Tag Archives: relationship

Post-Christmas Musings

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Christmas Tree

One way and another,
stories vary from experience:
We may ride safely in the container of
How lovely to have the children home
while our peace lies in shards,
all the comforts of home spilled out —
a thing that’s more convenient
not to mention

Let us remember
that other people’s stories,
one way and another,
may mask what they are feeling,
emotional complexities
foiling words entirely,
their need for comfort perhaps greatest
when their stories gush with
how perfect everything is,
how enviable their lives

The young man who stood in Bellevue
with downcast eyes
and a sign proclaiming homelessness
called me an angel when I gave him five dollars.
Who knows what story was there,
and what experience,
but I feel my money
was well spent.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2014

Snuggle Me

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snuggle me

Snuggle me
for I’ve been playing the grown-up
for too long —
heaviness tugging me down,
hard knots in my forehead

Playing the grown-up
with all of its hang-ups,
studying contracts,
haggling with language

Snuggle me —
Somewhere within
is the timeless and ageless
core of my being
where wisdom runs totally clear

Let your heart reach me there
where the sweet currents
wash away every care,
smooth out the tangles,
free me from worries,
free me from anguish,
from those conundrums
offer release,
rest me serenely
in snuggle-deep peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 14, 2014

The True Image

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small coral nest in spring

The true image rises
maybe not because of all my efforts
but perhaps somehow related
to my attention

The true image rises
in the stillness that exists
within each moment,
where the ripples quiet
and the reflection clears

You shine it forth
to my astonishment —
This is just what I would have asked for
if I had known to

This is nothing of my invention,
nothing I could have fashioned —
This is the true image,
This is you.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2014

Vessel by Jennifer McCurdy
Photo by Julius Friedman

Lean

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leaning shadows

Give me the energy
of the steep lean,
enough of an angle
that we feel supported by each other,
held up, creating in our leaning
a deep rest

Give me the weight
of a strong spin —
enough of us committed
that our gravity
will grant acceleration
and the swift exhilaration
of the way it feels
to be pulled continually in

We might think it’s enough
to walk through our days
shoulder to shoulder,
a light rub reassuring us
of each other’s presence,
But sometimes we also need
the nourishment of leaning
into the strength that rises on its own
from the bond between us.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 10, 2014

Channels

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MacKenzie golden afternoon

We are so at home together here
in the realm beyond the worries and the posturing,
beyond the trotting out of
constructs of ourselves
comprised of fear, resentment, and bravado,

We are home together here
where your sweet, responsive
flowing essence
runs so close against me,
merges in the harmony
of what we are
and what we now discover
in the streaming of our being
down the deep swift channels
of our common soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 5, 2014

Five Powers of Two

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W&E1

celebrating thirty-two years of marriage

1.
The power to see and love,
listen and hear,
to taste and know,
to touch and heal

2.
The power to laugh,
to rethink, to forgive,
release old hurts, set ourselves free
and live

3.
The power to uphold, support,
provide a safe container
and all the needed energy
to feed life’s aspirations

4.
The power to let go
of any plans and preconceptions,
to let each other grow
along our deepest heart-intentions

5.
The power to embrace a love
so big, it holds the world
and our infinity as well,
and all our joy, unfurled.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2014

Into Your Freedom

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moss2

Hum of the earth,
web of life —
No need to assert yourself,
no need to fight
against relentless chains

You meld into the strength
of all that holds you —
It will affirm you
without your needing to break anything
It folds you in,
you take your place —
It holds you so true,
all that was false about your life
must fade away

So we return,
so we arrive for the first time,
breathing the ever new
ancient
rhythm of all that is.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 21, 2014

photo by Heather Mulhern

Flow

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river2

Your clothes don’t matter
in the place where we are all naked
Your habits, your opinions,
your credentials
weigh nothing, when we shed them all
For to bathe in this river
everything but the pure
sweet streaming of you
must be left behind
(or else it will be washed away anyway)

No one wants a piece of you
Nor can you rest on past laurels
Nor need you feel you have no name
to pull the proper recognition

Everyone who dives in
is borne along the bright current
and the river’s song
sings through us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 18, 2014

What is True?

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katama footprints

What is true?
Today it’s not enough
to have a theory

I need to go down with you
into the spiral
need to attune
to your invitation,
need to receive
this moment of gravity,
this weight that rolls on me
and off, that I roll into

What is true?
This can’t live in a cushioned cloister
supported by reasons
and explanations

This truth lives
in the radiation
through the bones and out
beyond the surface
of the inner infinite
that jumps into the dance of life
and rides.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 6, 2014