Above All (Else)

Jim (my husband) called while I was struggling through the middle of the third stanza of today's poem, and in the course of conversation he remarked that he's driving through a stretch of the north that always feels like forever to get through!!I told him 'thank-you!! that imagery was exactly what I needed to give this poem steam through the middle of it!(Jim is a great conversationalist and I've written many a verse whilst conversing, or, he converses and I interject an occasional 'ugh-huh')😅😂💖 The initial inspiration of this poem was sparked after I came home last night after enjoying dinner at my daughter's home and getting a first-hand reminder of the end of day endurance tests when children are tired and parents are too!Hang in there, parents of little children! it really is worth every lackluster labor of love!Hang in there mother/daddy that feels like you walk or rock, rather than sleep the night away!Hang in there, engineer of eighteen wheels. And we will soon welcome you to warm home fires, Lord willing! Hang in there, dear daughter-son-parent-spouse etc, traveling home after dark after spending precious time with a loved one in a long term care facility or hospital! Hang in there, husband and wife whose marriage ties seem strained to breaking point! God is love! Love never fails! *** I couldn't help but chuckle at the amplified tranquilityof our house after we returned home last night.That forever-stretch of raising youngsters,as I look back feels more like a silk scarfthat slip-slipped through my fingers and disappeared!only Victoria and I left to decorate the treewhile listening to Christmas music...bittersweet!!(for her and me) Above all else, though duty’s dues may seem common and smallAnd in the grand scheme of pursuits, not very grand at allWhere no corporate ladder hails to scale with eagernessAnd no plaque or trophy regales accomplishment’s successWhere no one notes the unsung skills of mundane ministryOr celebrates the daily drills of domesticity Above all else, no matter how we view Duty’s replyIt is not what but Who we do it for, not where but whyThen, in our search to satisfy fulfillment’s siren callWe find, to our surprise, a One-size Reason that fits allFor we will find the kind of wealth that always grants EnoughWhen what we do, above all else, is a labour of love Love is enough to make remarkable, the commonplaceIt transforms life into a miracle of joy and graceIt equips us to weather what loveless motives rejectFor, ‘stretches of forever’ are so brief in retrospectThe miles that seem mundane, thankless, a mess of prayers and tears/fearsSoon meld into the counterpane of yester-days-and-years Love instills wonder, thrills the things of modest recompenseIt fills the world with whirring wings we cannot see, but senseBecause angels of mercy travel on the common beatClad in workday apparel; their wings look like hands and feetAs love fills with thunderous applause, each care-worn mile they trodFor above all, love is the wondrous evidence of God Above all, let love carve a sacred crucifix withinAbove all, fix faith's sight-scarred gaze, on the image of HimUpon a cross, a cross that should have been for you and meHe bore love's brutal albatross to show how love should beSo, lest love grows ungrateful when love seems impossible Remember, love is faithful and will triumph, above all © Janet Martin 1 Cor.13:4-8Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails.