(for my sister, biking philosopher)
A long sleep with deep dreams
delivered me, rested, into the day –
threads of companionship,
trailing along into the dark morning,
accompanied my tasks,
their happiness settling things
into a balance, where a breath
can set things in motion,
where they still move
according to their multiple connections,
and still remain, more so than when in stillness,
exactly what they are.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 13, 2023
Am I allowed to come back to
happiness as a normal state?
Am I allowed, despite naivete
I have been disabused of,
despite egregious flaws
of which I’ve now become aware,
to live a day in simple joy?
And maybe many of them,
day after day (like I’ve been doing)?
Can it be real that I have left the fear behind
(the fear of falling to my deserved demise)?
Here at my center,
a tender truth is telling me
stay here. Stay here always
to learn this yes.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2022
rejoicing in the many ways
to revel in the grace of days
The way it feels to walk the land,
which, even in the mist and rain,
enchants, the way you saw me there
and how it made you happy,
and how you came across the grass to tell me
The things we think we need to do
shift and settle. We release the sense
of all we should have done by now.
Outside, the scene glides into darkness,
the fire’s reflection occupies the window.
We know no more now
than we knew this morning,
but perhaps we can allow ourselves
to be at peace.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 25, 2022
Seems like happiness is tucked
under snowy limbs of trees
and in curls of clouds –
it comes springing out –
lifts my breath,
fills me with spaciousness,
kisses me like rare thick snowflakes
having their silent say.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 26, 2021
The land holds happiness within,
deeper than the roots of trees
that pull it up
I can tell because of the laughing clown dance
I did with my shadow,
for no particular reason
while running down to the cabin, twice
And the way the nip in October’s wind
brought forth a sense of excitement,
and the way we settled into cozy
so easily, once we decided to stay home.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2021
I brought my goal –
to weave the threads of happy,
to make our hosts feel seen and heard,
and glad that we were there
In doing so, I found myself happy –
through places where our conversations
swooped and soared, and opening
of ways to see and understand
And the delight of receiving
a gift freely given – days
filled with beauty and joy
and opportunity
to leave our former stress –
really, why would we bother
to pick it up again?
©Wendy Mulhern
June 5, 2021
Finding myself happy,
much spirit having blown
all through my day –
the weather’s kindness
and the joy of shared work,
and laughter, more laughter than usual,
and frogs at night – think of it! –
frogs in January!
Surely there will be more winter,
bot the sun setting just a bit later
was not lost on me,
and there is hope
for riding like this
on the top of the days
all the way to spring.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2021
Well I suppose it’s a good thing
not to have outgrown the little happys –
pleasure that comes from things people say –
their kindness and appreciation
And while it’s good to cultivate enduring joy
that burns and burbles unconditional,
that flows up into places that need relief from pain,
that offers hope and comfort where it finds itself
It also doesn’t hurt
to get a message or a package
that someone took the time to send,
that someone thought of first
It’s good to be lit up by someone’s efforts
and that my little happy please them too.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 6, 2020
In this world, what I consider possible
is more important than I may fathom –
it is the lie of impossibility
that has kept me from claiming,
in every place I’ve missed it,
my dominion
So let me broaden the tent of my belief
so there is room for happiness,
not just for me – rather, for everyone –
Let them be thrilled and awestruck
by the fact of their own being
Not under some as yet unmet conditions,
Not the false possible conveyed by some “if only”,
but the true possible of This is what we’re here for
and this is how we live, and this is what we are.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 29, 2020
We could be happy. I cried
as I thought of this,
so far removed it was
from what I’d told myself was possible
Oh, I had joy. Joy of the wilderness,
the upward trail, the bracing day,
joy of the stream of life
given every day by my Creator
After all this time of self reliance,
it was overwhelming to consider
that the gifts my Creator gives
include even more,
and we could be happy —
you and me together,
and others too —
We could be happy —
this, too,
is my Creator’s will.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 8, 2019