Tag Archives: purpose

To stand before the king

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Let me be nourished, these years,
by the pure essence
of what I am,
as it rises, churning forth light,
to meet what calls it,
as it answers with its own self
the summons to expand,
to venture forth like stars
in a young universe,
to feed itself with acts of blessing
it is called to give,
to feel itself becoming, more and more,
the very heart of all it has desired

In that way, after three years,
let me stand before the king,
for any king will see
this light outshines
any standards of the world,
this light is true –
true, always, to its source.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2020

Gratitude and Purpose

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I have contentment
and equilibrium,
and vistas big enough
to overwhelm my sight,
giving vision to my freedom –
certainly that’s plenty

Beyond that, it’s out of my hands.
Beyond that, I can work to see
that the unfolding of my days
is true – see that it matches
the potential that is given,
continue in my daily press
toward heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 7, 2020

Snow Drift

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Day dawns slow and pretty
in the sifting, wistful snow —
sky dark, snow light,
air held in windless stasis

These days, our sense of purpose
can easily drift, though we walk
in the cold air and the snow crunch
and ground ourselves, as best we can,
among the winter trees

We will hold hands and remind each other
our work is not in things
we can tick off lists,
and our gain, from each day,
is somewhere deeper than here,
something we may see again sometime.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2020

Winter Sap

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You wake and seek the life elixir
but the sap of trees is sleeping
and yours — perhaps it’s crusted over
in the stress of things you tell yourself

and the press of boxes you’ve taken in —
cold steel against the softness of your inner parts,
dull ache from where you try
to bend around them

But still there’s something —
the touch of air, or movement
against the blankets,
a feather breath of light, or of another,

and the warm liquid stirs, finds strength,
begins to run the lengths
up and down along the inside of your hopes —
you stretch yourself, you move,
you feel alive.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 13, 2020

Your Spark

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(from the biking philosopher’s notebook)

You don’t own your spark
but you owe it —
owe it your attention,
your time, your thought, your care

You can’t use your spark to serve you —
you serve it —
give it everything you are,
all you can do

And in return
it will mature,
become a flame, become a light,
you will be nourished in its service,
even known by it —
it will make you what you are
and guide your every step
and as you tend it daily,
it will be your life.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 28, 2019

Induction

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I make my way by induction,
as by candle light, long before dawn —

I look, first, for the first reason —
why you would even open your eyes,
why you would care,
why you would rise

I see you couldn’t be there
without the spark, you would be nothing
without desire

And if the spark is present,
it must really be the only thing —
it wouldn’t let itself
be mostly snuffed out

It wouldn’t let itself be used
to power anything unlike itself —
to power dread or burden,
or soul deadening requirements

If the spark is here
then it will dictate joy —
joy, and strength, and vigor —
it will spread the whole day
with sweet harmony,
for so it is, by nature

And if this is what’s here,
I’ll see it. Gently,
modest as the dawn,
radiant as day. I’ll recognize it
in every light that shows the way.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 4, 2019

Purpose

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I will not look anywhere but here.
Here is the place where focus is possible,
here it can bore to the needed depth.

Things that fly outside may look attractive —
I may think I wish to turn, to sample, find them,
but that kind of skittering, finally
won’t drill down into
what I need to understand

This is something I know within.
It is a deep unarguable truth.
There may be stories told of freedom,
of flying high and wide,
but freedom without purpose
can’t sustain me,
and purpose is what’s mine to find right here.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 2, 2019

Life Size

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I’d come to think of my life as small —
small circles, small desire,
small prospects, small needs,
and it felt truer, certainly, than
how I used to wave my hand,
and utter grand plans,
and watch, with something less than confidence,
for some great wave to come along
and bear me up to what I felt
was a deserving height

I recognize that humbleness
is both the starting point
and the essential stance
for riding on the arc of being.
I notice, too, that service to infinity
does not make me small

And so, though I don’t know
what it is for, or how it will work out,
I now am willing
to enlarge my tent.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 9, 2019

As it is written

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“a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and as a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

If it is so, consider
how we will meet each other,
what joy will be occasioned
at the appearance of any one of us,
how glad we will be to receive each other
and to be received

The surrounding land will thrive in our presence,
life will spring up abundantly
in great diversity

And is this not — be honest —
what you have always hoped for?
— Of course it is, for this
is what you’ve always been,
this is what you always have deserved.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 9, 2018

One Life

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One life is enough —
its redemption encompasses
all experience, the heights and depths
of all that can be known

One life is enough —
no life is wasted,
none insignificant

Every life is worth
breaking the bubble
in which it has been held,
releasing it to free fall
till it can open its wings
to navigate infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 15, 2018