The World I've Lived In, God's World: A Potpourri of Poems and Perceptions

By Janice Merle Garside

Have you ever picked up a poetry book ~ with the intention of buying it ~ only to find that nothing seems to make any sense? Within this book you will find sense and common sense and a hefty dose of sensitivity. If you like poems that actually rhyme, you will be delighted. It is a compilation of the author's experiences, lessons, insights and discernments over much of her very long life and is not confined to poems. There are also some short stories of delights, and surprises. It is suggested that you read just a few at a time ~ taking each selection as an isolated experience. Included are spiritual poems ~ poems about cats ~ holidays and family ~ funny stuff and ~ not so much ~ with the many personal stories sprinkled throughout. Hopefully many of the selections will draw you back to them again and again, as you find new meaning that will appear as you traverse through similar life experiences. It is a book of life and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646701117

Book preview

9781646701117_cover.jpg

The World I’ve Lived In

God’s World

A Potpourri of

Poems and Perceptions

Janice Merle Garside

ISBN 978-1-64670-109-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64670-110-0 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64670-111-7 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 Janice Merle Garside

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Prologue

A Spirit Filled Moment

Walking With Our Father

The origin of Transformation

Transformation

Love

Love and Life

Choose Life

Recalcitrant Two Year Old

Heaven Is For All of God’s Creatures

Miracles

Clouds

Expectations

Patterns

Caretaker

Healing Prayer

Ask To Receive

Four Little Snippets

One Perfect Gift

The Gift

Our Father’s Gifts

Peace

The Path

The Pathway

Connections

The Thread of Life

Prepare A Place

Wisdom In His Word

When

Truth

Lies

Tears

Depression

Worthless?

Restoration

Black

The Time to Flee

Holidays

Christmas Day

Christmas Gifts

A Snowless Christmas?

Easter

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Lest We Forget

Family

Mom

Dad

Adversity

Angels?

Ray

Memories

Things

Saved Mementos

Families

Transition

Jan’s Diary

Prelude

My Diary

All About Cats

Quotes About Cats

Haiku

Anonymous Cat Quotes

Angels Anyone?

Kitty At Play

Meow or Mew

The New Kitty Story

Cats Rule

Narcissistic Cats

Our Outdoor Cats

Sam’s Birthday Lunch

Somersaulting Sam

Smart Sam

Sam

Vixen

Adopt A Pet?

Raccoons

My Backyard Aviary

Critters

Critter Musings

The Plan

A Little Fun

Devices

Commercials

The Great American NINE Con

The Universal Con Job

WHAT???

Woes ~ Won’ts ~ Whys

A Matter of Degree

Years Ago

World & Country

The 21st Century

Do You Remember?

Remembering September 11th

People Power

The Biggest Question

WW III

Blue

Common Sense

Epilogue

About the Author

~ this ~ my first and, no doubt, my only book ~ is dedicated ~

~ ~ ~ to all who love ~ ~ ~

Prologue

My understanding of the world I live in. God’s World.

I am a microcosm of my society. What I am is part of what my society is. What society says, how it behaves, what it thinks and what it does, become a part of me ~ ~ ~ and affect me.

Conversely ~ What I say, how I behave, what I think and what I do become part of this/our society. I am admonished to seek and obey God’s Will in all of these things.

Fortunately, there is Good to be found amongst the massive evil of this world.

Good ~ that can be gathered and expanded in great abundance to leave little room for evil.

The Bad in this society ~ of which I am a captured part ~ seems unpardonable. God sees it as redeemable if we repent ~ and contribute to bringing His light to others ~ ~ ~ by example.

In this microcosm state, I am obligated to fulfill a miniscule but vital role in the redemption of the world by all that I say, the way I behave, what I think and what I do. Because ~ each one of us ~ ~ ~ affects the whole of us.

Learning and following God’s Will is paramount to Him ~ ~ ~ because He loves us so.

Janice Merle Garside

As lovingly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

A Spirit Filled Moment

Uncanny feeling ~ the urge to create ~

But words disappear and ideas abate.

I sit at the keyboard and wait and wait.

P’raps it’s not time for a famous create.

Desire to write ~ that many possess ~

It comes from nowhere or somewhere ~ I guess.

Then realization ~ I have been blessed ~

To have been taught ~ accept only the best.

Surprise ~ in a flurry and flash ~ it’s sage.

The right words tumbling on screen and on page.

Thoughts come so quickly ~ too fast to put down.

Where is that vision and what was that noun.

My Holy Spirit has come once again ~

Giving my fingers the path ~ so I can ~

Fashion a message of meaning so true ~

To create a new poem ~ just for you.

