I looked for a way
to fill myself with stillness
like how the water birds
this early morning
bathed themselves in calm,
and I, watching them,
could breathe it in,
that centering
expansive as the whole pond
and all the sky
and the burnished sun
that rose softly

I needed that later
when the day was muted
and I rode in heaviness
despite the songs
I sang to myself
along the road

It didn’t come right away
but since I asked
and since I waited
and since Life is kind,
by the end of my ride
it came through.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 23, 2019