Tag Archives: freedom

Boxes

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Oak and firs

Everyone has their little box,
everyone has their story
posted on a placard
outside their confinement

(This is the long-tailed macaque
who comes from forests in Sumatra,
this is the gila monster,
king of the Arizona desert)

Upon the walls are painted
scenes to make our diorama,
illusions of our native habitat,
jungle depths in two dimensions

If we sit sad in our little box,
it’s not because the picture is inaccurate,
if we scratch away the paint,
it’s not wonton destruction of our paradise

Eventually we are forced inward
to grasp the Mind-power
that has the key to see us home,
sees us clear beyond the dream
dissolves the box, and finds us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 4, 2016

Knowing You

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smell of ocean

Ah, let me not know you
according to the little box
you have created for yourself,
however sunny its windows
and engaging its points of views

Let me not think
we can only know each other
if our boxes haply interlock.
We are so much grander than that!

Let me know you by the
bright winds of your thought,
the way you meet the broad air
and the smell of ocean,
Let me know you by your tender observation
of that which captures your delight,
by what you come to understand,
and what your hands master

Let me not even require connection
to know your worth,
Let the free ranging of your being
give me joy
for whatever span
it falls across my day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2016

Jubilee

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lagoon reflection

This is the jubilee,
and all debts are forgiven.
Nothing that has weighed heavy
on your sense of worth,
nothing you have tallied,
no way you were measured
and found wanting
gets to stand

Consider the sheer brightness of it,
like sheathes of water falling down mountains,
like the water-colored silence
where all clamor ceases,
like the clarity that fills your face
after the water splash:
in this moment, you are free

None of the acts or reactions
you thought had trapped you,
none of the ruts
you thought defined you,
none of the bad choices
you thought required atonement
have any mark upon your being

This is the jubilee
where you start with
what you now see
you have always been.
All debts are off. Begin.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 2, 2016

My Choice

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sovereign trees

Today I choose sovereignty.
I will take the time
to sit down into this truth,
to feel the weight of it,
to feel the power.

No one else is here
in my consciousness,
no one to declare that I am helpless,
no one else to set up obstacles
it says I must surmount,
no one to lay blame,
no one to say I don’t have control
of my being

Yes I surrender
to something larger
than what I think of as myself.
I don’t surrender that surrender
to anything else.

I surrender to the Allness
and take up my sovereignty
in the true reflection of the One.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 29, 2016

Simple Science

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outfall

Lack of a stream bed
will not stop water
from flowing down

Lack of a plan
will not stop love
from carving its way
through and around
every obstacle

Lack of lessons
will not stop dance
from cleaving to the music,
moving bodies in ways they hadn’t thought of,
hadn’t known they could

And no tale
of loss, of separation
can stop the full expression,
intricate and bold,
of everything you are
from shining forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 12, 2015

Flying Lesson

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flying lesson

I knew from dreams
that it would be effortless,
guided by thought and not mechanics,
and that every cell of me
would be awakened, would be exclaiming,
over and over, how free, how right, this feels

I knew that there would be no fear.
I knew I’d feel companioned,
so closely held and guided
by the Truth with which I gratefully commune.
I knew I wanted this, with all my being

What I didn’t know
was how close at hand this is —
not something lost to me
(at least until I walk a span
wherein I am defined
by some corporeality,
wherein I am confined to tracing
mostly pre-determined, fear-laced paths,
wearily, from birth to certain death)

I didn’t know I didn’t have to wait —
that this reality of who I am,
equipped and fully knowing flight,
has been here all along,
simply awaiting my lift-off.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 24, 2015

Self reflection on struggling with this month’s book club selection

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bookclub bookIt wearies me to read of World War II —
puts me to sleep —
the plans and strategies, initiatives and blunders
Yet I get caught up hoping for “our side” —
I wonder . . .

Though I’ve been too sophisticated
to be self-satisfied in comfort, in my privilege,
though I’m aware how very far
this country is from free,
What have I risked
in my armchair condemnation
of the bland rule of corporatocracy?

How am I strong?
How does my daily life uphold
a sense of freedom, justice, decent life for all?
Where is my courage?
And how would I fare
if we were faced with homeland war?

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2015

The First Commandment

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dawn

You are not held hostage
to the god of blight,
the god of dread and loneliness,
the one who says you are unworthy

When you are set free
There’s one imperative:
Don’t bow down to any law but good

Your goodness
and the blessedness of everything
is the one thing to hold to —
That will make you feel
cozy in the darkness
and golden in the light,
impervious to all incursions
on your inner fire,
inspired by the steadiness
of Life’s care.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2014

From the Liberation Handbook

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feet

We find that people
will heatedly defend
their right to be enslaved,
will boast of how much power
their enslaver has, compared to others,
how thoroughly they make them suffer,
how everyone should rightly
be subject to the same

We find that these
will not take kindly
to suggestions that they could be free

When this occurs,
go softly —
You’ll win no cases arguing against them.

Sit them down. Wash their feet.
Let them feel the gentleness
of your caress.
Let their toes —
just their toes at first —
stretch tender into freedom.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 19, 2014

Testimony

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testify

No internal tyrant
can stand against
the law of Love

There are no bargains,
nothing to be bid against yourself,
nothing to be bought,
no wily devil
with whom to gamble
for your soul

You have the right
to remain silent
and let the quiet
truth about your being
testify

Love ensures your innate worth,
outweighs any evidence
the tyrant musters,
Proving
the tyrant is not you
and you are never called
to be its voice.
Your love will take the stand
and you will win.
We’ll see you claim your freedom
and rejoice.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 23, 2014