Tag Archives: daily living

Equilibrium

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Let your peace return,
spiral inward, homing
There is no perturbation
that can mar its coming

In your internal quiet
the steady pulsing
has never ceased
This reassertion of itself
it does with ease

Outside, the winds may buffet you
May tease along your furls
Try to unravel you
Surge, hiss, seethe
Set you flapping, fraying
Worry at the edges of your poise

But underneath
The currents run their course
untouched by surface winds
And the soft voice
that’s anchored in the truth
of who you are
is still here
and it will spread its deep calm
in strong and tranquil rays
across your sphere.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 22, 2012

(Picture: Wind bowl, Jennifer McCurdy.  Photo by Gary Mirando)

Cuddle Your Curmudgeons

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Cuddle your curmudgeons
Lay their heads in your lap
Stroke their hair
But do not take their frowns into yourself
Don’t match their myriad complaints
with irritations of your own,
frustration since you just can’t make them see —
For if you do
you mirror forth 
that same old bitter world
that you so want to tell them isn’t real.

Cuddle your curmudgeons
whether they live within you
or are people who in some way
share your life
For if you do, then day by day
you’ll show them
Life’s more than disappointment, stress, and strife.

Cuddle your curmudgeons
For they are tender souls
They need to know your care
is unconditional.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 20, 2012



Thought Channels II

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Don’t have much to say

I must sit and wait
till my internal waters settle down
The turbid sediment, roiled up
from stream beds used to quiet flow
from banks above where waters mostly run
Must make its way
as far as it must go
till it can clear.

Then I’ll see
just how the course has changed
What views will stay the same
What places where my thoughts and hopes once dwelt
will be no longer fed
and so dry out
What unexpected new course I might find
of love to feed and occupy my mind.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 14, 2012



Counsel

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I can’t tell you what it’s worth
to work alongside someone
steady repetition, finding rhythm
common effort toward a common goal
getting grimy, overcoming awkwardness
gaining growing comfort in the job

I can’t help you choose
whether to engage
in this thankless task of working with your dad
who will not thank you, who won’t be counting points
but will slowly feel companioned by your presence
And if it’s not done willingly
you might as well not bother
might as well go hang out with your friends

I know that it’s worth something
but I can’t tell you what
I don’t know what it’s worth to you
I don’t know what you’ll get
I don’t know when you’ll know what you have gained
You’ll choose, and maybe later understand.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 12, 2012



Lifelines

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Many years ago,
a dozing vision told me,
“You have a lifeline to a star.”
I sat up, alert, obscurely comforted
that any chasm I might face 
could hold no threat
and that no danger loomed
of finding my life dull and flat
I had a lifeline to a star!
and it would lift me up
across light years and eons
to my dreams

Little did I know
I have so many lifelines —
distant stars the least of them —
right here
Wind touched willow singing in the sun,
Gentle currents sliding softly,
All the gems of eyes that can connect
are lifelines holding everything together
I move and feel them pull against my chest
Inviting me to heft them, find their swing
and catapult myself
in heady, death defying joy
hand over hand along their awesome web
through this bright day.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 11, 2012



Good Night

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Sweet bright day 

draws to its close
Companionable shadows
bring me in
to intimacy’s secret sentences
The moon that tracked 
across the daytime sky
now sleeps, and leaves the cool night
to the stars

Inside the house, the ticking clocks
prepare to stand their vigil
The noises of the day retreat
to leave them looming
It’s my time to surrender
so that dreams can have their sway
as we ride swiftly
through the curve of night
and on toward day.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 10, 2012



Drifting

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Lapping over my consciousness

like waves of incoming tides,
Cross-currents weaving
between each others phases,
The soporific influence
of three fronts:
The lateness of my sleeping
The coldness of the day
The dream-like memories
of last night’s celebrating—
Doubled rhythms
concatenate along the line of waves
So I have drifted
and the forward march of progress
has been arrested
attention sifted
and the beach-ward wash of thoughts
bobs there suspended
Till some renewed resolve should lift me clear
Return me to my traction on the shore.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2012



photo by Casey McCurdy

Reconciliation

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Consider reconciliation:
It seems a miracle
to have a change so radical
not just the filling of a black hole
but actual radiance
a star that burns 
with joy as precious treasure
in the place of former pain

This shows the fact that love
though misdirected, sent out
clothed with barbs that tear —
expectations, disappointment
exercise of will, manipulation —
in the end, will do no harm
for in the time of reconciliation
all the hurt dissolves
and what is left is love

This at least is what I hope
in light of all the harm I may have done
I hope my love will still remain
and all the hurt be gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 1, 2012


Legacy

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for me and you, and for our parents

You don’t need to be sorry
about your legacy
You needn’t doubt
the impartation of your gifts
These things have never stood
on your performance, your success or failure

Sure as the stars
The light of your being
has sent its beams
and the continuity
of your essence
still streams
steadfast across light years
timeless and unchanged

Whatever gifts you tried to package
Tried, with fumbling hands
to deliver to your children
Whatever they have said
or misconstrued
or failed to see
Your light has always shone on, true

And always shone, as pure
in their bright being
Nothing you have done
could dim it
Nothing you didn’t do
could ever let it fail

It’s what you are
that blesses them
that always has —
Not something you determined —
Something that was given you
before the world began
as it was given them
Rest easy 
for your love
has ever been enough.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2012



Lullaby for Edward

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Spirit current, take this man
Move as him in light and sound
Bear him on a journey of remembering

Fill the hollow of his soul
Let him know himself as whole
Coursing joy and steady strength engendering

All that he has been since long before the dawn of time
Let it flow through him in a reverberating chime
Bring him through the shadow of these weary days
Fill his heart with laughter and his lips with praise
Let him fly in surety that everywhere he’s roamed
He’s always been in your embrace
And so forever home.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 17, 2012