Spirit Vision

 

In the vision I saw
the high saturation of Spirit  -
it was nothing pale, nothing you could miss

Its color made the daily objects
almost hard to see, so washed out
they were, so ghostlike,
while Spirit filled the whole canvas
with bright rays of power,
becoming the obvious substance
to walk in, to speak of,
to use for all motion and action,
to be for, to be about,
to live in.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2021

Peace

 

I come around again to peace  -
Is it cued by the music?
Or by the still place that I made
from working breath and body?
Or is it sweet forgiveness, knowing all of us
are here, and all desiring
this same sense of release
and homing, and being wrapped in kindness,
and being kindness itself,
ever able to forge its way

across the deep.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 29, 2021

Song

 

Let Spirit breathe through you
until you notice
you are not a structure being sounded through,
not a flute, not a pipe, but rather
the song itself

And the timbre is not a product
of anything but Spirit,
and the tune is ever Spirit's own,
and the words -
how much like home they feel!
- for all the song resounds
with what you are,
as Spirit sings your every tone.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 28, 2021

Under clouds

 

Soft rain, shrouding clouds,
a low solar day
in which we rely on fire
for comforts we desire,
and friendship, that essential connection,
to stand in for the sun

The day began with knowing
where my love comes from,
and now ends in the peace
of love well done.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 27, 2021

Mind Fire

 

Thoughts lick like flames
around new concepts in my mind,
trying to make sense,
looking for ways to get inside
and comprehend the matter
through and through

I find it warming
and a little bit exciting  -
maybe when this is all clear,
so much more understanding
will be in reach,
maybe I'll soar in ways
I've only dreamed of till now.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 26, 2021

This Day

 

It is a contented lipity lap
with which the pages of the day
fall layered and random
in my thought - the talking on the phone,
efforts to integrate new things
into the household order,
planning for a gathering a few days hence,
neglecting chores

And gratitude, although I had no urge to force it,
rose like sun-drenched clouds
through moments in my day,
arresting skys commanded my attention,
rays and colors couldn't help but draw forth praise.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 25, 2021

Equality

 

Look how everything has fallen in,
like sand into water,
look how every way we rated things
is gone -
the structures, the tallies,
elaborate rubrics,
purveyors of influence
all rendered silent

Here we are melted
in the variegated sheen
where each gleam
bears clear witness ,
infinity's equalization
showing the depth we possess,
all of us needed,
none of us less.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2021

This waterfall

 

The demons are put to silence.
They are not permitted to use your voice
to rage. You have control
of your voice, and your thoughts.

And if this is not clear, the demons
may be permitted to rush down violently
and choke themselves. Whereby you can notice
that you are still here,
quiet, untouched.
You can receive
all the goodness offered you.
Hold out your hands, open your mouth
and take it in.
You never ran with them actually.
You have always stood here
like a mountainside,
you have always been this waterfall.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 22, 2021

River of regret

 

This is something else  - a river of regret,
something we all swim in, however we held ourselves,
whether superior, privileged, clean,
or rebellious, devious, naughty,
justified, victimized,
thoughtless,  or cruel,
or having missed out on the party

The river carries us all -
I may notice
who comes up next to me -
how we might never have
been within arm's length
in our former life

But the tears we flow in
are just the same, and the cleansing
does its work on all of us,
and it takes us to somewhere
much farther down the bank,
somewhere we can't yet imagine.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 20, 2021

Reset

 

I'm thinking about
all the sorrows of the world -
the big and little heartbreaks,
chasms of loss, and trauma
walled up and sealed away, hidden
deep within the mazes of forgetting,
leaking out at unexpected times,
fluids of shame, embarrassment,
spumes of rage and helplessness

I'm thinking about
all the sorrows of the world,
all the tears that strive to cleanse,
all the keening, calling for connection ...
and thinking what it could mean
if everything can be turned,
like a page, like a dream,
if everyone could be released,
allowed to flow home
to their native wholeness,
more than forgiven - rendered innocent -
ultimately untouched by any story,
fully seen, delighted to be known.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 19, 2021

Resolution

 

I will know myself
down to the strong curl within,
I will not turn my head,
I will not make excuses

I will take ownership
of everything I am,
leave nothing to the whim of chance
or to the will of other forces.
I will be honest
ever as deeply as I know,
for only then
can I steer my course aright.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 17, 2021

Present Heaven

 

Who am I to say I know
all the forms of love, or even think
that I would recognize them? Much less,
to place myself as expert, curator

Oh no, I'm here to see,
and gather what I can,
and hold the hope of tasting
something old or new of love
everywhere I turn

I will not try to catalog the infinite.
Instead, I will be glad to have been given
the faculty to see love in the ways I can,
which makes this puzzled earth
a present heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 16, 2021

Adventure

 

We live in this great adventure
(for certainly our life is more
than plodding doggedly toward death)

Life must ever be adventure
(or why would we persist with it
day after challenge riddled day?)

