Tag Archives: redemption

Illusions of Refuge

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And if your refuge fails you
or if it says you’ve failed
and thus cannot avail yourself of safety

Or if your refuge
is put in question
by someone else’s sense of truth

Or if the solace it provides
has grayed, has faded,
has been rendered hollow

Don’t be afraid.
For even as your demons rage
and push you towards the center,
as the edges crumble
and your space grows smaller

You are already redeemed.
You were delivered
even before the dawning of your first day.
Your substance is secure,
your realm is infinite —
you need no refuge,
for you own your grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2019

Artifacts of Refuge

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Every one of these structures
is a place of refuge, a thing
cobbled together against the void,
the glass-crushing nothingness
of rejection. For fear that we’d
implode and shatter,
we have built these forms —
so many of them,
in such different modes

And if we knew there is no void,
no vacuum, we could walk free.
We wouldn’t be attached
to all those convoluted rules,
those strange behaviors

If we knew the Allness
covers all of us,
we would be united.
And we would know we’re safe,
and be at peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 13, 2019

Now

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There is therefore now
no condemnation,
no contamination,
no contempt,
no fall, no exile, no complaint,
and no damnation

No one in the realm of Truth
has ever left it,
and there’s no other realm
where we could live —
we can’t condemn,
nor can we be condemned,
for we are loved —
our name is clear
as it has always been.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 11, 2019

Acquittal

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No sleuth was needed
to pick through your life
noting and condemning
ways you fall short —
misguided attentions,
crucial things neglected,
everything that needs to be corrected

Your life is clear,
innocent as dawn,
untouched by any tales
of what you have or haven’t done —
Pick up the cloth and shake it in the wind —
all that isn’t you will fall away,
and as for your bright presence,
it will stay.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 1, 2019

Taming

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Even the greatest demons,
fearsome and raging
as they rip and howl
through the chasms
of your abandoned hopes

Even the slamming
trap door of shame
with its dark echo
of clanging isolation

Just like everything that drags along
the shadowed garb of sorrow.
these, too, will be disarmed and tamed

Their sad disguises
will be laid aside,
their secret heart
will be exposed
and they’ll be wrapped
with tender expert hands
so they have no more need
to haunt your home.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 22, 2018

Tectonic

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The aftermath of this momentous shift
has me rethinking
all the well worn habits of my thought,
noticing the places I have drifted,
how my feet don’t seem to quite touch down

The day hums along its course,
people meet and plan —
their life arcs are as perfect
as the cause that runs them.
And what is misaligned
will shift and come together,
smooth or volcanic,
it doesn’t matter

Just like me, just like my finding
that though I crash through pain,
I do not stay there, and everything
that comes to me can be redeemed.
It may take time, but time is not the factor —
it will take place,
it will be all that’s ever been.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 11, 2018

Coming Back

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But if I am a prodigal
I don’t regret
the years my older brother would call squandered

This path has taught me
everything I needed day by day,
this life has brought me
all these precious gifts
which I can offer,
humble and in awe
upon Love’s altar

I have grasped the very substance of my being
in the brothels, streets and bars,
in my losses and my tears

Proving
my Father’s hand never left my shoulder,
my days were always guided,
my return assured.
The song of gratitude I sing
is purer, bolder,
now that I know Love’s hand
is ever here.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 14, 2017

Nothing is Lost

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Today I have proof
that nothing is lost,
though the hounds of regret
may howl and whine,
though sorrow sinks like cold air
into the place where hope has been uprooted

The great Love that fills all space
will finally be felt embracing everything,
and every loss will prove to be
a place that fills with joy
and all misunderstandings
will be redeemed

Even the most unconscionable blindnesses
will be revealed — eyes will be opened,
remorse flowing like tides
till all is equalled
and everyone will get to go home

Nothing is lost —
not chances, not years,
All will have their moment
to be the gift of love.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 10, 2017

Unfallen

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Wake me up, remind me
I am not fallen
and I never fell. I don’t need
to claw my way up,
the pit sides
crumbling and smearing,
sending me back down,
I don’t need to be
covered in mud as I climb

I am not fallen
and the dawn,
calm as it ever was,
celebrates me
every bit as much
as these reverent trees.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2017

Healing the Past

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I start my journey back
across the chasm,
all those times of disappointment,
all those hurts, all those dry years,
the places where I felt
I’d need explanations, apologies —
to tell someone the wrongs
that had been done me

I take these steps
and virgin forest
springs up around me,
familiar as something
that’s always been here,
rich with layers and layers
of interacting life.
Where is the desert,
where the wilderness?
How deep my blindness must have been
not to have seen this!
How full the healing truth must be
to bring me home!

©Wendy Mulhern
February 24, 2017