Tag Archives: personal growth

Naming it

Posted on by
4

Oh, I have been fooled
so many times,
so nearly constantly —
Cowed by an unnamed fog
to fail to move
(lest in moving I should fail),
to fail to see
(lest I see something that would wake me
to the need to move)

But now I will name the fog
and feel the fear roll off
in great waves,
billowing and blowing and dispersing
And I will stand
in new-created day.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 15, 2014

Coming of Age

Posted on by
4

May you emerge bravely
from that tight, sad place
which breeds such desperate loneliness
in the family-sized scrabble
to be seen, to find respect
(the sense of home
so compromised by struggle)

It might be best
for you each to forge your way alone —
leave the family voices
behind for a while —
The love is there,
but its application
is an advanced problem —
better to start with the relative ease
of friendly strangers . . .

May you invent yourselves —
find a new face that will
let you give voice
to who you’ve always been
but haven’t dared express,
May the broad sky embrace your courage,
May you gain comfort
in the arms of new-found friends.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 9, 2014

Mental Housekeeping

Posted on by
Reply

I.
Well,
I can’t argue
with someone I don’t know,
(as ground shifts beneath me like water)
who clearly wants to set forth
a strong opinion,
and who hasn’t heard me
and doesn’t want to.
Let it go —
There may be common ground
with that person —
Just not here.

II.
No need to identify
with proffered bargains
for something less
than my whole being.
No need to settle for pain,
or for complaint,
or for a muddied, stagnant
view of life.
Right here in this day
are seeds from eons back
waiting for this perfect moment
to spring forth.

III.
When no excuse
can really cover
a stupid oversight,
and nothing in my makeup
can explain it,
and its implications
arraign me in a wrinkle of character
that time won’t smooth,
it’s OK to go back
and ask for a redo.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 29, 2013


Forward

Posted on by
Reply

Your arms full of tools,
your face full of sun,
you face the task at hand
armed with resolve.

And what would ever hold you back
except those voices, that can only say
“you don’t want to do that.”
They are as insubstantial as shadows.

Shadows can chill you,
but only when you’re not moving —
their bars can’t hold you in.

How bright the joy
of going forward —
Your movement, not your fears,
thus your defining substance,
your goodness not in theory
but in action,
your life not in the future but in now.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2013


What we needed

Posted on by
Reply

None of the things we brought with us
were what we needed.
How, after all, could we have predicted
this place, this world?
How could we have known
none of our hard-learned lessons,
our expectations, our opinions,
our conclusions
would have weight?

No matter,
for we still had what we needed.
It was in us
all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 1, 2013


Seeking your heart

Posted on by
Reply

When you first noticed it,
it was so deep inside
it felt like an ache.
As you followed the convoluted folds,
the fractal turnings
in and in,
it started to feel sharper
and its heat
became insistent.
You followed hard
(as hard as you could,
the fragile softness at the edges
slowing you sometimes)

You came to where
you could see its glow,
still through many layers,
and now you approach
reverently
feeling your way
knowing the great light
will burst upon you any time.

©Wendy Mulhern 
October 30, 2013


Leveling

Posted on by
Reply

Ah — I must try this more often —
leading with the parts of me
that have no words —
the bubble of my inner level,
the shared weight of contact,
the gravity of presence.

So blind it is of me
to lead with words and concepts
when what is needed is the simple clasp,
the resonance, the holding.

Let me surrender
to the constant liquid flow
that makes us equal
at each moment of connection.
Let me relinquish
everything I think I know,
everything I think I am
for the wordless oneness
in the timeless balance
of life’s unending dance.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 14, 2013

Generativity

Posted on by
Reply
The daily bread we’re given
is always enough
to feed five thousand —
We are provided
not for just survival
but for all the generosity
we can fathom,
all the love
we are willing to extend,
all the abundance
we can comprehend.

It’s not enough
to think we have a small pittance
that covers us and no one else,
that we must hoard, hide, and defend.
We are designed
to be an open flow.

“Love your neighbor as yourself”
can also mean
Love your neighbor as who you are —
Love your neighbor as love.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 3, 2013


Praxis

Posted on by
Reply

Sing, people!
Stretch, meditate,
Pray, make love, dance —
Fly to the thing that brings you light!
Seek out friends to laugh, to rant,
Climb mountains, find wild rivers —
Whatever will expand, restore you,
rush through you, ignite, fulfill you.
Give it enough time
to refresh your luminescence,
For when, in my usual ways,
I can’t find mine,
I can then turn to you
and be lifted.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 11, 2013


A Most Important Thing

Posted on by
Reply

At this time of life
depth seems a most important thing —
the balance weights that extend  
below the illusion we call the ground,
the ones that give us
dynamic presence
so we can’t be tumbled
from our own truth.

Though many forces
may push us flat against the ground,
we are not phased
for we rebound,
immediately realign
with what we are,
embody a circumference
that’s wider far
than what we had before believed.

We need this depth
to move with purpose
through the social daze,
We need this size 
to overcome the myth of death.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 7, 2013