We go through the times
of these deep colors,
we are soaked through
in these dark tones,
we see the sediment suspended
in slow-moving oceans,
we feel the sifting settling
and its countering stir
There are no lines
to trace around these motions,
there is no story
that we can tell,
there is no waiting
that gains us information —
we find our meaning
in moving ever forward,
chiming our presence
into the days.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 25, 2017
Nobody’s life has meaning
except for the shine,
except for the treasure
inherent in each breath,
each moment,
except for the purpose embodied
in the reasonless love,
the unquenched presence,
the truth that is always here.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 19, 2017
So unfolds this great wonder,
that in surfing the waves
we discover their power
as we discover our own
It unfurls in each moment —
miraculous it feels —
how perfectly the forces come together,
formed and foamed and filled and braided —
what we can do and
what is here most needed
We may feel we only have
a fleeting tolerance
for so much power,
for such exhilaration,
but we will learn
this is the crest of life
and we will ride it
through the whole span of creation.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 17, 2017
We will draw you in
to the circle of laughter,
we will draw this robe of memory
around you. We will draw
a picture of your life,
we will draw compassionate conclusions
In this act of celebrating you
we celebrate our own humanity.
We celebrate the unseen ties
that hold us up, and hold us, thus, together
We have done well
for we have reaped the opportunity
to lift your life
so golden rays of sun
would shine on it
and light us all.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2017
Close your eyes
and feel the stream, the roar
of presence — you can’t not be here,
can’t fail to be aware
Your pulse, your life, your consciousness
is strong — stronger than you think —
and pay attention:
it isn’t something that can turn off,
it isn’t something
that sometimes flows within you
There is no you without this life.
You have no inert state,
and the signal that is you
is never weakened.
How could it be?
It’s all the you there is.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2017
We might have wished our children
no pain, but each emotion is a gift
and the fact that they can feel
is testament to who they are
If they can cry
the garden of their life will bloom,
they will have
bright shining after rain,
they will have
deep canyons where their love
carved out spaces
for winds of compassion
to sing through
They will have birds nesting
and creeks running,
frogs and fish and mayflies —
they will have true life,
they will know joy.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2017
In the turn of time
I come around to notice
how much I am like my husband,
how much he is like my father,
how much all the pointless
moments of annoyance in my past
have been just that
I picture the extraction of honey,
the breaking of the wax capsules,
the sweet liquid
flowing out reluctantly
I am as unsure
how this is well accomplished
as I am how to release
the bright life light
from the capsules
of all these constructs
Yet I know
there are ways, both gentle
and heat-filled,
in which this happens,
and even right now my life
with all that is sealed away
and all that’s messy
still drips sweetness.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2017
Thoughts play in mind
like small flames
traveling along the kindling
leaving crumbling sticks behind,
licking onward to the next log
I am struck
with the abundance of fuel
and the warmth that comes
in the consideration
of the vastness of the truth
that contains our being,
the infinity of Life
in which we play.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 11, 2017
You may think
you want to go back
to the old life, the quid pro quo,
your place along the grid
of fear and confidence,
the little pleasures
in what you overcome
But once you’ve grasped the brilliant core,
there’s no hope for it —
that light will burn right through
all the warp and weft
of what you thought you were
They can’t hold it —
you have to find the structure
made out of the same stuff,
a practice that embraces it
and lets it shine.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 11, 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