Tag Archives: daily living

Daily Life

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Well, we want to just keep
living our lives,
but the problem is
a little more light
has made us lose the illusion,
and we can’t quite conjure it up

And what we thought were
the solid pillars upon which
our lives rested,
are not even there —
we’re still standing on something
but we don’t know what.

What we thought was true —
very little of it is still relevant
(this comes, we find,
as a relief in many ways)

And we realize we still want
to get on with learning and growing,
which will still be possible,
even if all the landmarks have changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 30, 2017

Slow Morning

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These animal cringings
that keep me in bed
longer than I intended,
that cry out for a little more comfort
than they have,
that won’t move forward,
hunkered in as they are

They are not me. Look,
I can get up,
I can throw off the blankets
and let the remains of dream
roll away.
I can claim the comfort
the little animal wanted —
I can swing myself
into the stirrups of the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 23, 2017

Little Steps

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Let’s ride with glee
on our small spurts of progress,
like the first time, on a unicycle,
I rode three feet unaided —
Yes! This is a milestone —
it’s worth the exhilaration
even if I’m not ready yet
to join the circus

Success builds on success
like seedling leaves that sprout
from cotyledons and grow bigger,
each of them with a potential
new leaf behind its ear

We can celebrate
today’s small gains —
they will propel us
through the year.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 5, 2017

First Day of the Year

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And if we sit around
reading books all day,
one day a year,
what does it matter?

And if we lost our equilibrium
for one long moment,
if we yelled and screamed
and said unrepeatable things
to someone who won’t remember,
does it matter?

We woke up this morning feeling good,
feeling close, well rested, well connected.
Later, we felt the weight
of our responsibility to save the world
through the concentration of our best thoughts,
but that passed quickly,
overtaken by a story in a book
and the putting aside
of most everything present

I may pick it up again
with the grave attention it deserves:
tomorrow gives us another chance.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 1, 2017

Spirit Rising

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lake-light-through-trees

And when the day’s duties
conspire to exclude
the deep reflective pauses,
Spirit still seeps through

In the cooking, in the caring for an elder,
in the ready presence to consult, to listen,
through the low winter light
through clouds, through windows,
and the quick arc of a short day
with its long darknesses at the edges

Spirit seeps into consciousness
like tide rising
because it belongs there
and can’t be left out.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 12, 2016

Claiming Freedom

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carkeek-sky-with-small-moon

Today, again, I claim my freedom.
I have to do it every day,
there are so many crafty voices
that try to whittle it away

Yesterday I claimed my freedom
to be a neighbor. To walk up to the doors
(and some of them felt ominous)
and knock, and introduce myself,
though I’ve lived here for years,
letting my silence overgrow like vines
around the house, binding me
in scarcely whispered fears

Today I claimed my freedom
to be unperturbed in traffic,
to be calm and watch the scene
like so many psychedelic windows
unfolding moving imagery,
and I was free to take it in
with no annoyance, no need
to tensely grip the wheel.
I let the day unreel
what it would reveal

Tomorrow, too, will have its opportunity
for me to further understand how I am free.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2016

A Missed Day

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late-november-maples

Late in the drizzly night
we walked past puddles
while nearly bare November trees
glowed slick in the streetlights

We talked of ascension,
of hopes and struggles,
of resolutions versus being present,
our boots familiar with the dark streets

It had been sunny earlier
but we missed that window,
brief as it was in these
end of year days

It was good, finally,
to rally against darkness
and the onset of rain
to drag ourselves from early sleep
to amble on our customary rounds,
to talk and find our solid common ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 26, 2016

Truth Seeking

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row-boat

Everyone seeks truth.
It is our nature.
Of course our curiosity extends
to all the realms we know —
our curiosity thus proves
the presence of all the realms
in which we seek the truth

To seek the truth is tantamount
to striving to survive:
truth is inseparable from being,
so everything that’s living
lives in truth

And what of lies? And what of self delusion?
And what of petty desperation
that seeks to hide its essence
lest it be found and killed,
and what of that which seeks to kill
in order to conceal the truth?

These cannot live,
they can’t sustain themselves,
they can’t continue to be seen as truth.
Sooner or later, they snuff themselves out
since Truth and Life are one.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2016

In Peace

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carkeek-maple-with-sound

A line on paper, after all,
is not worth getting riled about —
it didn’t cost money, it can easily
be erased or moved

A gesture, too, is just a movement
of a frame, just an expression
of a construct of internal stories
which, themselves (though it might
not seem quite so easy) can be changed

A tone of voice, a whole visceral uprising,
a set of back and jaw, a reaction —
these things are not the person,
they can be released,
for each of us has the right
to grow in peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2016

Home Again

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carkeek-path

Sweet day
returning to waiting circles
laughter and affection
unpretentious talk with folks who understand

Easy sun
after the night’s rain,
watching waves,
thrilling to chords and colors

Relief of being in our own home
despite systems that are down.
We see a way forward
and that is good. We feel into
a way of being present,
and that is even better.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2016