Author: Ian Trimnell

O God, our help and our hope – thank you for the privilege of another day lived with you. Another day to experience your wondrous love and to be in fellowship with each other and the opportunity to share that through prayers, words of encourage and pictures of flowers.  And thank you for the unexpected sunshine...

THE ROAD by Raymond Carver What a rough night! It’s either no dreams at all, or else a dream that may or may not be a dream portending loss. Last night I was dropped off without a word on a  country road. A house back in the hills showed a light no bigger than a star....

THE LIFE YOU COULD BE LIVING (IF YOU WERENT LIVING THIS ONE) by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg The life you could be living aches in its compression, tires of being a spark, an asteroid, a falling raindrop bouncing when it hits. It’s wound tight between muscle and sinew, lodged in the happy gaps of a synapse. It’s fluid...

MOTHER TO SON by Langston Hughes Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’...

Suzanne Richardson-Bailey

Good morning, Cornerstone Friends. One of the things I most appreciate in nature is the changing of the seasons. As we look around us now we can see signs of the beginning of autumn: beautiful, lush red berries, orange and russet leaves on some of the trees, crunchy leaves underfoot, brambles growing by the redways and...

This morning, as we greet and embrace this glorious day that the Lord has made let us begin our prayers by meditating on the words of this beautiful song by Mitchell Hugh: Thy loving kindness is better than life Thy loving kindness is better than life My lips shall praise thee, thus still I bless thee...

PROGNOSIS by Jane Kenyon I walked alone in the chill of dawn while my mind leapt, as the teachers of detachment say, like a drunken monkey. Then a gray shape, an owl, passed overhead. An owl is not like a crow. A crow makes convivial chuckings as it flies, but the owl flew well beyond me...

A CLEAR MIDNIGHT by Walt Whitman This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and the stars. Good morning and welcome to Morning Prayer The...

A SAD CHILD by Margaret Atwood You’re sad because you’re sad. It’s psychic. It’s the age. It’s chemical. Go see a shrink or take a pill, or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll you need to sleep. Well, all children are sad but some get over it. Count your blessings. Better than that, buy a...