Tag Archives: forgiveness

Foot washing

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And if we come to find ourselves
soiled beyond all recognition,
bound and twisted
by the world’s oppressive logic

If we feel betrayed, bamboozled,
bankrupt, if we feel the huge mistakes
we’ve made were baked in, embedded
in the vast array of lies that we grew up with –

that is good news. It shows us separating
from what we thought we were,
and, following the feelings down,
we’ll find ourselves,
ready and able to be clean

For starters, we can wash each other,
bathe each other in forgiveness,
use the vision of what we are
to see the same in them,
let their clear sight of us
help set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 19,  2021

Forgiven

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It turned out that I, too,
was able to cash in the chip,
was able to fall into the thought
that transcended the problem entirely

In my mind I could see you washed clean –
not needing reform, not needing
torturous penance to pay

And none of the tokens
I may have had stashed,
none of the tallies of wrongs to be righted,
needed to be redeemed  –
they were gone  –
the great hole where they had been
was filled with light

I was silent for a long time
pondering this,
feeling the space within me
so much larger
than I ever thought I was.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 3, 2021

A lesson on listening

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How many times,  today,
can I remember
to stop,.to stoop,
to write on the ground?

So may I notice
there’s a choice besides reaction,
a way my pause
can stop a wave of wrong

Let me not react
to what I see or hear,
let all my actions
flow straight from Spirit
and grant to each the grace
to find a place to turn
and realign their actions with their truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2021

Forgive us our debts

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I strive to forgive
as I would be forgiven,
because it is the same debt,
the same fault –
what I see in the other
and what I find in me

And it’s the same grace
that lifts us both,
erasing the offending image
from my perception,
as criticism in myself,
as what I criticized
in someone else

We both are free,
and I have done
no more than what’s required  –
no great act of virtue  –
just what saves me
and may save
someone else as well.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 19, 2021

Gentle Them

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They wanted to be washed clean.
They didn’t want to be the person
they now saw themselves as,
they wanted to take back their choices,
wanted to identify
with the other side,
wanted to be able to come back in,
didn’t know how

And so you had to go to them,
your hand stretched out,
you had to go and wash their feet,
you had to gentle them
one by one,
leave the door open,
wait to see when they’d come in.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 5, 2020

Forgive, forgive

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I was too comfortable
as a half person,
willingly framing my merit
in contrast to someone else’s lack,
loving the feeling of being right,
of being in the club
of those who know

Even though, most often,
I found myself left out,
locked on the shadow side
not understanding why,
not seeing how that shadow
was of my own creating,
a function of dividing things in half

Forgive, forgive, forgive me
for the pain I caused my children
(for my own pain. I can effortlessly laugh)
Forgive, forgive –
and I will do the same
in every place I see to,
in every place I can.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 29, 2020

Down to the River

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Let’s all go down to the river –
now I understand
why people travel there to pray –
there’s no stain on any of us
too set in to be washed clean

The current is strong
and the spring is so pure
that every single thing
can be absolved,
every misstep forgiven

We will look up through wet eyes
and we will see each other,
maybe for the first time,
we’ll recognize, in each other, who we are –
the ones who only ever wanted
to be love.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 13, 2020

The Way of Heaven

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In the way of heaven,
not one of us is judged
for our bumbling efforts
to make our way on earth

And no one is rewarded
for being the high status clown –
each one of us is laughable
in our lowdown or our haughty way

We all are loved –
loved even while laughed at,
loved beyond laughter,
loved to the point of awe, of tears.
It is our disapproval that gets laughed away –
no one is disapproved of here.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2020

Tiny and Huge

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There may be signs in heaven
and there may be signs in the earth,
and in the end all the little things
that people thought should blow over,
that people told themselves and others
shouldn’t matter
will turn out to have weighed
a great deal,
shaped the bends and twists
of a life,
a way of holding oneself,
a way of talking,

and these tiny huge things
will be brought up for consideration,
these tiny huge things
will be healed.
There will be forgiveness,
there probably will be tears

And there will be
a new lightness
about the shoulders,
a new softness
about the eyes

All the predicted signs
will turn out not to matter,
but these tiny and huge redemptions will.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2020

All the same

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This may seem infinitely different
but it is all the same,
the binding loops of fear
are not distinct, there is no
relative virtue in the systems
that hold us down — one pathology
is just as haunting
as another

We can find comfort, then, perhaps,
in what we share,
stop putting ourselves down,
forgive each other,
and in the space that makes,
we’ll come to see
it is the same release
that frees us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 7, 2020