In the story, the devil rubs his hands
and says, “I got her!”
but I will slip free —
I will not allow sticky webs
to be built in corners
anywhere in my mind
I will not allow any compartments
to limit the luminous goodness
I see in the face of my neighbors
and sense in the love that I feel
I won’t be drawn in to complaint,
for it hides the brightness inherent
in each one’s desire to be loved.
It’s easy enough to just love them
and let the devil lose.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 15, 2019
You wear the look of love
on your face. It’s easy to see
that someone lets you know
that you are cherished, every day.
It lends a sense of comfort
to your gait, your smile,
lets you move easy
through the changes in your life
If I can help someone —
—anyone — to look that way,
I’ll surely do it. It’s worth considering
in what small ways, and in what kind
of continuity of care, I can convey this
to people in my life,
so they will have the comfort they deserve.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 14, 2019
By virtue of your being, you can know
(before any assessment,
with no need to take your measure)
by virtue of your being —
just because you’re here —
you can know
that you are good
Good for your surroundings,
good for the ones you know,
good for the rolling out of time,
along the course of things that happen
Don’t ever think your being
is just grudgingly allowed —
you’re not a stand-in
for something that would be better
There is no way for you
to be any less than perfectly designed
and implemented
in the universe of Mind.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 12, 2019
I listen and my empathy
follows the threads of passion
(threads like water veins
upon the land below,
the rivers, lakes, the melting snow,
the cities clustered there, along the roads)
I feel the longing and the pain,
I feel the exaltation —
my spirit hums an all-embracing chord
that circles round the threads
and drops beneath,
enfolding them in overarching blue.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 24, 2019
When you talk to the baby trees
before and as you plant them,
I hear your boy heart
pure and clear as blackbird song,
unmasked and frank,
strong in its innocence
I know its power in you
is like a tree core —
able to root down deep
and send shoots soaring
higher than anyone ever thought was possible,
high as hope, as love, as sky.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2019
I collect these moments like stars.
I can hold them in my hand.
Though they may be short blips in time,
they are as infinite
as what they reveal
For sparkling grace is this exactly —
the evidence in one small moment
of one great Truth,
big enough to guarantee
heart-waking beauty,
tender and wonderstruck alignment
in the unfoldment
of the perfect peace
of now.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2019
And as for you,
you right there where you are,
in that body
just as it is right now,
you are beloved
Not provisionally,
not in spite of anything,
but in the wholeness,
in the presence
of everything that’s you
Just as you stand,
just as the air nestles around you,
just as the light caresses
all your colors, all your form —
that’s how you are cherished —
not above or under any others
but deeply prized,
essential to the whole.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 12, 2019
There is therefore now
no condemnation,
no contamination,
no contempt,
no fall, no exile, no complaint,
and no damnation
No one in the realm of Truth
has ever left it,
and there’s no other realm
where we could live —
we can’t condemn,
nor can we be condemned,
for we are loved —
our name is clear
as it has always been.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 11, 2019
And as for us, poor fumble people,
all we need is cuddles,
cuddle of the deepest sort,
that feeds the soul,
that soothes the heart
and makes us know
how dearly we are held
We all come crying, masked, of course,
in our bravado, the efforts we all mount
to prove that we amount to something,
that our presence counts
We ask for others
to give us what we need
but they, too, flounder,
flailing in the chasm of their lack
Ah, if we only knew,
in truth, for certain,
what’s already given,
we wouldn’t need to struggle and to sink —
we’d rest, serenely, in our present heaven.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 10, 2019
(to myself)
This lesson is for you alone —
don’t try to teach it
to anyone else. It is your job
to use these lenses
to see how this person
(the one with you or who you’re thinking of)
is blessed, beloved,
incomparable
And there’s no such thing
as needing to improve
(not even for you)
and it’s not your job
to make anything happen
and it’s not your virtue
when it does.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2019