Eclipse is come and gone
and what I have to show for it
is some hours of easy friendship
and some moments in the sun,
a touch of coolness, but no more darkness
than the bright and dark of clouds in half the sky
— kids surprised to hear that it was over
I turn my focus
to the light that can’t be dampened,
can’t be obstructed,
can’t be snuffed out,
I turn my gaze
to the light that lights up light,
that shows me
where I am today.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 22, 2017
(a bicycle song)
We seek it in the loneliness,
we seek it in the kindness,
and the bright chinks in stories’ walls
that lead us up from blindness
and in the shining memories
with embers that remind us
times of play,
times of laughing raucous play
We wish to ground, we wish to fly,
we seek the perfect union,
we thought we wanted glory
but we really craved communion,
the words were fine but what was wow
was when we put the tune in,
and we could sing,
we could really sing
We battle down the myths
that box us in our little walls,
each at our place of passion
till the massive structure falls
and what we didn’t dare believe
is obvious to all —
we are joy,
we are made of joy.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 12, 2017
Here where you are,
as you are held,
nothing can jostle
your settled being
No shock nor growl
can stop the steady purring
of your confidence,
your centered peace
Not even a thousand
murmuring grumblers,
self-justified and full of disapproval,
can ever touch you
Even if it seems like
they got inside
and are screaming at you
from within —
they can’t —
they aren’t you, and never have been
Here where you are
in the Principle that holds you
you are always safe.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 5, 2017
I don’t need to be
any of the people
I’ve framed myself as.
I don’t have relationships
with any of these personas.
I don’t owe them anything —
not loyalty, not justification —
don’t need to be angry or sad
on their account.
I don’t need to keep tabs
on the stories, the slights,
the constant explanations,
don’t need to rehearse
for some imagined future confrontation.
My being has nothing to do with that.
What I’m worth is not subject
to the outcome of any contest.
These dreams leave no trace of memory
when they’re gone —
I can start here
with the practice of who I am.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 2, 2017
Today I feel small but mighty —
small as a chink of light
under a door,
small as the time it takes
to catch an eye,
small as a seed, small as an inkling,
mighty as kindness, mighty as truth.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 28, 2017
You can have
all the freedom, all the blessing,
all the grace you want —
just don’t try to hoard it
You can be
a changer of the world,
whose outlook
transforms the frames you see —
brings them to alignment
with their essential goodness —
just don’t seek to take the credit
You can know the bliss of oneness,
commune with Allness, dance infinity —
you won’t miss
the things that can’t come with you,
wake up — shake off the dream —
you’ll see.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2017
Silently, because they have been asked,
the members of my body straighten —
they stretch out from where they’ve been crunched,
find new alignment with each other.
They take up the work of support,
they learn to do their part
So I stand taller,
I find bend and balance,
I find length and strength,
and the air
flows through me
fuller, deeper
I feel this shape
is more me
than I have been before,
which makes me wonder
what decisions
put us in our former shape
and what awakening
awaits us yet.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 17, 2017
In the new light
in which I see myself,
there’s no more room
for grudging thoughts —
(grudging acceptance,
grudging allowance
for the needs and presence
of another)
I am not justified
in seeing anyone
with something less than love
This is, after all,
my whole being. I have no presence
except the presence of my love.
No point in striving
for some other goal —
only in loving
am I whole.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 8, 2017
Not me, not you,
not the accumulation
of our feats and foibles,
not our prowess, not our evolving,
not the challenges we’ve met
or failed to conquer
But rather, the willing leaving
of all those stories, all those chains,
responding to what calls
the radical insides, the rawest
and purest of desires,
that which, when we ride with it,
thrums us alive,
each moment more
than we could imagine
This is where, meeting,
we will be amazed with each other
and at the same time, with ourselves —
this is where we’ll tell ourselves,
over and over,
yes and yes, yes and yes and yes.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 6, 2017
There’s no pressure on you,
just the skin-light touch of Life
as it invites you to dance,
the lean and press and pull and spin,
the upward push of air under your wings
No pressure
just the clasp of Love’s embrace,
supernally content with who you are right now
There is no need for pressure —
you leap forward
on the lift of your imperative,
on the joy of opportunity,
on the sweet soaring ride
of being you.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 2, 2017