Tag Archives: forgiveness

Forgiven

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In my dream I said I was sorry.
You said it was OK,
and your forgiveness
lifted my spirits mightily

This is the case with much that I remember —
I’m sorry for what I didn’t understand,
but forgiven, for I didn’t understand. There is no need
for dwelling in regret —
new perspective brings a brand new page

So in the light of day
as in the dreaming night,
forgiveness wins —
there’s nothing more to pay
except attention to what is given,
the grace to love,
the fresh-washed day to live in.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 9, 2019

A large place

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You come into this place
where all is forgiven —
this place too big for indignation,
too big for shame,
too big for being right,
too big for having thought
all of those small thoughts
that kept things in their place
and called some things impossible
and other things unfortunate,
that called some people good
and others bad

This place is too big for any of that.
So you look, clear-eyed and amazed,
surprised at what you never knew before
but certainly are sure of now.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2019

A Touch of Grace

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And if you feel you can’t forgive,
can’t be forgiven,
if barbs from old stings
tear at your flesh,
let that body go —
it was never any more
than just a dream

Whatever scars it has
will melt away, along with
all its trappings of identity.
The memories it holds
that waited to be triggered
will melt as well, giving place
to what has longed to waken
to the touch of grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2018

Amnesty

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Every little one
gets to be comforted,
however muddy
they may have become,
however muddled,
however wrong-headed
they may have been
in their self justified crusades —
every one of them
gets to come home

In this new regime
there is no contest,
in this understanding,
nothing less than the absolute worth
of each of them,
the hush inducing glory
of each tiny one, and each great one, too,
set holy in the rightness
of encircling Love.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2018

In the Garden of Belonging

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Let me stay here
in the soft bubbles
of easy laughter
where everything is forgiven
because no harm was ever done
because how could it be?
—Given that we always
have been beloved,
given that we always have walked
in the garden of belonging,
always have owned
the grace to move
softly and deeply
through the landscapes of our lives.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 27, 2018

Forgiven

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We wanted to be forgiven.
We wanted this, without even knowing
who, or for what — some deep shadow
cast within us. Some light
we hoped would shine on all our being,
showing that we were never
what we most feared we were,
and we never needed
to be punished

We have sensed there is such a light
like an orange glow
in a distant upper window,
a window that turns out to be ours,
a place that turns out to be home.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2017

Collective

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In this place of everybody’s tears,
it feels amiss to have opinions —
better to let the collective pool deepen,
better to hear the cleansing music
of the quiet drops
and let the gathered ocean
sigh and shift, pour in, recede,
find its common rhythm,
sweep us up within its cycling waves,
rock us, rock us, till our sobs subside
till our restive motion
finds its restful ease.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 18, 2017

These places along which we’ve laughed

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Getting further down the line
of what I’ve called my life
I find that many things
that seemed of ponderous importance
make no difference at all

Whereas what really matters is
the times we’ve laughed —
the way they make a path
down which it’s easy
to laugh again, catching each other’s eyes
at the top of a giggle,
opening up the corridor
through which joy can bubble —
joy and belonging and some
wonderful forgiveness
for any former blaming

These places along which we’ve laughed
define the ways we know each other,
give the flavor of our family
where we come back, so eagerly, to drink.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 31, 2017

On Further Examination

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I break open the day
and find myself innocent
though many records
have intimated otherwise

My current self
has not been kind
to my former self
in terms of estimation of her worth

But there are signs amid the boxes
that grace was also present,
there was lovability
and she was loved

It’s right to learn things,
it’s right to grow and to outgrow
and with that progress,
forgiveness also has its place,
it’s right to leave some things behind
but still remember
in a fundamental sense
I’ve never changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 16, 2017

Tone Deaf

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Some time afterwards,
the niggling suspicion knocks,
flounces its way in,
sets its baggage down,
and I start to conclude
I have been tone deaf

Certainly not for the first time,
though I had hoped these incidents
had mostly tapered off,
as has my former swift self castigation

I am a little sorry, yes,
but also curious —
what internal constructs
led to the little gaffe, which rolled out
with such ease and comfort?
Where could my mind be, next time,
to reduce the risk of doing this again?

Ah, let me be included
in the grand forgiveness
that Life gives each of us
as we come home,
where we serenely know
we never fail each other
when in the consciousness of being one.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 14, 2017