We live in Life's adventure
(or we could say that Life's adventure
is what we are)

Adventure we see unfolding
just like life unfolds,
branching and fusing
and moving all kinds of mountains,
as we live out what we are
and find out
what we will be.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 15, 2021

Speaking in Tongues

 

There is a language that we all speak -
it glows between whatever words we use,
it finds a way to dart out
like a child's skip,
like a smile that sparks between two beings,
a shaft of trust that plumbs the deepest histories

When we listen in that language,
any words will work
and few of them are needed -
life blooms up from stone,
things that were lost
become the trail that leads us home.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 14, 2021

A Potent Force

 

All of us belong
to desire, whatever impulse
seems to spark our movement,
whatever construct
we may feel defines us

All of us have
the same Spirit lifting us
into our words and our yearning,
guiding us into our doing

And if we ever think we're stuck
in some replay of actions and reactions,
lodged within unfruitful ways of thinking,
the same desire
will use the force of factual presence,
simple and unstoppable,
to break through those illusions
and set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2021

Normal

 

I said, we're where we can imagine
living a normal life ...

But what is normal, anyway,
and who decides that,
and who measures it?
Who advertises it,
who uses it to sell stuff,
and how does it relate
to what we're building here?

The whole point being
to be forging
a different way of looking
at everything  -
purpose, comfort, how we do things -
the whole point being
the incremental learning
of how to live an honest life.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 12, 2021

Ground

 

And if I thought I might fall
through the cracks of the day,
tumble between the tasks,
blown by an ill wind of complaint,
if I thought I might be discouraged
by its unrelenting howl,
there is always the ground

There is always the intense
springing of life, through the soil,
through the grass, through my feet.
There is always the recognition
of how great the "we"
of all life, how layered and irrepressible
it is, how it sings in the deer's taste of grass,
in the flash of a bluebird's wing,
how it rests in my breath
while the day's lullabies
prepare a place for me.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 11, 2021

Well Done

 Twilight sets in at 4:30,

and with it, rain, and satisfaction
at having used the day well,
being outside and moving projects forward
as weather allowed, being ready now
to shift into indoor tasks
and inward work,
rich in the light and heat we gathered
in the brighter moments of the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 10, 2021

Unexpected Glory

 

Things can be more beautiful
than you thought - seams can crack open,
unimagined light can pour through
at any part of your life -
things you've tended, especially,
but also what you've forgotten,
or what is given you
from the kindness of others
(from what they've tended
or maybe what they unexpectedly found)

Life can be more beautiful
than the dogged portion you've allowed yourself,
or the comfort that you've settled for,
the compromise, the resignation

Anybody's life can open up
in unexpected glory,
bringing blessing to themselves
and many others

Your life can be
the light you hoped for it -
ask and seek, and seek and ask -
it will come forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 9, 2021

Flood Tides

 

There may be moments
where you see the whole tide
of what we have called history -
sweeping events, toxic thought forces
that left so many tangled, stranded,
caught in some anomaly of feeling,
left alone, or shattered, fractured,
grinding brokenly against others
in thoughtless eddies
of interactions

You may find peace in knowing
none of this is your fault  -
not where you started
or how you landed
or what people said were
choices that you made

You may find peace in feeling
the flood tides slowly rising,
lifting you up, bringing us back together,
giving a way to reimagine
what it means to live here on this earth.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 8, 2021

A Pearl

 

  

Here is a pearl you could wear
on a long chain, belly level,
perhaps - a truth you could use
when you need it, a secret reminder

You could remember your life
is already loved, and it doesn't need
lies to prop it up
or fears to keep it safe

Your love is served by truth,
your truth augments your love -
they hold you in the safe place
where you know you are enough.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 7, 2021

A Deeper Honesty

 

I part the brambles, step within -
I seek a deeper honesty -
the portals that it opens
makes it worth the search,
for here a fuller life
is promised me

The small excuse, the better sounding story,
I turn these over, see what's underneath  -
a fear of being judged, perhaps,
or that my truest self
would not be fit to be more fully seen

Or that the short cuts I have taken,
ways I've failed to see another fairly,
were best for me to hide,
(and mostly from myself)
could be concealed, so I'd be let off easy

My honesty will help these flaws in thought to pass away,
and let the skill of my Creator
have the final say.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 5, 2021

Examination

 

Am I brave enough
to put my life under a loupe,
to see and understand
all the loops.of thought -
how they hide themselves
and how they manifest,
and what they do when bathed in sudden light?

And am I willing to be calm and kind enough
to uncover hidden hurts and misconceptions,
to follow down the consequences
and put to right whatever is awry?

One thing is sure -
the way is forward -
neither looking back
nor circling in stasis
will furnish me the needed satisfaction,
and when this work is called for,
and as it is, I'll do it
in humbleness, and willingness,
and trust.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 4, 2021

Rain at Night

 

Rain at night
is a fine coziness  -
more so for its forbearance
through the day, for the unexpected sun
that came in with all kinds
of special effects, and all kinds of power
for batteries, and encouragement
for living things (like us)
getting ready for the short dark days.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 3, 2021

As i have been given

 

In the softness of the cloudy day,
in the quietness of certain moments,
I remind myself,
and it starts to come back to me,
how I have been shown,
how I have been given
a way of walking here
where joy comes up under my feet
and floats from everything i see

I don't want to keep it to myself,
I seek the deepening
that lets me give it
to everyone I think of
and everyone I see

I work it now in little ways
and wait to see it open up,
not by my will
but by my willingness,
not by expertise
but by grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 2, 2021