I come back around to the fact
that I don’t want to be
anywhere else, don’t want
to be anyone else –
that this place,.and this time,
and this company
are just right for me
See? All this has been prepared
to give the opportunity
for this learning, this growth,
this coming to understand
the timeless truth
I can receive
right here, right now.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2020
The last light of the sky
wraps us in grace,
glows a reminder
that all of this –
all of this light and this color,
all of the cloud dancing grandeur,
is here for us,
here to fill us with
that which responds to the day’s gifts –
leaps up – no need for us trying –
proof of the stuff we are made of.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2020
Follow this brightness
back to its source,
see if you can fathom
what could bring it forth
morning by morning,
day after day
The magnitude of it, for one thing,
and the fineness of its resolution,
and the way we are given our place here,
in wonder and awe,
and illumined the same.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 11, 2020
Grace grows
like moss, like grass,
between the counted milestones of a life,
the things we hoped and strived for
laid out, summed up, empty,
except the grace that fills in everywhere,
becomes the reason, becomes the joy,
becomes what overflows in memory,
the gratitude of being
Things we built may stand like ruins,
listing in the shift of time,
moss and flowers and trees
will be their counterpoint ,
as the substance of everything
turns out to be quite different –
luminous glisten of grace,
©Wendy Mulhern
March 28, 2020
I reflect on the present times
when I’ve run afoul of the temporal —
burning the chicken,
letting mold destroy the car —
things are fine
until the moment when they’re not,
and then there is no turning back
All things temporal
can tumble …
There is a grace that rides along the top
of all events,
and cooks things perfectly,
and cares for all things well,
and, centered in the present,
is not slave
to how things fall
And though I stand here in this shambles
(such a mess to reckon with)
my next step
is not from here.
All things in time fall down
but grace will stand me on the ground.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2020
This is not about how you need to be,
This is about what you are.
How you need to be
is so, well, needy —
it chafes against your brows, your lungs,
it sighs, it paces,
it rides itself with a crop
(gee up!) it stumbles forth
half hearted
What you are
is not like that —
it moves gracefully,
like light on water —
weightless, unsinking, delighted,
responsive, here to serve,
generous, whole and tender hearted,
receiving the reward of its own being.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 15, 2020
This day has had surprise gifts in it,
just when I’d trained myself
not to expect any. But that,
as it turns out, is today’s humbling —
Life takes me down a peg or two
by offering tangible things
to make me happy,
proving I don’t need to go it alone
And my belief that I did
was making too much of myself —
I needed to be disabused of that presumption.
I can’t say I mind.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 5, 2019
I hold the blessing
in the laugh behind my eyes,
in the warm spots on my cheeks,
and in the warble that burbles
in the place where I might speak
It isn’t mine — it is a gift
passed to me freely, just an hour ago,
not me alone — given to many,
and I imagine
they all took it home
As I assume also it will multiply
as mirrors magnify,
as smiles create a surfeit of good will,
which cascades outward
touching people who
don’t even know each other,
though they’d recognize the kinship
with anyone in whom they saw the light.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2019
Our enslavement lifts like fog.
Our freedom begins to shine
like fresh-washed air —
Though there may be
many layers till we walk
fully unencumbered,
till we fly
in the manner we’ve always desired,
every little liberation
makes us stand taller,
lets us breathe deeper,
gives us the grace
to love each other
with more generosity and kindness,
shows us that we all are moving
through the same layers of clearing,
our eyelids tingling with the dew of heaven.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 20, 2019
You can find that angels
are walking with you
as your feet step down
the gravel road,
and your heart suddenly fills
with satisfaction
because you’re good at what you’re doing,
because someone made you laugh,
because the air is full of grace
In so many ways
the fundamental fact of goodness
makes itself known to your soul.
You could call them angels
for how they translate truth
into a feeling you so deeply
desire and understand.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 13, 2019