The eternal dawn
doesn’t wait on time,
doesn’t need the earth’s rolling
or the stars aligning
or the tumblirs of human machinations
to click into place
The eternal dawn first gleams,
then floods, its color
lighting up your hopes, its warmth
dispersing all your huddled fears
It doesn’t wait on time,
it waits for you – patiently,
timelessly, here at this moment
when you feel its tender rays.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 27, 2021
So surprising to discover
the world won’t do whatever it does
with or without me. It doesn’t trundle
down its processes by itself.
I can’t choose whether or not
my presence here
will be felt
So quieting to consider
the world is a problem
for me to solve alone.
I must work it out
(as must everyone)
I must come to the conclusion
of the whole matter
(as must everyone)
whether I do it now or later –
I have, it turns out,
all the time in the world.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 2, 2021
Let go, let go
of all that you’ve been trying to become –
the burden is too great for you,
the rules, the judgments,
the constant times of feeling tested
and, as it seems to you, coming up wanting
You can let it go –
you don’t need to become anything.
Any shortcomings you have tallied
have been forgiven
in the light of the grand truth
of what you have always been –
whole and pure, shining
in the eyes of your creator.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 18, 2020
From the clear-eyed stillness
you can watch
while the whole mechanism
grinds out its tales,
ever more colossal in its efforts
to manipulate
You can see what they want.
And you can see how lost
they must be, to think they want that
You can watch them set their snare
and know you won’t step in,
and you can see that finally
all it can bring down
is its own lopsided structure
Down with a crash
that will only result
in showing forth the light,
as, ultimately, everything does.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 3, 2020
However many places
I have been right,
however many operations
I’ve worked correctly,
one thing that I don’t get
will foil the whole result,
and for all my careful efforts
I’ll have nothing
If, then, just now,
I find an error –
could be one of many
or the only one –
Shall I not say, Rejoice with me!
I’ve found my lost sheep
and am carrying it home.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 16, 2020
I was jumping up and down
trying to tell everyone,
Look what I’ve learned!
Look at the truth that changes everything!
I was thinking the most important thing
in my whole life
was finding a way to let people know
And then I realized
the same discovery must dawn
in everyone. In each of them
it must be as precious, as profound,
as earth moving, as it is for me.
No one needs a second hand dawn –
Each one gets their own
And how rich it is to see
this treasure, latent or in full bloom,
hidden or celebrated,
in every person. On the street,
in the grocery store, at their work,
each one promised and given
the holy vision
that means so much,
that means everything.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2020
No need to covet repentance –
There’s plenty of room for my knees
here on the ground,
here where the clods and grains of dirt
are moister than I thought,
here in the realm of things
that creep and thrive
in the structure of the soil
No need to covet repentance –
There are more than enough
ways for me to crumble,
leave my former ways of reckoning behind
I, too, can swell and grow,
in awe of what makes me,
in gratitude for every way I’m held
And for the daily
reassessing and revealing
of what interlocks us perfectly,
gives us our purpose
and makes us new.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 16, 2020
“The meal cannot resist the yeast. “
And so it is, intelligence being primary –
not drivable from any lesser essence,
not divertible to any lesser goal
than bringing out the greatest good
So fear is overcome by grace,
having no power, finally,
to hold anyone enslaved,
the simple overriding truth
of goodness,
without any extra effort,
deftly melting fear away.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2020
You may remember
words about divine wrath –
you may have trembled,
and you may wonder
at the troubling signs
of these emergent times
Wrath”s image, and its roaring fury,
express the power
to take down everything,
to burn up everything
that it opposes – not surprising, then,
that earth should tremble
Fear not, dear earth.
There’s no wrath here. Wrath kindles
when it sees something that opposes it.
But nothing can oppose the All,
and nothing stands
outside the Allness
Fear not, dear souls.
Nothing that is real
can be consumed.
And you are real,
for you are here,
and since you’re here,
you are beloved.
And since you’re loved,
you will stand pure,
untouched by anything that seems to fall.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 27, 2020
Every place has an opening.
There is no scorecard
for whether you take it
or not, whether you glide over
or whether you founder
People who’ve been there will tell you
there is great value
in the most hopeless place –
they will tell you how they found a door there
thar opens unimaginable light
And some may note
the value wasn’t in the circumstance
but in its inability
(although they thought it would)
to snuff them out
and how that helped them grasp
what they are made of.
Wherever you may find yourself,
take heart. Ultimately,
there is no way that you can fail.
Every moment has its opening –
When you’re ready,
you’ll go in.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2020