Stop talking long enough
to let the silence guide you down
all the way to the deep core
of who you are
Stop crying long enough
to let the gentle hand take yours,
and let the all powerful embrace
hold you completely still
The stillness goes ever inward –
it plumbs the internal infinity,
it finds the radiation
that burns through every fear,
releasing all the brightness
of you.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2022
My life is full,
my life is whole,
and from this vantage point
I look back over years
and see that it was always so
My life belongs to goodness,
and only goodness can define
the elements comprising it,
its color, form, and line
If this is simple,
it’s also deep,
and intricate in its design –
this understanding is what I’ll keep
and be forever fine.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2022
I didn’t have to give consent,
although the many voices claimed
I had no choice – this was the sentence –
since it had been passed
I had to go along,
had to live the arc
of that story
I didn’t! I didn’t have to,
and I didn’t do it, did not consent
to play the role, to sink down
(sad or struggling, it didn’t matter)
into the pit
My life is not confined
to that dimension.
I can slip sideways
and step away free.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2022
I looked for a way
to kindle a small fire,
I sought to nudge the glimmering coals
close enough together
to keep each other warm
so that between them
a flame would dance again
Here, too, I seek the dancing flame,
a thing shared,
enough proximity
that we’re reminded
we share this hope
and when we see it in each other
it will rise.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 14, 2022
We settle into the rainy afternoon.
The couch entices napping.
The fire doesn’t argue strenuously
against it. Nothing is strenuous.
Higher purposes await their turn –
they will lift me, if only I will
give attention to them,
take the day in hand,
deliver something.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2022
You bring your origins,
you bring your history,
you bring your hope,
and every day,
you step into the needed work,
finding steady sustenance
in the conversation of mind and hands,
intimate, delighting in each other,
forging steady progress
as they each await the other’s strength
So you are fed
in the joy of work
and in the work of joy
and in the upward flow of light
released by your perception and expression
in whatever medium you work
of what is true.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 12, 2022
The eye of tenderness
can see so small
that it can unsnarl
even your tightest tangles,
and it can resolve your complex dreads
into their elements – can separate
your love from the fear of loss,
your strong desire for good
from the belief that it is doomed,
can find your core of courage
and light it up strong,
can touch your anchored peace
so that you feel it.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2022
Gifts overflowing,
more than transactional,
summoning substance,
your source without end
Open receiving,
more than perfunctory,
gratitude bounding
as light multiplies
This is the wisdom
teaching us how to be –
life demonstrating
the word of the house.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 8, 2022
No aspect of your life
can be left out
when grace touches down,
as it does without fail –
as it answers the cry
of every part of you
to be seen and tended
You’ll feel the seeds of hope
lifting their heads, you’ll feel them reaching
for something you may not see,
and so they show you
the nature of the love
in which they open,
strong, resplendent, free.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 7, 2022
Still walking through the wilderness
exclaiming over still another tree,
marveling at still another vista,
sizing up another rugged climb
Thinking once again
of what there is to tell you,
noticing how nothing
and everything
is new –
could be the same report
I give you every time,
my open eyed surprise at what is true
But I can tell you this –
today, I felt a great calm,
like a still lake,
like deep reflection,
today I felt that everything
is in its perfect place,
and that this truth must surface
in our time.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 6, 2022