Lest we exchange the worries of summer
for the worries of fall – worries of fire
for worries of cold and wet –
let us remember
each day has space for stillness,
each hurtling revolution
has time for many lifespans,
and dreams float timeless
in the sea of thought, which itself,
though it may shift with tides
is ever vast enough
to see us home.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 5, 2022
I’m keeping it with me,
a calm like a coal,
a small, centered glowing,
a soft source of warmth
The size doesn’t matter –
its potency dwells here
where it can expand
to fill all of the house
Though it may seem tiny,
it still bursts forth merrily,
brightens and cheers me
and fills me with hope
It dwells at the still point
of all that I am
and centers me
back to my home.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2021
And finally, I find myself
enjoying the companionship of silence,
of having no instructions
as my feet step out in front of me,
of spinning no stories –
just letting the things I see be hymns –
the deer with their tentative presence,
the grass now green again, ferns gone brown,
the piercing blue as fog lifts,
the bracing cold
There’s memory, too –
images unfolding, innocent of judgment,
showing I can also
see my folly without regret,
and younger viewpoints
without correcting
So I learn kindness
in the stillness deep inside,
so I learn quiet
in the unassuming rhythm of the land.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2020
When I turned back to look,
the argument was still going on
inside my head. I let the curtains fall
and walked away – no point
in going in there
Outside, summer hums –
deer with fawns, swallows,
kestrels, bees. There is room
to stretch out, find fresh perspective
There’s room inside for healing .
It is in the space more vast than summer,
than the great outdoors.
To understand the Principle
that makes me, day by day
sets me in my own large place, at peace.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 9, 2020
It can feel like a high desert —
winds blowing fierce around the buttes,
tough sage leaning in against the rocks
There is a still
where water gathers
and the seep of secret green
colonizes crevices
Lush plants spring up,
frogs sing (where did they come from?)
This is the reward for going deep
beneath the stress and clamor of the day,
This is what you can bring
from your ever-sustaining source
to bless even the desert
with life and fragrance.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 11, 2015