This Goodness

This is a slow learning,
to unclasp the grip
let hands relax
let go of trying
to hoard a share of good,
enough, perhaps
to shield me from my fears

This is a slow learning —
in time the breath grows deeper,
there are more before the gasp —
I start to find the space
to take in calm

This goodness is not mine to own,
to pull inside, to hold, to use
to stop the gaps within

Instead this goodness
is what holds me
and sweeps on through,
filling up all the emptiness,
flooding out the fear
as much for everyone
as for anyone
(me too)
slow or fast,
right here.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 13, 2017

Under the Storm

Storm at the windows
keeps us indoors,
wind flinging rain
all along the south side,
white pine bending,
tossing itself back

Some of us find goodness
under the storm,
some of us find it
in the shining of fine days,
proving (though we may come slow
to concluding it)
goodness is everywhere

And though it may seem treasonous
to abandon the system we’ve known —
small brightnesses etched out of darkness,
sadness and fear as defining factors —
in truth, Life wheels itself quite well
in the overarching fact of all goodness

Nothing is missing,
nothing is left undefined,
Life sings through all the storms
and all the clearings,
thus showing itself to be all.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2017

Willing

I am so willing
to learn the way of all goodness!
Let me be vigilant
about the small inner voices
that snarl and sulk
and try to hang onto
constructs that I never wanted anyway

They say they are defending me
but what they are defending
is not me — it’s only all the stories
of my limitations

Where what I am
is the stream of dear belonging
to all goodness, the reflection
of the eternal shining love
I’m ever drawn to

And what I am
doesn’t need defending,
it just needs shining,
just needs my full attention every day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2017

Seeing the Light

window

We will give up
trying to be good
and trying to look good
and trying to justify
relative worth

We will give up
the anxious glances,
the frenzied measurements,
the sad assessments
of us and the world

For we will know
that this good of us
is not of our doing
or our undoing —
It is held immutable,
unsullied,
and will glow triumphant
and enlightening
through all our days.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 8, 2015