I am an eager student —
I pore over the text
as meaning pours in
Something deep inside
soaks it up, stretches out,
like roots, like leaves, like wings
This is not something
for me to tuck away,
to tell myself I may use later
This is breath, this is sight,
this is the sense of things,
these are my steps along
the present path of what I am.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 27, 2019
Taking this in —
the steadying of the mind,
patient release of contradicting thoughts,
the focused honing
of concentration
I will learn like this,
move forward in the joy
of mastering this one most present thing
while keeping my attention open
so success won’t crash me,
but will let me move on smoothly
to what’s next.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 17, 2019
I have to stop myself many times
just to remember,
just to consider —
I have to sit still and realign myself
with the nature of my power
I can’t convince, I can’t persuade,
can’t influence, can’t teach, can’t prod,
I can’t make anybody else see something different,
can’t steer their ship, can’t bear their load
But in the core of who I am
resides a dynamo,
for I am master
of my own mind
And I can see the truth
in everyone I think about,
and I can love
anyone I want,
and I can find
a way to bring out goodness
where I am focusing,
while I am here.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 29, 2018
We move off from the place of focus
like crowds dispersing when the show is done —
our thoughts linger, wander, mill,
look for some remaining meaning
There are things we take with us
like small gifts tucked in pockets
to look at later in a quiet moment
Not sure what to do next
we feel the lightness
and the layered weight
of what we witnessed,
what we learned
All the while our love
moves into the spaces
ready to show us
as we emerge
how to make sense of it all.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2017
This is a slow learning,
to unclasp the grip
let hands relax
let go of trying
to hoard a share of good,
enough, perhaps
to shield me from my fears
This is a slow learning —
in time the breath grows deeper,
there are more before the gasp —
I start to find the space
to take in calm
This goodness is not mine to own,
to pull inside, to hold, to use
to stop the gaps within
Instead this goodness
is what holds me
and sweeps on through,
filling up all the emptiness,
flooding out the fear
as much for everyone
as for anyone
(me too)
slow or fast,
right here.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 13, 2017
I want to be satisfied
but not self-satisfied.
I don’t want to take my life for granted.
I want my life to be a quest,
a quest for more and deeper, truer,
of what is.
I have read, and I believe
there is no room for superstition
in understanding. I will endeavor
to place no weight on life’s events,
leaning instead
on the Spirit that is
the Life of everything.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2017
My hands are slowly learning the terrain,
the steps, the reaches, changing intervals,
the black keys and the white,
which ones are called for in this signature,
coordination of the left and right
I didn’t know they had so much to learn,
I thought that they should know these things,
despaired to find they didn’t. I took a long time
crashing them through songs
thinking they’d never get it right
But they are learning
and I’m learning, too —
patience for things that take time,
willingness to do the work.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2017
No sadness, large or small,
no let down, present or imagined,
has any right to cast a pall
on your exuberant existence
There may be things you need to learn—
this doesn’t make you bad.
The fires of transformation, as they burn,
will bring you, clear and brightened,
far beyond
anything you may have thought you had
Each of us gets to go there,
each of us has to —
each of us, emerging from the flames,
will be new-formed, holy,
and yet the very essence
of what we’ve always known we are.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2017
Stand at the right place
and the fractured colors
form a mosaic,
and bits of meaning
from other contexts
take on new roles,
defining something else
Love the pieces —
the memories, the skills,
the hard-earned softness,
and love the new creation —
all these parts of life from other times
joined to form the compass rose of now.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2017
It was strange to step out from the story
of bumbling incremental progress
under tutelage of experts
in every undertaking we aspired to master
It was breathtaking
and hard to believe
we could progress
from the point of perfection,
lovely always, in everything we do
It seemed almost unfair
but we got used to it —
we attained it in one area
and then expanded
And found there still is plenty
of space to learn and grow,
starting from here
where we are good and worthy,
starting from here
where we are humble and perfect,
where we begin right
and so continue.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 24, 2017