Tag Archives: freedom

Waking

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Am I, even still, in deep dream?
Or am I slowly waking?
is it possible all this could be
just what it seems,
or are we long mistaken?

My fumbling hands try to determine
what is freedom here, and what is chains.
I find I’m bound by what I thought was comfort,
I find I’m freed by my internal reins

And what may seem a heaving shift of landscape
may be the rift of an illusive scene,
and what may seem a fearful theft of power
may lift us up to finer, lucid being —
to grasp and taste the source of true delight:
illumining the universe with light.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 8, 2017

Reflections on Freedom

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Freedom in small pockets
like sky in puddles
still feels expansive

The possibility
of an evening free of caregiving
feels buoyant,
even if our only outing
is to the grocery store

It’s hard to fathom
being fully untethered,
and useful to remember
what happens to kites
when their strings are released

Reminding us to build a solid anchor
that can lend lift to our flight,
reminding us to base our liberty
not on our circumstances
but on our love.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 27, 2017

Bridge Builders

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Thank you to all bridge builders,
for my world was small,
I was cut off by where
the land had melted
or fallen off — however it was
that left me separate,
on my little floe,
the arcs of my thought
cut off from sharing
because so many no go zones
surrounded me

Thanks to the bridge builders,
now I can, if tentatively,
find the way to share my truth
without igniting someone else’s shame,
without triggering their anger
or their censure

And so my world gets larger
and my joys do too —
I feel the lift of this enhanced communion,
this openness of mind
that comes from how we now can see each other
clearer, more fully,
and we can range more freely
on what now is common ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 15, 2017

Our Stand

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hawthorn-and-cottonwood

We stand on holy ground.
You can feel it through your feet,
how it isn’t about this place
(opposed to any other place)
but it is about this place,
this here, connected by all points,
the way the feet of everyone
who touches down
are holy, drawing up, as they do,
all the sacredness of earth

As we stand in this place
we will not be moved.
In our holiness
we cannot be enslaved.
A thousand efforts
to catch us up
will just fall,
and we will stand as free
as vapor, as wind,
ever only responsive
to the Love that breathes us.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 21, 2016

Once

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sound-and-mountains

Truth is so potent
you only need to see it once.
After that, all the constructs
that were called right
are seen as powerless,
are seen as shams.

But if you haven’t seen it
you may be fooled.
You may think good
just means compliant
or sanctioned by the current tyrant power.
You may think you’re in
a zero sum game
in which it is a constant fight to live

If we don’t know truth
we need a savior,
someone to show it to us once.
Once we’ve seen it we’ll be free —
That will be enough.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 19, 2016

Lessons

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morning-snow-10th-ave-ne

These things are revealed to me
day by day:
the freedom that is possible,
and, too, the webs that trap us
and trick us into actions we don’t want

None of us desire to oppress each other,
none of us desire to offend,
none of us desire to be stupid or obtuse,
each of us would rather be a friend

We feel the need to clamor to be heard,
we feel the need to strike back when we’re slighted,
we feel the need to see the balance tip toward justice,
we wonder how the others
can be so benighted

Such thoughts don’t free me, though.
Nor will any resolution I can make.
Let me attune to everyone’s desire
to be free to love. Let my life
show them that they are.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 9, 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

Instruction

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Sun,water,willow

In humble obedience
I loose myself
from the bands of my neck,
I rise
I stand up
shake myself free

What missive is this anyway?
What authority so advocates
for liberty? What judge commands
that I serve no penance,
that I be simply released?

What instruction is this,
that bids me fly on my desire
and soar up quickly
to infinity?
That bids me walk unburdened
from any self-induced
or generational weight

Shake yourself from the dust,
it says. What will this mean for me
in each new day? What worlds
I will master, if I but cleave
to this direction!
What songs I’ll sing
in the joy of fresh discovery!

©Wendy Mulhern
August 23, 2016

Freedom Prayer

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Katama shadow selfie

Make me new, each day,
remind me of the bright strength
that waits, quicksilver, for me to ride,
always safe from any efforts
to frame it stiff, subvert it,
remind me of the over-welling love
that floods out all attempts
to make it small

Not what I own,
but what is mine
by virtue of belonging
in all that is,
not what I thought I was,
but what I am,
ever surging with the infinite.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2016

Offering

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Shoreline sky

I will bow down
in order to take off,
I will dip into the slip stream,
I will rise swiftly, pulled up
by the climbing current

Each day, to do this, I will sacrifice:
I will give up my fear.
I will slip it off my neck, over my head,
I will lay it down. Thus unburdened,
I will be ready for the updraft,
when it comes. I will stretch my arms wide
to take it in, to revel in the sheer expansiveness
of flight

I will remember:
humility is light and pliant —
it is no pain to carry,
it is so much better
than all those splintered beams,
those sharp shards,
those things I used before
to try to build myself

I bow my head
to receive this blessing,
I serve this truth
in order to be free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 5, 2016