Today I see the value of a quick release,
the way I can unhitch myself
from trains of stories, when I feel them
careening towards a cliff,
when my emotions
have set up camp
and prescribed a course of action
that entails me crouching in the mire
of hurt
I asked myself,
which would you rather?
This, or being strong, resilient,
competent, and free?
— That was my quick release —
my choice was clear —
to leave the crouching mire
and center, here.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2019
I am learning
it’s not enough to sit
well beyond the fray,
and see, with eyes amazed
at loftier perspectives,
the inner workings of the human scene
It’s not enough
to see the heartache and the failings,
because, if I can see them,
they are mine —
mine to soothe and smooth,
mine to see whole
If I haven’t seen that yet
then I’ve seen nothing —
there is no wisdom
but the one that heals.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 16, 2019
It is a time of sturdy growth —
bracken fern at chest, head, height,
grass still green but growing purple heads,
tender bright new needles on the firs,
daisies lifting white across the fields
We, too, are feeling sturdy,
nourished by the land, the ground,
and by the care we give.
Some roots we never knew about
are taking hold,
making us steady, stable,
here where we live.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2019
Here on the land, I discover
ways I can walk that I never had known,
ways I can think, ways I can work,
direction transcending my own
Learning to trade myself in,
day after day,
for a newer, more humble model,
learning to quiet my mind,
not looking back,
faithfully tending my steps
Here on the land
there’s no need to be right,
only the need to be willing,
willing to listen, willing to move
placing my feet in the light.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 16, 2019
I’ve decided I like being
someone who can’t be let down,
someone who’s always
able to offer
comfort to another
I prefer that to being
someone who has standards of behavior
with the duty to require them of others,
who needs to disapprove
when standards are not met,
who needs to coach when people get it wrong
That way, if you’re falling off the edge,
or if you think you’ve lost all your deserving,
I can let you feel
the comfort that’s unending,
you can know the depth
of that which treasures you
And that’s a comfort which,
when I can give it,
unfailingly will comfort me as well.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 14, 2019
A sudden light revealing snakes —
twisted, tangled, convoluting —
all the things I’ve thought
about these others here
while never casting light within myself
How could I, then, have thought myself
a better model? How blind to think
that I could hold judgmental thoughts
without the mud and soot of false opinions
smearing all my windows from within!
Well, take a breath. It’s always
a good idea. And let the sunlight
reveal what has been cleansed
and what’s still needed. Let tenderness
towards both yourself and others
wash everything and show you what is true.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2019
With great effort, I practice
what I don’t even try for with dreams —
that waking up and seconds later
forgetting everything, feeling the shift
into the day’s perspective,
deep sigh of steadying, reset,
to feel the flush of energy
take hold, like well filled sails,
to launch me forward in pursuits at hand
I take the effort, thus,
to reset my impressions,
my conclusions, my opinions —
on noticing the ways
they’ve boxed me in, and bent me down,
to let them go, forget them all,
and set my sails for winds of truth to fill.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2019
We find our way to climb
like birds, like vines,
counter thrust to the weight of us,
oblivious of time
This aspiration
breathes through us constantly
whether we know it or not,
whether or not we’re trying —
we will go higher
in natural response
to what looks up within
and always rises.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 30, 2018
Could be a lot of that stuff
I’ll throw under the bed
and not think about for awhile
Maybe there’s a way of thinking about things
that is much clearer than all my habits.
The need, it seems, is to keep those habits
from jumping all over the new thoughts
Could be a practice of silence
and meek observation
with dew all around my eyes
reminding me with each blink
what it is to be new
will help.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 29, 2018
Well, we had to do the best we knew,
we had to bring the gifts we had —
what we understood,
what we experienced
and thus believed
It took the whole of us —
there wasn’t enough light
in any sliver of our selves
for us to see by, for us to feel
the magnitude of life
We had to wrap our arms around it all,
even what was flawed,
even what had been rejected
by various external standards
When we embraced us all,
there was enough light
for us to comprehend
what we are made of. From there
we had enough abundance
to find our way home.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 24, 2018