All is given
in earth as in heaven,
change and foundation,
challenge and haven
Earth is not helpless —
the law that permeates
presence and consciousness
holds her as well
Strong winds don’t bow
to the whims of man
but they go as directed
by all-knowing hands
Let me be filled
with all-moving Spirit
where all is forgiven
in earth as in heaven.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 10, 2018
You speak of receiving —
Receive this: you are beloved.
Spirit is not indifferent
to your being. You are as prized
as Spirit is to itself —
breath of being,
delight and excitement
in this present living of you,
exactly you.
Spirit is not indifferent
to that which shines its essence.
It can’t forsake you
anymore than you
could forsake your breath.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 10, 2017
Because Spirit is never
without inspiration,
because Mind is never
without knowing,
because Truth is always present,
I can move fearlessly
through these changes
like a saxophone
on a long summer evening,
like a slow sunset
over the lake.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 7, 2017
You could see how
the Spirit might take
any one of them,
how they would be filled out,
would take shape
from the rushing power
that formed them from within
You might notice
how they really never
were anything else, how they are
maybe not so much Spirit-filled
as Spirit comprised,
maybe the most joyful
the less they hold onto
the thought of being the envelope,
the more they embrace Spirit
as their very essence.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 3, 2017
Black lives matter,
and fair contribution matters,
and mending and cleaning and sorting matter
And underneath all the matter
is the current of Spirit
that doesn’t even need to get involved
in all that tortuous stitching,
full, as it is, of its own surging intricacy,
its fractally multiplying joy,
its amnesty for all.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 15, 2017
photo by Edward Mulhern
From this side
it feels like Spirit sifts me
and all that is opaque
falls by its weight
while all that is transparent
dances and shines,
proving its substance
by how it stands unmoved
by tugs upon it,
and how it swoops and dives
unwavering from Spirit
It is my heart’s deep joy
to be found thus,
and I sense
that from the other side
there is no sifting,
but just that Spirit
knows its own.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 2, 2017
And when the day’s duties
conspire to exclude
the deep reflective pauses,
Spirit still seeps through
In the cooking, in the caring for an elder,
in the ready presence to consult, to listen,
through the low winter light
through clouds, through windows,
and the quick arc of a short day
with its long darknesses at the edges
Spirit seeps into consciousness
like tide rising
because it belongs there
and can’t be left out.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 12, 2016
My body is a standing wave of Spirit —
As Spirit flows, so I am,
The steady coursing of present Life
defines my being, shapes me,
fills me with sustaining joy.
As Spirit moves, so I move —
Thus, in my flesh,
I see God.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2015
When I came back
to my old haunts
they didn’t fit anymore —
The old hauntedness
could still ring through me
but the old exorcisms
— industry, to do lists —
were completely useless
and the old stories
made me tired
I must remember
how I learned to cast my net
on the right side,
how the emanation
of Spirit within
brought forth so many
bright shining fish
full of life and the flow
of continual offering,
turning and flashing
and flocking in sweet laughter,
filling me up with
everything I desired.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 4, 2015
In small steps
my body starts to learn
The only thing that holds it back
is fear
Though fear would say
it holds the path of safety
on which, if I walked far enough,
I would arrive,
In fact, that path will never
get me anywhere but dead
and leaving it
I find myself alive
My only body
is me, embodied,
the bold and present evidence
of Spirit’s being —
It is not shackled,
It does not yearn towards death
but bounds forth fresh,
deep joy receiving.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2014
photo by Heather Mulhern