrism/202111/how-our-memories-hold-the-key-time?amp

3. The Daily Stoic for November 15th, “Everything Is Change”.

“Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river’s unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.23

4. Psalm 134:3 VOICE 

   "May the Eternal grant you His blessing from Zion,

    God, the weaver of heaven and earth."