The rain is welcome
and the damp breeze is welcome
and the coziness inside the house
is welcome
Time to let the rivulets of life
seep, welcome, into the soil,
time to reinforce the roots
with life connections
Time for design, time for welcoming friends,
time for mending sweaters, making food,
time for preparing
for our next venture to the land,
time for gratitude.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 17, 2016
Morning trees
raise their psalm in scent
to the sun,
blackberries wake
and again remember,
their song equal parts
gratitude and summons
in what they bring to the day.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2016
I.
Today at the end of my bike ride,
enjoined from coasting no-hands,
I imagined wings at my shoulder blades.
I could feel them, and the way my lungs filled
as they opened. My breath deepened,
and emotions pulled at my chest
I could feel the work of muscles
down my back, I could feel
how wind caught
under their downstroke.
I felt myself lifted,
I heard the wing beat,
the rush at my ear.
It was more than enough to compensate
for my three fingers on the handlebar.
II.
I take it as a sign of goodness
that the air has cooled —
the wind has come around from the north
and the clouds have gone to cirrus,
still visible in pink above the afternoon’s
high cumulous, as twilight
wafts in on the drier breeze
promising deep sleep.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2016
These gifts are as prolific
as the plums on our little tree,
which last year bore
five delicious fruits,
and this year has so many
(though still green)
that I am in awe of the generosity
of one so small
These gifts — conversations that yielded
bright streams of satisfaction
at their spontaneity,
and the ease of connection
and the fact that I didn’t even try —
they came on their own, sweet signs
of Life’s generosity.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2016
Let me fly
in the rich provision for my being,
let me take no thought
for what will hold me,
what will glide me
along the subtle billows of the day,
what will deliver me
glowing and fulfilled
into the calm of evening
Let me take no thought
but let me know it fully,
let my gratitude warble
in a voice much larger than my form
across the land.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 16, 2016
I’m thinking of the straw/gold inversion
as fat drops of rain begin to round the evening,
closing the day as it began,
framing the sunny interlude in soft gray,
green of spring still predominating
What glitters in a day
can be cashed in for joy,
but only in the absence of entitlement,
which turns kind gestures into ash
and cries, limping,
for what it has not received
While even the most humble stalk,
absorbing warmth, filling up with light,
will shine its bright bar across a memory,
its gift across a life.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 8, 2016
Birds sing with the freshness
of air that has been warmed
by the sun, cooled in the night,
and awaits the cusp of morning,
the floating moment
where warm and cool
rest in perfect balance
and the most delicate fragrances
reach full volatility
Gratitude is the elixir
which gives rise to joy,
huge flocks of it
turning as one
filling up the whole day.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 8, 2016
The source of everything,
the source that gives me everything,
will give me this as well:
The hearing of rain coming —
patters in the distant fields —
the chatter of little birds,
crows’ pontifications,
the upwelling behind my eyes
that shows me how much I care
And it gives me
all the thoughts that dip their threads
through the present hour,
that trail their colored tendrils
through the bubbling mix of How I Feel
And the perfect timing
that finds us cozy as rains descend —
We will receive everything
as we need it,
including the gratitude
that lets our joy take root.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 6, 2016
The big house of gratitude
is over there on the hill —
we’ll get to it sometime.
Right here there is walking
through tall grasses,
there is the touch of the slight
burr of their seed heads,
there is the touch of sun,
there is the dance of color
and the dance of winds
These things are small
and ephemeral,
they can be passed
in a step or two.
But there is gratitude.
Yes, there is gratitude here, too.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 17, 2016
And blessings will come with
the dark wind — rain and
bits of leaves blown from trees,
fresh washed air and the progress
of what has moved all through the night
Blessings, too, of dry warmth within
and the remembrance
that the eternal laws of mutual blessing
are forming their delicate but capable arcs,
in Mind, in body,
in the harmony of all life,
even while we speak,
even as we pray.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2015
(title quote from Mary Baker Eddy)