Lifetime Learning

 

 

Live going forward

And learn from the back,

Don’t dwell on the past

And what that past lacked.

 

The past can hinder

What the future can achieve

If in the present

You refuse to believe.

 

Undoing is impossible,

What is passed is passed,

Don’t burn your bridges

And stay on task.

 

Lifetime learning

Must be always the goal,

Journey one step at a time

Move from pole to pole.

 

Put God first

In all that you do,

Search His life manual

To find all that is true.

 

Plan for the long term

But walk in increments

And maximize the learning

Of your life’s events.

 

Observe life’s balance

And the tensions at play,

Do not overdo or underdo

Take it day by day!

 

Make some things happen

Do not just wait

And make a positive input

Regarding your fate.

 

Fate does play a part

Yes, I believe this is true

But I also do believe

There is much one can do.

 

We can shape the future

By the ongoing present

Through our acting decisively

And not mere intent.

 

 

Intent is in the mind

But if that’s all intent is

It will not make a difference

To our well-to-do list.

 

The road to failure

Is strewn with good intent

And with armchair critics

That entered no events.

 

Lifetime learning

Is about learning to forgive

And very often too,

To live and let live.

 

Give good counsel

But don’t live another’s life

For such is truly impossible

And causes more strife.

 

Disputes of the past!

Don’t let them eat you out

But do what you possibly can

For a positive turn-about.

 

Be contented where you are

With a view to move on

And once opportunities arise

Press on!  Press on!

 

Stewart Russell © February 12, 2022

 

A Little about Marriage

I know a little about marriage

I guess it’s about time

For having been married 43 years

I must be the marrying kind.

 

I guess given this statistic

You may say I am very slow

But the longer one stays married

There is so much to know.

 

Being a slow learner, therefore,

Is a great advantage for me

For every year I spend with Lyn

Is a collage of history.

 

 

Of myriad bits and pieces

That we are piecing together

Of constantly pleasing one another

And sometimes being a bother.

 

Tensions in our daily lives

Trying to find the right balance

That makes for a meaningful union

Given our deficits and talents.

 

Managing our daily affairs

And choosing the right fights,

Settling them during the daytime

And having fight-free nights.

 

Instructive in this endeavour

Is Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26:

Let not nighttime find you still angry,

In the daytime find a fix.

 

Try not to carry seething anger

Into the following day

For when this becomes the norm

You’ve definitely lost your way.

 

Here are three solid pointers

That have helped me a lot,

You’ll find two of them in the Bible

And the third hits the spot.

 

 

The first one is to leave:

Leave your father and mother;

Leave also your single life behind

And this is a critical matter.

 

Cleave to your wedded spouse,

That one is enough for you,

In that one you have all your trouble;

It’s considerably less than two.

 

Weave God into the fabric:

The fabric of your marriage life

And if not all, I guarantee you will

Avoid most of marital strife.

 

I am no marriage expert

And indeed, I never intend to be,

There’s much to learn in marriage

And much I am yet to see.

 

The same advice I give to you

I’m struggling to take myself

But I do know it’s the best medicine

To guarantee marital health.

 

Thanks to Pastor Winfield Forde

For inspiring this poem,

His advice to leave, cleave and weave

Will keep your marriage going.

 

 

 

Draw your marital triangle

Letting God be at the apex

And as you both draw closer to Him

Your marriage will be fixed.

 

That’s my little about marriage,

I repeat, I am no expert

But from this anyone should see

Marriage entails hard work.

 

Stewart Russell © September 10, 2024

 

The Irony of Life

 

 

It takes sadness to know happiness

Noise to appreciate silence,

Unfaithfulness to esteem faithfulness

And absence to value presence.

 

If there were no darkness

The stars could never shine,

No night time to follow day time

Life would become a grind.

 

How would you know you’re up

If there was no down

How could you tell the difference

Between a smile and a frown?

 

How would any one return

If no one could ever leaves?

How would you explain the concept please

If there was no displease?

 

The long and short of this

Should be clear for all to see

Since it takes all to conceptualize none

Just like to be or not to be.

 

 

Life is defined by its opposites

And their related tensions

And the necessity to strike a balance

Is worthy of a mention.

 

Much of life is a continuum

And therein lies its irony,

A pass today could be a fail tomorrow

Depending on the difficulty.

 

When there are difficult times

Any upward movement is satisfactory,

However, when the reverse obtains

That same progress will never be.

 

A businessman measures his success

By his profit the previous year,

If a smaller profit is made the next year

Then a loss would be declared.

 

 

In actual fact it is not a loss

But only a smaller gain,

Since it is less than the previous year

On the books it becomes a stain.

 

Every one of today’s joys

Is stained with tomorrow's sorrow

Though there is naught of tomorrow

That a man may borrow.

 

Tomorrow does not exist

Yet it preoccupies us today

To worry and fret about its unreality

Is our abnormally normal way.

 

In the midst of life

We are invaded by death

And in its injudicious onslaught

It robs us of our best.

 

We see the irony of life

Displayed in so many ways

Where often the goal posts oft are shifted

Especially in these COVID days.

 

To understand this irony better

Note the following expressions

That arise so very often

In our day to day conversations.

 

 

It was awfully nice of you

To acknowledge my fine mess,

I trust you are not seriously confused

And wish you all the best.

 

I would be terribly pleased

If you could give me your unbiased opinion

On what I considered to be

A most typically weird poem.

 

Seriously funny, not so?

But such is the irony of life,

Note we have only one original copy

A minor crisis, O what strife!

 

That is the only choice

For you to choose between

Which I guess was openly deceptive

Displaying a pretty ugly scene.

 

Would I write a poem like this again?

That is a definite maybe

For all those who clearly misunderstood

Unlike you and me.

 

Parting is such sweet sorrow

But I am voluntarily forced to go,

A wise fool may be unconsciously aware

But only a wise fool would know.

 

Stewart Russell © April 8, 2021

 

Vice vs Virtue

 

 

Vice versus Virtue

Is like evil against good,

Light opposing darkness,

Should not and should.

 

These are the tensions

In our present time,

These are the actors

On the stage of our mind.

 

The apostle Paul

Sets it up really neat

Go to Romans chapter 7

And there have a peep.

 

When I want to do good

Evil presents itself:

Vice stemming virtue

Ruining spiritual health.

 

The sins of the flesh

Versus the fruit of the Spirit:

The Spirit wants control

But sin is my habit.

 

Who will deliver me

From this bed of vice?

If only I yield to the Spirit

All would be nice.

 

The whatsoever things

Like truth and purity

That build a good report

And the things that are lovely.

 

These are the virtues

We should concentrate on

And say to the vices

Vices be gone!

 

Vices like unforgiveness

That stagnates the soul

And suppresses spiritual growth

Like the common cold.

 

Vices like bitterness

That we hold in our mind

Spoiling good relationships

Most of the time.

 

Greed and avarice

Selfishness regarding wealth

The proverbial altar on which

We sacrifice health.

 

Envy and strife

And a poisonous philosophy

Pulling down others

In fits of jealousy.

 

Compare the above

With the following virtues

And tell me, if you will,

Which one is your view?

 

Love, joy and peace

Long suffering and goodness,

A life lived above the law

Of temperance and meekness.

 

For they that are Christ’s

Crucify the vices of the flesh

And the evidential witness

Is a life of righteousness.

 

Vice versus Virtue:

Are you in darkness or light?

Which of the two is winning

In your spiritual fight?

 

I trust it is the latter,

The former spells strife!

Strife is a death option,

Why not choose life?

 

Stewart Russell © February 15, 2022