Tag Archives: peace

All is Well

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madrona moon

In the dream
the dance was close to flying —
hand in hand catapulting each other up
all the way to the ceiling

In the night I was held
in the deep space of
All is Well
and nothing could impinge
upon my peace
And in the morning
it was still true:

No inky image wants
to remain at dawn —
No one wants to wake up
as the bad guy.
Even the big scary hulks
whose job it is to shout and shout
and make me feel beleaguered

Even they just want to curl up
and be cuddled. There’s no reason anyone
needs to accept a role that doesn’t suit them.
They will all, with great relief
take off their masks
and smile.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2014

Whirlwinds

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storms

I still carry all these whirlwinds
(anxieties of navigation, timing)
oblivious, it seems,
to their presence
and to their effects,
assuming what I hold inside my head
can be unseen by others, and unfelt

But when I look again
it’s clear what kind of turbulence
comes out from here
where I have failed
to seek the settled calm

Let my peace return
Let it be established
not by my efforts
but by my letting go
of thinking this supreme design
needs my control.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2014

 

A Force To Be Reckoned With

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surf2a

Right where you are,
where you are right now
despite the swirling flurry
all around you,
despite how you may feel
ungrounded, floundering,
feet swept off the sand,
suspended, tumbled

Right where you are,
the force of your centered calm
is still in play,
It steadily asserts itself
beneath the fray,
It guides you home

You’ll feel a gentle balm
alighting like butterflies
upon your day,
whispering wing kisses
showing you
your heart, even when most moved
is still here,
still offers its sweet nectar
feeding you and everything you love.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 4, 2014

photo by Heather Mulhern

Battleground

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regret-battle

I’ve been doing battle with you
all day, in my mind.
I force myself to stop
and then I notice
I’ve been at it again

I don’t want to fight this battle —
I want it to turn out to be
a non-issue, want to find
that an inner voice
has whispered to you softly,
convinced you in a way I never could

I want to pay attention
to my own battle,
where I need to stand up
against insinuations
that I could be justified
in thinking I am right and you are wrong,

since in the final resolution,
when my mind picture of you
sees you innocent,
I won’t need to fight with you at all.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 6, 2014

Quiet

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Matthew's Beach

(Matthew’s Beach, half past noon)

My mind is quiet,
As quiet as this water
with its slow undulation
and its quicker shimmers,
As quiet as the glide
of goose families on the lake,
Open to sky reflection
and the darker view
(underside of ripples)
of refracted colors
from the bottom, from the shore

My mind is quiet,
and the gentle, ruffling breezes
that rise from time to time
and stir up little waves along the shore
Are as patient and as aimless
as the fluff of cottonwoods
drifting and resting,
and the shafts of rippled sun,

Oblivious to all the local chatter
and the drone of distant boats
Quiet as the depth of
no need for decisions
as the day flows along
its broad and open course.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 22, 2014

Sentinels

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sentinel tree2

The deep relaxation waits
for any signal that you’re willing —
It comes in deep breath
and in the quiet touch of evening air,
It comes in rain drops and in rainbows
and in deep baths of warm water

Any sentinel of peace can impart it —
trees, and seas
and spaces in between the beads
of observation

When you enter,
Embody its sweet rhythm,
You, too, will stand
to welcome any seeker
into the blessed calm.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 29, 2014

Night Rounds

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cuddle5_0020-001

I go through the house
turning off lights, turning
down the heat
putting the house to bed . . .

Outside, the rain
has settled in for the night,
Inside, others
head towards sleep . . .

Far away
my children tend their own orbits —
I have signed over
the ownership of their peace . . .

Here at home
the soft night light
radiates out
enfolding us all
in its embrace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 2, 2014

Breath

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In the end
the things we’re asked to know
are the same things stones know
as they absorb their daily thermal load
and then release it slowly to the night,
a breathing that befits their time —
long and steady and calm

And what we’re asked to know
is what trees know
as they embrace the standing wave of energy,
toroidal cycling
of air and light and water,
breath of the forest, sweet and pure

We’re asked to know
the things our breathing teaches
in the constant ebb and flow
and in the depth it reaches
and the way we’re woven
into one complete design,
breath of our days,
earthbound, divine.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 24, 2014

Settled

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All of these whirlings —
frenzied opinions bouncing
against each other,
frazzled worries gnawing
at the air,
These will cease,
and everything will settle
in the calm continuity
of our care

No fear, for though life’s torrents
cast our prognoses into doubt
and though we can’t predict
how our projections will come out,
We know the rich weight
of all that’s real
will still be with us
when the dust clears.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 28, 2013

Momentous

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At this moment
I feel my weight is
infinite,
in that nothing can move me
from my here.

When I move,
I engage the spin of the earth,
the swirling up of trade winds,
the gravitation of seas

In this point of balance,
responsive to the landing of a wren,
the look of recognition,
I am always moving
but always here

And this is true for all of us
who spin and swing across the sky
in interlocking orbits,
enacting the momentous dance of spheres.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 23, 2013