Tag Archives: grace

Following

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True leadership
shows me how to follow
the liquid love that flows
under the surface,
the light that glows through
cracks in our illusions,
the course of which transfigures
everything we thought we were,
everything we thought we knew

We may have said
our life is crucible
for this appearing
but perhaps more accurately
this appearing is our life —
this pure substance
not only powers everything,
but is the everything,
all we ever hoped for,
what we’ll always be.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 5, 2017

Walking Free

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There isn’t anything you need to do first.
You don’t have to pay a debt,
explain a misstep,
get somebody else to say they’re sorry

You don’t have to go down corridors
of what happened
or why you or someone else
made certain choices,
or what might have happened,
had you chosen different

And you don’t need to fix
a broken system, don’t need to
proclaim its flaws till someone maybe hears,
don’t need to suffer
to prove how wrong it is

The light of you doesn’t require
any of those fuels, nor can any of those things
obscure or snuff it.
You can walk free
in your divinity, your wholeness —
Look up, set your feet, and go.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 28, 2017

Weather

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The weather in mind
is the only weather,
so I am finding, as the rain
pauses after a steady night,
as I consider what atmosphere
will greet the old man
as he emerges
after a night of interrupting
our sleep (and his) many times
with bed changings and redirection

Surface cheer won’t hide
a grumbling interior, nor can
the lack of words, heard or spoken,
prevent the sunshine
of a deep welcome

This is my lesson for today,
which I will take out
into the overcast,
which I will shine into
any dreary places,
which shining
will make my day.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 15, 2017

Rebalancing

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Someone called it a wolf moon.
I saw it mostly hidden,
a glow behind clouds,
the clouds moving like
cauldron bubbles,
the moon like something forming

I emerge silent,
not wanting to tell anyone anything,
at least not now,
wanting to listen
and not to teach.

These are the times of rebalancing,
coming back for the completeness
to embrace me tenderly,
showing me how.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 13, 2017

What I Stand On

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Things can happen
that will make you give up thinking
you have any say
in the design and development
of yourself, your body, your character

Which can be good, because then
you won’t keep thinking
you should have done better
or that you deserve to suffer
or at least not live as well as you would
if only you would do better
for yourself

The day you realize
it’s entirely out of your hands,
it’s crucial to also know
the One whose hands it’s in
never wants you to suffer,
never uses pain as a tool,
always intends your full delight and satisfaction
and is delighted and satisfied with you

Then you see
no pain can win,
no disability can triumph.
you are able, head to toe,
you are loved, spine to sky,
your are held in the open space
of your belonging,
before you even start to try.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 11, 2017

Every Flight

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No flight is without grace.
Though raucous caws may mark
disputings, though there may be
ungainly pecking orders, ruffled feathers

Still each one finds the gentle cushion
in the rush of forces they are one with
as they rise and dip with expertise
and no negotiation,
casting themselves effortlessly
into the stream, borne up
just as they expect

The scheme of everything
holds each in place,
no flight, however brief,
is without grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 7, 2017

Redemption

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hand-and-heart

I want to tell about the way I feel,
I want to tell about how quickly
the circle of peace spread through me,
how warm and safe I felt,
how the glow reached in powerfully
to light up all the places in my past
that had been sorry,
to make them right, to fill them up with joy

I didn’t know till then that my redemption
could reach in that far,
but now I see
it had to cover everything,
had to halo everyone,
for no one can remain outside
the all-embracing Truth in which we live.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 11, 2016

Our Ride

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blackberryhawthorncottonwood

The key perception
is knowing what we ride on,
what holds the rolling forces
through which we move,
what keeps us full and vital
and in play

Then we’ll know it’s not dependent
on anything except the one infinity,
and how we’re held in sweet divinity,
wedded to the brightness of our days

And we won’t be frightened
by threats that we might lose
our source of comfort and protection,
or that the place where we belong
could fall away

For then we’ll stand up strong
against whatever may claim power,
ride steady and exhilarated
through the fray,
showing by our lives
the nature of our strength,
showing with our love
the winning way.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 17, 2016

How We Win

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seagull-at-carkeek

You never were
that lost and lonely soul
that fought back, kicking,
that raged and spat

You never were
that desperate, huddled one
that squeezed, eyes shut,
against a tiny crack,
too small to justify,
to big to hide

You’ve always been beloved,
you never needed to atone,
and all the demons
that wrought all kinds of havoc
in your name
must shrivel, powerless
before the truth that you can claim

This is how we win —
soul by soul, to patiently restore.
This is the beginning
to which we now return —
so let it stand,
so let us soar.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 6, 2016

Kindness

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a-few-bright-leaves

Let the light of kindness
shine upon us all
now in the low time of the sun’s angle
when momentary gleams offer
bittersweet awareness —
a few bright leaves among the bare branches
lit up against the dark clouds

Let kindness be the warmth
upon the tangled coil
of hunching inward against the cold,
let it glow upon
the laughter stretched too thin
to counter tension

At the touch of kindness
we can uncurl,
stretch out the places that were cramped and pained,
open outward into the comfort
of seeing there’s a place for us again

And as we are kind,
we will feel the flow of golden,
spreading richly through our limbs,
suffusing skin,
promising sustenance
lasting through winter’s chill
bringing us supple
into spring’s sweet rays.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 17, 2016