Settled

Fog from the river rises up
to settle down in blessed rest
between the trees

In between the posturing of progress,
enduring facts of being rest, just like that,
along the landscape

And in the centered knowing
of every heart
rests the latent power
to shine its essence timelessly,
past redeemed, future safe,
life embraced,
umbrellaed in the substance
of the present hour.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 31, 2022

Spherical

Contemplating stars,
mycelium, trees,
the realm of my perception,
and the path networks
of birds, of deer, of insects,
I start to see
we are all spherical  –
awareness emanating from our center,
branches of consciousness
exploring, lacing,
drawing all the rich connections,
sharing the brightness
to light our home.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 30, 2022

In conversation

See these strong shining lines
made of gladness for each other,
hearing of each other’s times,
imagining the brightness that must attend
such a bounty of family ties

I am glad to come rich to the conversation,
able to offer my happy account,
the better to help you feel easy,
the better to mirror sincerely
the glow that your sharing conveys.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2022

Smallest things

I see the smallest things can rescue me  –
a string of lights, an ornament, a laugh,
the space to listen, and the joy of being heard,
remind me of what binds us to our source

Tonight the frogs are back,
singing from the north pond,
tonight my path of hope is reestablished.
Any tatters in the shroud
let light come pouring through,
help me remember where we are
and what I am.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 25, 2022

Underlying light

I consider the brightness
that makes all this possible  –
presence of substance,
primal truth of everything,
molten beneath a very thin crust,
goodness in essence, ready to break through

Look – see how it’s done so
here in these evening moments
where we laughed, and made music,
joined rhythms together,
rode on one sound we collectively made,
celebrated the light

And behind it, the brightness
that makes it all possible,
present and primal,
truth of our substance,
bearing us through our days,
authoring all our ways,
cause of our being
our love and delight.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 24, 2022

Upon the mountains

The beauty of feet is their precision
along the mountain paths,
the way they leap along the stones
and land deftly
each rugged step,
and how they never falter,
for they move in the good news
they are bringing. And they bring
the peace that supplants time,
establishing its own flow
of unlabored unfolding,
each moment holy

The messenger reaps joy
from truth-placed feet.
All who hear the message
bless them, too.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 23, 2022

Boxes

It’s understandable if you decide
to step into the box offered,
draw your feet in, curl up
to find the comfort of a safe place

The daily roads have many boxes,
different places, different shapes and sizes,
some for you, some not,
(the choices fewer when you look closer)

But you could also choose
to be defined  by where you walk,
and how you open out each day,
and how your deep hope carries you
to broader, ever unconfining, views.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 21, 2022

Light within

In my time
I’ve come to find
in every darkness
a light within,
stars shining up out of a well,
bright sheen across the body of a crow,
the steady dawn of truth amidst a maelstrom of confusion,
the fact of worth that breaks the numbness of despair

Even the black silence of coercion
is ultimately proved nothing,
powerless against the light of Spirit,
showing each of us our access to infinity,
sovereignty ours for all eternity.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 20, 2022

The Sun Stands Still

In the solstice silence,
everything at rest,
in the deep and settled pause,
all is at peace

We find it within,
where we are no longer waiting,
having given that up to trust –
trust that needs no brooding,
happy closed eyes of a child with a soft pillow
and a loved lullaby

This we will ride on till morning,
this we will hold through the night,
this will impel our next purposeful movement,
rising with splash in a fountain of light.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 19, 2022

Multiplication

Thick frost crystals after a starry night,
guests  with smiles and eyes that dance with light,
a joy that seems to stream from nowhere
in every gathering of life

I strive to find the right words,
line up the meanings and the feelings
so my intent to bless may be believed,
the whole cloth of my thought received

And in this offering and its reception,
our energy is multiplied  –
this is a key to ending lack,
with every  need for every life supplied.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 18, 2022