Walking With Our Father

~ In His Footsteps ~

The origin of Transformation

Late one night at my office I picked up a pen and tried to put some thoughts into a poem about what my Dad had shared with me about death. A few days before a friend had given me an Easter program from her church that had a life-size Monarch butterfly on a white Lilly on the cover. Ten years before, the year before my Dad had died, he had compared our understanding of death as inadequate as a caterpillar’s knowledge that it would someday become a butterfly.

You see, another friend, a death counselor, had asked me if I had ever talked with my Dad about death. As Dad was then 95 and my mother had died the year before, my wise friend had said that death must be much on my Dad’s mind. So, one day when I was visiting him in his room at John Knox Village, I braved the question. Dad, what do you think death is like? Hardly a topic for a normal conversation and, indeed, our normal conversation ceased. My Dad began to speak, and he spoke for almost a half hour. It was beautiful ~ thoughtful ~ contemplative. I wished I had had a tape recorder. But one phrase captured my heart and I will never forget how he said, "In its wildest imagination, could a caterpillar ever conceive of becoming a butterfly?" (It was a rhetorical question, of course.) For years I had known that I must write something to immortalize his spirit filled understanding ~ the understanding that death was not to be within our realm of knowledge ~ but that it miraculously changed us into something beautiful, something in keeping with the newness to be experienced. Something so much more than we could ever imagine.

That night, in my office, with the beautiful orange Monarch butterfly before me I tried to write something that would be worthy of my Dad’s concept of death. After some failed attempts I left it and went back to work. This happened several times and I was about to give it up as an impossible task ~ when my hand seemed to write without direction. Line after line flowed from the pen. Transformation appeared on the paper faster than my thoughts were being conceived.

Every line has a deeper meaning than I could have designed myself and is perhaps only apparent when the poem is read many times. ‘‘Wiggle here and wiggle there’’ ~ a line that I tried to refuse ~ but was admonished to ‘‘Write it down!’’~ is where, hopefully, realization finally comes that every line is also describing our lives ~ if we live in faith. We do ‘‘wiggle’’ through life. It pertains as much to how our lives evolve as to death. I take credit for holding the pen. The Holy Spirit gave me the poem to wipe away the tears from all of my losses. And, to share our Lord’s comfort with others.

Transformation

A little addendum

to Transformation

Caterpillar yet I be

Still in this reality

Living in this tainted world

Awaiting wings to be unfurled

By His wisdom l am taught

Seek His guidance ’til I’m caught

Tightly in His gentle way

To be with Him ~ this I pray

Janice Merle Garside

~ with the Holy Spirit ~

Caterpillar ~ soft and slow

Crawls on stems ~ above ~ below

Wends his way on many feet

Finding leaves so sweet to eat

Living life ~ one day then next

Nothing happens to perplex

Wiggle here and wiggle there

Just a normal life ~ no care

No wild dreams of what will be

No imagined destiny

No idea of coming soon

Urge to weave a tight cocoon

Wrapping layers spun to hide

Safe ~ secure ~ he sleeps inside

Metamorphosis takes time

Changing mundane to sublime

Slow the shell begins to crack

Quiet pressure from his back

Pushing ~ resting ~ effort great

Wings appear and then a wait

Folded wings begin to spread

Larger than his former bed

Only God designs these things

Out of crawl to flight with wings

Could this be a little light

Indicating my own plight

Die a little ~ live again

Much more beautiful and then

I become what God has seen

He looks at me ~ His child supreme

Gorgeous miracle of God

Butterfly ~ made by His Word

Love

What is this word ~ LOVE ~ with unlimited meaning ~ meanings elusive to me.

Corinthians One ~ in Chapter 13 ~ says it’s patient and kind ~ does not envy.

It cautions ~ and tells us that love can’t abide things ~ like boasting, self-seeking and pride.

It is not easily angered ~ never is rude ~ and records of wrongs? ~ set aside.

Speak truth ~ never evil ~ trust and protect ~ love always has hope ~ persevere.

We’re told there what love is and what it is not ~ Corinthians makes it so clear.

Still there’s that feeling ~ there’s more to be found. I must research all avenues of ~

The emotion concealing description. It’s a blessing that’s more than just love.

The stories of love have been told many times in books and in songs and in poems.

Thousands of years of study and research ~ digesting voluminous tombs ~

Leave us with questions as much as before for the word is a word of deception.

What love means to one of us is not the same to another with different perception.

Not only that, but the word is now used to describe almost any old thing.

We bandy it here and we bandy it there ~