Tag Archives: personal growth

You Don’t Have to Fail

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winter trees

You don’t have to fail,
though all your efforts
up till now, were subject,
more or less,
to the sands of doubt
which would start slipping
out and out, from what you thought
was your foundation

You don’t have to fail
though you’ve been taught
that winning is illusive,
that others may achieve it
but not you,
or that winning has to be
at someone else’s loss;
this is not true

Though you have thought
success must be a thin veneer
beneath which you’d be haunted
by the same old fear,
there is a quiet power in the peace of here:
the triumph of your being can shine clear

You don’t have to fail.
There is no failure in the web of life,
the skies, the stars —
The same is true
in the unfolding of what you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 3, 2014

Anatomy of Desire

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Nov 21 sunset

I want to be astonished,
want to feel
something I couldn’t have expected,
want that awakening
into the sense that I’m
not in control, as I thought,
that some force much larger than me
is shown to have held the reins all along
so that all my assessments dissolve

Not that I crave helplessness
or even being overpowered
for its own sake,
Just that I want to be in awe

For awe impels my growth
into something I only faintly sense,
deeper and older than hope,
some destiny
worthy of my whole soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 23, 2014

The View from Here

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view from here
In the sun and wind
In the rain and sun,
Rainbow touched,
touched by inner truth

In the squares of sun and shadow
and windows framing vines and shingles,
In the quiet space between the action
we focus in

Could this tiny frame be a doorway?
Could it take in galaxies and light years?
Can we take off from here to fly infinity?
Could any starting point achieve the same?

In the rain-wet grass
and in a dog’s face
and in the happy glow
of well-contented cats
we witness grace

We will move forth from here
for here is where we are —
Our inner balance and our outward
will inform each other
forging the unity of hearts and stars.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 11, 2014

Reclaim Instinct

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cards1a

To reclaim instinct,
understanding certain laws
will help:
The law of sacred trust,
The law of wonder,
the law that everything that’s real
is holy
and will fill its perfect purpose
in the ever-evolving
fractally refining
all embracing and enfolding
infinitely intricate
web of life.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 8, 2014

photo of two cards from Mellissae Lucia’s Oracle of Initiation deck

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

 

Processes

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Richmond beach gray

It’s OK to go down
all the way to the bottom
of your breath
It’s OK to stay there
for awhile
before the impulse
of the next inhale

These things move naturally —
There is a curve for turning
before the breath rises
and another one
up at the top

No need to panic —
You are not crashing
You will not fall too deep
and not be able
to come out

These systems have
their safe processes
They hold you sure and steady
and will turn you faithfully
when you are ready.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 29, 2014

We are not prisoners

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We are not prisoners
There are no bars upon our days
We are not pawns
and we are not enslaved

No grid constrains us
nor makes us walk its lines
nor forces us, through fear
to leave on lights against the night

We are not prisoners
There are no chains upon our thoughts
We’re not compelled
to think in boxes

No boundaries block us off
from realms we might explore
No lines of inquiry
can be forbidden

We are not prisoners
however fearsome the array
of shadow makers
designed to make us stay
within the lines of pre-established norms

Our deep completeness
still has the final say
and leads us, fearless
out to grander forms.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 13, 2014

Solo

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soloa

Draw a picture for me, I said,
Take me on a mind trip,
tell me how it was for you

He said there wasn’t anything to say,
He grew impatient, for my questions
were so obvious —
Of course he had a backpack,
of course he had no trouble
finding his way

That’s OK. I have my own wilderness.
I have my own T-shirt-with-no-sweatshirt
journey through the mountains
and the cold of night

I have my own clearing
of the shrouded thoughts
I didn’t know I had,
my own exploration

of my power to hold the true sight
of all that brightness
streaming from his being,
all that trippy
flowing of his mind

and all the gifts of rare vision
offered by each singular
reflection of the light.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2014

Hope Sandwich (on desperation toast)

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hope sandwich

The grid has shaped us broken —
We find our angled edges only fit
with others who are similarly maimed.
We cry out in our pain and our frustration
and find our cries just shape more of the same

We try to think of starting over,
Try to see a way
to pattern something new,
But all our edges dig into the injured soil,
compact it more, erode it, stir up dust

There is a river,
There is another way,
There still are headlands that are wild.
We need to find those headlands
in our minds —
That’s where we start,
That’s where we stay

It’s not so much a work of starting over
(These trees are here, they’ve grown for years)
So much as moving now
along our truer channels
thus reinforcing all the good that’s here

But now it’s time to cry —
Cry tears, cry out —
anything to be less stuck, less dry.
With all my voice that’s left, this shout
for help. I can’t do this alone.
. . . And so to wait, until direction comes.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 11, 2014