Grateful

 

I wake up grateful
to be living in the house,
to have its warmth and work,
its frame and vistas

I wake up grateful
to be living in the world,
fraught and perilous though it may seem  -
it is the least I can do
for the life I am given,
my most honest standpoint
for seeing the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 31, 2021

A Mystery

 

I can't tell you about this,
snow melting, drips of rain coming down,
subtle elusive smells - cabbage? mammal?
crunch of crusted slush under my boots

I can't tell you why
a smile circles around and catches me
from behind, from within,
or why the sense of something poignant
hovers, just beyond recognition

Once again I feel
waves of understanding, of forgiveness,
of remorse  - of letting these be phases
in the crumbling of old perspectives
so truth can align to hold the
infinitely weighty but perfectly balanced place
where we can hold each other
in exquisite trust.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 30, 2021

Grace

 

The grace in this house
is a quiet thing
but it fills the spaces,
plays in light and shadow,
glows in color

The grace in this house
makes all the difference,
fills us up, too -
plays in the softness of faces,
glows in souls.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 29, 2021

Consider

 

Consider Spirit,
for where would you even think to be
without it? Why would you even care?

Consider Spirit,
for your very breath rises and falls
at its direction. Your desire to be alive
is its very imprint

Since you have never even
lifted a finger without it
(and you have been and done so much!)
does it not make sense
to let it carry you -
through all these seas and home,
through the whole winter
to the springing grasses?

©Wendy Mulhern
December 28, 2021

Enter Winter

 

We watch the snow come down,
we let the projects
crammed up against the calendar
wait another day,
we watch the sun come through,
and then the clouds
across the snow -
we let it be the main event,
we wrap our day around it

We keep the fire burning,
we let the hidden warmth
of our companionship
create for us a pause,
a place that we can rest in

Some great understanding hovers
just beyond our grasp -
we let its implications
drift down in.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2021

Happiness

 

Seems like happiness is tucked
under snowy limbs of trees
and in curls of clouds -
it comes springing out -
lifts my breath,
fills me with spaciousness,
kisses me like rare thick snowflakes
having their silent say.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 26, 2021

In Kinship

 

I give myself permission
to find myself lighter -
composed of elements
that sparkle and stream,
and mingle with the stream of
what floats in the air,
what circles and kindles tingles,
life leaping in molecules,
sending joy in rolling curves
up along the skin

I give myself permission
to be weighty, propelled by breath into
solid pushback against the floor,
finding the mountain stance
where I will not be moved

It is the same breath
in both cases, the same Spirit  -
I walk in kinship with the air and earth.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 25, 2021

Soft

 

Tonight we feel
we can settle down softly,
like snow, like radiant heat.
We can be soft with ourselves
for the work we haven't done,
for the time we need
to gather resolution
for the final push

Tonight we feel
we have been filled with friendship,
and can use its model
to walk our way out
of the pit of isolation,
till what we see as distant stars
become our beacons
and our beacons
become our light.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 24, 2021

Looking Back

 

According to my journals,
I've made no progress at all.
I'm wrestling with the same stuff,
I'm flying on the same hope  -
I see the bracing path rise up before me,
feel stronger with each vista I attain

I had imagined I'd be coming back by now,
bearing treasure, telling tales of all my victories,
but the trail demands I keep attention forward
and leave my dreams of accolades behind

According to my journals,
back last year I also battled darkness,
and last year I also walked in light,
and maybe there's no final victors' banquet,
just the daily work of taking steps aright.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 22, 2021

Fractures

 

In this fractured dream world
there is no is,
no state of being right,
no state of being
a certain kind of person

There are no facts about the past,
there is no structure of
the current state of things

However long we grapple with
our and each other's
version of the truth,
however justified our story seems,
we won't get closer
to anything that represents us fairly

Through the fractures in this dream world,
sometimes
light can be seen  -
Oh light, be my justice,
enlightening me,
Oh light, be my vision
and teach me to see.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 21, 2021

The light that gives us meaning

 

It seems the right time of year
for us to fall into darkness,
for the day to sock in,
for the lights to go out,
for the water heater
to have no juice

And in the view of flames
for us to contemplate
the light that gives us meaning,
how it rushes in with a similar sound,
how it wakes up limbs and toes,
how it illumines our desire and purpose
and will sustain us
even when the solar light is gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 20, 2021

Mushroom hunting

 

Scanning the ground
where the soft curve of brown
that I'm looking for turns out,
every time, to be acorns,
or the soft lobes of oak leaves
settling down. It is their season now,
it seems - they rest together quietly,
intimate whispers in the dampness,
curling in for winter's rest

