Tag Archives: purpose

Ephemeral

Posted on by
3

In the course of days
we are swept up like rain,
carried along to some swift beating purpose,
let to fall across the land
moving at the hand of wind
through encounters poignant and unplanned,
dissipated like mist, lifted by sun,
the immediacy of now
making us forget
what we may have outlined
for ourselves

A more distant eye
will see patterns,
will see destiny, perhaps,
and some higher design —
what we serve, how we bless,
the breath of life that orchestrates
the cycles in which we move,
timelessness.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 22, 2017

First Day of the Year

Posted on by
Reply

And if we sit around
reading books all day,
one day a year,
what does it matter?

And if we lost our equilibrium
for one long moment,
if we yelled and screamed
and said unrepeatable things
to someone who won’t remember,
does it matter?

We woke up this morning feeling good,
feeling close, well rested, well connected.
Later, we felt the weight
of our responsibility to save the world
through the concentration of our best thoughts,
but that passed quickly,
overtaken by a story in a book
and the putting aside
of most everything present

I may pick it up again
with the grave attention it deserves:
tomorrow gives us another chance.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 1, 2017

Reflections at Year’s End

Posted on by
Reply

The last day of the year
dawns foggy, and continues overcast.
We sleep later than our habit,
tendrils of memories
interspersing themselves
with dreams, and with images
of streams, currents of possibility
weaving open and closed,
forming lenticular shapes along the flow

Artistic expressions from others’ lives
placed up against my own
invite reflection

These days we keep being asked
to take a side. I will not take a side,
for that is what conquers us.
I will take a stand.

I will stand for what is free and true,
I will stand for ribbons of stream flow
braiding lives into thirst-quenching unity,
I will stand for the excitement
of streaming, soul to soul,
along the course of life,
I will stand for pure reflective pools
and the welcoming in
of everything that yearns,
everything that hears.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 31, 2016

My Life

Posted on by
Reply

nantucket-sound-summer-2015

The sigh of waves that reach
but fall back down
again and again,
the washing back
that comes to seem devoid of hope,
the pointlessness of swells that never crest,
that never swoop and crash —
this is just a story, just a metaphor

The roll of water circles satisfied
underneath the surface,
the wave proceeds across the whole ocean.
The catch along the shallow bottom
that trips them, makes them fly forward
is just another phase of what they do

So rolls my life,
fuller, surely, than I’ve ever known,
the power of this moment
still more or less unharnessed,
not waiting for the vagaries
of bottom depth, of ship’s wake,
but drawing from a purpose of its own
to round out all the edges of what rises from within,
to fill the waiting hollows with its song.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 16, 2016

Standing Up

Posted on by
Reply

birch by canal

Every one of us is sovereign
and the simple act
of standing up
will release us from the currents
that drag otherwise

We can stand up
and our feet will dig in
and what swirls around them
will be as nothing,
strengthened, as we will be,
by the grounded power
rising up through us
and the sight of others standing,
no longer dragged along

Each of us can stand up
in our purpose, in our intelligence,
in our understanding
of what we all desire
and what we all deserve
and have, in fact, been given.
We will claim it for us all for ever more.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2016

Footing

Posted on by
Reply

Mill Creek upstream

Becoming real entails confronting demons.
You can float along the currents of illusion
with a fluff-constructed image of yourself,
an easy (mostly joyless) ride from birth to death,
through all the trumped up strokes of luck and chance

But if you once find solid footing,
struggle and scramble to stand up,
to hold your place,
you’ll feel the current rushing up against you,
you’ll look your demons in the face

Take courage, you are gaining strength,
and you will be supported by this place,
the tingle of the bracing air will help you,
the kindness of the sun afford you grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 3, 2016

Standing Up

Posted on by
Reply

effortless waves

It’s not like you have to change.
Your heart has already agreed
with what’s true. Your essence
already resonates
with the harmony
that you have always hungered for

You are drawn here
because you already know
that you will rise and do the things
that will define you, take the stand
that brings the change out in the open,
that lets the revolution tumble forth,
effortless as waves,
unstoppable as tide.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2016

Landing

Posted on by
Reply

maple, alone

We are each in this place
where life’s currents
(so it would seem)
have set us,
much like these hills
dropped by floods
so many times
so long ago

The seeds within our banks
wake up and start their processes,
roots seek into soil, scout into places
where water collects under pebbles,
where threads of mycelium
extend their welcome,
shoots lift their heads
as if nothing else had ever happened,
as if no cataclysm
had rent the land,
as if, indeed,
this opportunity to live
had been expressly prepared for them,
this dew, this sun,
this whole community,
this hour, this day.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 3, 2016

Growing Pains

Posted on by
Reply

Innis Arden walk

Learning to be real
is hard work sometimes,
as I remind myself
from my cozy living room
where I didn’t lift a finger
to make the lights come on,
to make it warm

You wouldn’t know
I’m struggling for my life,
struggling to connect
my causes and effects,
to find a way to know
that what I do has value,
to find a way to deal fairly
with all the beings
with whom I interact,
with everyone on whom my life depends.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 12, 2016

Daily Purpose

Posted on by
Reply

December, Richmond Beach

It’s not about collecting balls
or marbles, not about juggling,
not about corralling them,
not about trying to hold an armful
(while several fall and bounce and roll)

It is the standing that summons orbs
from the right here where they appear,
gravitating to the infinite inner energy
that comprises our stature

They are not the sources of this light,
but they come to it.
They come because the energy is here.
This is what it is about.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2016