Tag Archives: personal growth

Structures

Posted on by
Reply

Let me release myself
from structures that have washed away my depth —
the headlong chutes 
of expectations and assumptions,
and criticism’s unforgiving hardpan.
Let me take time
for Life’s slow flow —
luxuriating stretching of connection —
nourishing exchange of living substance.
Let Life’s structures grow
according to the rules
that Life alone can set
and let me fill my tiny place
in this vast net
that holds us with a closeness
that we’ve always craved,
for here, in Life’s embrace, I will be saved.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 9, 2013


Doors

Posted on by
Reply

There’s much more room
here in my mind
than I thought,
for any one of these doors —
any one of them! —
can open,
and each one opens to infinity.

This room I may have thought
was my perimeter —
closed doors marked as places I can’t go:
people I have deemed unlike me,
people I don’t know —
I can open these doors
(forgiveness somehow seems to be the key)
so all that light
floods in

And where before
I was blocked off,
now I have a vast world to explore.
Love, as it turns out,
is not linear —
it radiates
in an expanding sphere.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 7, 2013


A new way of looking at patience

Posted on by
Reply

Patience is knowing
that everything moves
in the rhythm of Life,
and every need is being met —
all the microscopic needs
in the give and take
that feeds each tiny mouth,
and the orchestrated needs
of larger systems —
great living networks
of realized mutual trust,
resulting in the intricately timed provision
of each response along the moving wave

And as this is the case,
Life’s essence operating
in every place,
it surely will continue
in the arc whereon you gaze,
anticipating some desired conclusion.
Grace is not capricious,
not the gain of luck or chance —
it is the rhythm,
fractally repeated,
present where you need it —
it is the constant motion
of Life’s defining dance.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 1, 2013


The rhythm of summer

Posted on by
Reply

Everything is moving in the rhythm
of summer —
sound of wind chimes,
scent of privet,
transfixing flit of
not-quite-random insects,
play of light on spider webs,
crows in conversation —

There is something to learn from this,
something to take with me
from the unhurried connection of events,
the space between
that’s long enough for slack,
supple so it ripples smoothly.

Here where it’s too hot
for spiking urgency
or any worry,
things still progress
prodigiously,
with ample room
to take their perfect time.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2013


Incubation

Posted on by
Reply

There is great value
in the unformed place
where the bee dance of particles
buzzes and clusters,
groups and regroups,
and a new understanding
can start to emerge,
something that’s shared,
something that joins
entities that had been separate
in some grand and wild
sliding together space
where all prior sets
of intents and opinions
are widely thrown away

And in the fresh fertility of union,
quick shoots start up,
vigorous and smooth.
New air is touched
in wonder by leaves
that had been, till then,
unimagined,
that now can take their place 
in the lush, emergent forest,
doing the sun work
to bring the great dream into being.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 24, 2013


The Sea of Yes

Posted on by
Reply

A sea of possibilities,
a vision coalescing,
disparate desires solidifying,
image of a harmony emerging,
which, if achieved, 
would hold the promise
of unfathomable bliss
that when you taste
will fill your heart with longing
till your mission is 
to make it come to pass

But all the while the subtle sea is shifting
and you can see it’s not in you
to engineer a change —
Just in that moment, you saw
how your thought was drifting
from the perfect vision to the things
you’d need to rearrange . . . 

A sea of possibilities:
Close your eyes and rest
and let your vision reemerge
in the sea of yes.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 29, 2013


No Hurry

Posted on by
Reply

There’s no hurry here
in the wayward wandering of bees
or in the darting flit of smaller insects,
No hurry in the dark, damp bed of seeds
as moisture slowly moves in
towards their center
No hurry in their swell, their split,
their first root sprout uncurling
Or in the turn of sun across the sky,
through soft cloud edges burning

All gifts that softly rise
against the glow of muted skies
or in the brilliance
of their unsheathed blue
know in their code
how they must grow
and so they do

There’s no hurry here:
You, too, can walk this calm,
drinking in the strength of days —
your hope, your balm.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 24, 2013


Being Nourished

Posted on by
Reply

(notes from the seventh five women gathering)

We wanted heaven
and when we gathered,
each with her desire
for healing, wholeness,
and that light-connection
which we each could feel
was what our essence craved,

When we gathered,
each with unfinished threads
of our own deepest strivings,
having gone as far as we could go alone,
By some bright miracle
and really without any of us trying,
our seeking edges knit themselves together:
In an instant,
quick as light flashing over water,
we each were whole,
we all were one,

We breathed the inextinguishable knowing
what it was like
to be in heaven —
how the strong arcs of our intention
circled one another, held us up,
how we each were lifted
to be a beacon for the others
thus fulfilling 
just the thing we needed for completion,
Thus embracing
what we’ve been and what we are becoming,
Fully tasting
what it is to be profoundly nourished,
what we’ll know to grow to
from now on.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 18, 2013


Greening

Posted on by
Reply

Along the ever-surging edge
of what’s alive,
There’s no time
for construction of a casing.
The growing tip is light and soft,
Ever moving into what it is becoming.

The story, the woody stem,
That which will uphold it
over future years
Will come later
in the established corridors
of nurture and support —
The long-stretched-out connection
between root and frond

But its identity,
Its form, its exaltation,
Its phototropic, geotropic
orientation,
The sensitivity, and the sensation,
Are most felt
in this newly forming green.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 26, 2013


Reconsidering

Posted on by
Reply

Well, actually,
I don’t want to be the one
to do the talking
(Steam still rolling off of my indignant thoughts,
which mostly, to the mercy of the peace,
were never given breath)

I’m tired already, from their
pacing around inside the cage
of my surprise,
Rattling my words, finding them
deficient

It’s not enough that I deny them voice
They need to change, to find a higher mission
Somehow these thoughts
must all return to calm

So I consider:
Do I want to choose my friends, my loves,
on grounds of shared opinions,
so we can lie together
flat along the plane that we have chosen?

Or do I want to own
all the dimensions,
To spread out free, in an embrace
that hugs us all,
Transcending any scorn or condemnation?

Thank you. Right.
I won’t be duped to carrying that baggage on the plane
So I release all this from thought
to dwell in peace again.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 15, 2013