Monday, August 31, 2015

Weather














It takes so little time
for wind and rain
to blow and wash away
the memory of that long stretch of heat,
for me to feel the quickened pace of fall —

The strong insistence of its shorter days,
the drop of needles, leaves, and time,
the carpeting of dampened, waiting ground,
the swift intake of cooler breath

There may be sun again
before the winter —
I just can’t feel it now
in this particular cross-pattern
of internal and external weather,
its mix of colors
bright and dark against my eyes.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 31, 2015

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Gold














There was a moment
when the fields were gold

You could say
their essence was illumined
in that moment

You could say
they were made for this,
you could say that they were vessels
for the sun’s essence
in that last kiss of day

You could feel in that moment
like golden fields —
all lit up —

It would be bliss,
you and the sun —
it wouldn’t matter
how you defined it.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 29, 2015

Friday, August 28, 2015

Our Place














We are not who we thought we were,
beset by helpless needs,
buffeted by forces that could grant
or else deny them,
pleading for the mercy of the fates

We are not placed here
ungrounded and bereft,
seeking to find some anchor
to afford a fleeting feeling
of belonging

We are sovereign —
The Mind we access
is the universal I Am,
with which we hold all forces
at our center, with our hand

With which we preside over
all the harmony of being
not pushed around by actions or conditions,
instead, ordaining them —
setting everything in place
in concert with the law that loves us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 28, 2015

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Sounded


















We resonate 
as effortless as A strings,
for the frequency is here —
We hum, we sing, 
no exertion on our part —
just what we feel, just what we are

This joy of being sounded
is like none other —
We recognize that it is everything
we’ve always longed for,
why we are here.

It fills us with the thrum of our own essence,
gives us our place
in the sweet melody and chords
that modulate exquisitely
all down the vast curve of being.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 26, 2015

Vessel by Jennifer McCurdy, photo by Julius Friedman

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Settling Accounts














Well, in fact,
it’s not possible to waste a day
but if it were,
it might be like this:

too caught up in chores to notice
how blue the sky was, how crisp the air,
how clear the sun . . . 

Since it’s not possible to waste a day,
I’ll cash in the recollection of my moments,
I’ll pull something up from within
that wasn’t even there
(at least, not that I’d noticed)

I’ll remember
the attentiveness and power
invoked by driving
a borrowed stick shift car,
and the sweet search for humbleness
that followed a rejection,
and the glimpse — twice —
that acknowledging the hold on each identity
of the one sovereign, infinite Mind
makes a difference in the thoughts and actions
of individuals and the collective,
and it’s something I can do
today, right now.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 25, 2015

Monday, August 24, 2015

Prosaic














There’s still some value
in these prosaic days,
full of tasks and timelines
and hanging suspended
between past and future

There’s still time here
for the gathering
of news from friends —
children’s accomplishments,
parental worries put to bed

There’s space to rest,
if only for a moment,
in the feeling of having done well,
or at least well enough
to roll over into the next day.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 24, 2015

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Wellspring














Our desire to bless
brings us here —

Though we feel empty,
we are attracted to the need,

This is what we hunger for
and it draws us 
to the opportunity

We desire to bless,
and bless we will.

The goodness we bestow
will satisfy us, too —

Wellspring of water from within,
coming up infinite,

Filling us 
with life’s compelling light.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 23, 2015

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Acceptance













I think of this
as if it were utopia,
and yet it should be fundamental —
basic, unrestrained, whole-heart acceptance
of everyone for being who they are

That we could simply be ourselves together —
nothing to withhold,
nothing to bestow,
no accolades to earn, no shame to shrink from,
no hierarchy of “in”, of “hip”, of “cool”,

No chairs to win, tryouts to fail,
nothing to prevent us from just seeing
in ourselves and in each other,
the wholly uncontested and essential,
the deeply needed for the
part that no one else can play,
the curious, ecstatic, quirky wonder
of each of us —
Yes, that would win the day.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 22, 2015

photo by Edward Mulhern

Friday, August 21, 2015

Soundings














We walk around among each other
saying “sound me, sound me,
send your signal down
the shaft of my deep being,
shine my sacred essence out
so everyone can see it —
if you sound me, I will love you
and I’ll know that I am loved”

But in the end we have to know
no person sounds a man, a woman —
no voice that is itself in doubt
can have the clear tone
that reaches all the way in

This is a work for our creator
which sounds us all so deeply
that we rest, sound, in the
grounded comfort of our essence,
from which we then, too,
can sound each other.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 21, 2015

photo by Edward Mulhern

Thursday, August 20, 2015

August














August starts to daydream
about Autumn, curling her toes
into evening’s cooling sands,
concentrating the shortening sun
into goldenrod, seed pods

The pensive shadow of later mornings
and the cozy closing in at end of day
find her thinking of soft blankets,
still pouring out her strong warmth
to finish the harvest
before putting it to bed.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 20, 2015

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Today’s Lesson: Space














Give me the grace
to leave enough space
to hold an open emptiness
in which truth can be heard

Attune my mind
so I can find
the words, but also pauses,
the rests which let the melody
form and come full circle

A rush of argument
will not convince,
however well conceived —
I’m learning now: only in silence
is anything received

Then let me listen
to all the spaces in between,
let me breathe with them
down into their stillness,
Let me wait until
the quiet opens out —
let me not speak
until the space has spoken.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 19, 2015

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Awakening


















We have walked in these bodies
unaware of what we are
and what our power is,
and yet, somehow,
we’re not entirely surprised —
We rise into this knowing
like coming home,
recognition welling in our eyes

This is when time fades out
like stars before dawn
and the brightness of each one of us
outshines our former forms,
And the narrow, bumpy trails
we thought of as our lives
recede in the expansive view
of this terrain

The sparks between us
may seem random and erratic,
but as they multiply,
the structure of the web starts to appear,
intricate, enchanting and stupendous,
astonishing and yet profoundly clear —
the life which we are starting to remember,
the endless joy of being here.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 18, 2015

photo by Edward Mulhern