I ask my belly then
to send an invitation to the mushrooms
to join the dance of things
that unlock molecules
so elements go free
to seek out other pairings

It is happy to oblige
and soon I find some mushrooms
in the amber tones of its delighted language

There is more to learn of this
than what I noticed here - the invitation
extends to me -
to come back often
to join this dance.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 18, 2021

Story Arc

 

(From the virtual biking philosophers' notebook)

My feet step down each day on earth
but don't define my story.
My story leaps in looping arcs,
bounces down the street
like children tethered to a parent's hand,
their darting jumps forever anchored back,
encouraged by security

My story leaps for meaning
and will connect sometimes
to consequences that light it up,
closing all the circuits down the line,
illuminating bridges, tracks, and tunnels

Showing what was relevant
from all those steps throughout my time,
showing what was destiny,
or thus defining it,
the future giving meaning to the past,
the place I land creating my past path.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 17, 2021

Ready to dream

 

And when the day's tough times were over,
the dogging demons not so much defeated
as dispersed, not ever seeming
to be obedient, but simply passing
outside of my attention,
after the fire was long gone
but the stone was still warm,
the waxing gibbous moon
peered through the clouds,
bright enough to cast a shadow,
and dark blue patches showed
between the clouds,
and nothing that had bothered me
was worth taking to bed
where everything waits
to be recombined.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 16, 2021

Radiance

 

Let me leave the lumps behind
(collateral of judgment)
let the things I say lift free
like flame, like grace,
like being moved by music
in a dance with no pretension

Let me abandon
all pontification, weights
that can fall haplessly
on someone else's toes,
let my expression
welcome others to their own,
let it celebrate their light
such that we multiply  -
our signal spanning light years,
our radiance close at hand,
bringing warmth and life
to all the land.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 15, 2021

Bones

 

Let's start at the beginning
where my bones know your bones,
where they can feel them laugh,
mirth ripples echoing
down their shafts,
delight inherent

Let's start at the beginning
where they confide trustingly
the solid truth about themselves,
the longing and the confidence,
the places they hold open
for the rest of us to play -
how glad they are that we've availed ourselves
of their hospitality,
that we have come home here
to be together.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 13, 2021

Take possession of your body

 

At the voice of Truth, your body
thrills in awareness, all its currents
apparent, transparent  - its unobstructed flow
coursing with power. You feel the solidness
of it - not as clay, but as imperative,
the joy of presence, unmovedness
of honesty, the certainty of what it is,
what it must be

Ask your body  - it will tell you
what you may have been trying
to assert. Give it credit,
and give it slack. And finally,
give it comfort, for it deserves to know
you will take care of it,
you have its back.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 12, 2021

Recognition

 

May you feel peace in your toes.
May you feel strength in your feet.
May you feel confidence
in your stride, and joy
in every breath

This moment belongs to you.
This is you as celebration.
This is you as recognition
that every one of your steps
is met with support as deep
as the earth, and what you reach for
rushes to meet you

The fact of your substance
can't be hidden any longer.
You'll feel it rising up
more and more each day,
creating the bridge
that closes the gap
and lets all of heaven bloom forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 10, 2021

House of Justice

 

The rooms of this house  -
I consecrate them  -
Let them be fully filled
with harmony. Let the rhythm
of Soul so saturate the spaces
that everything within reverberates

This is a house of justice,
so all who enter here
are seen for what they truly are.
There is no frequency here
for false representation  -
it finds no chord and so is left in silence

And even if your truest tone
has so far never sounded,
it will ring out here,
so true are the harmonics  -
if you didn't know  before,
you will know now,
and so will all the dwellers
in the house.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 9, 2021

Benediction

 

May the truth of your being
come upon you
as joyfully and peacefully
as a tree full of birds,
their chirps and whistles
loud from their multitude,
spilling into the morning air,
an aural sunshine
bright against the clouds.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 8, 2021

Demeanor

 

Let me slip in
with calm confidence,
let me slip into the cage
with no fear of the snarling  beast

I will bring nothing with me -
nothing of pride, nothing of judgment,
I will go with trust
that nothing that I am
can be attacked
and that my fearlessness
can bring the needed evidence,
my love
can bring the needed peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 7, 2021

Along the shafts

 

These days I see the light everywhere  -
in the glow of wood grain,
in between the ribs
of all these living vessels of hope
(however much they cover it)

I see it along the shafts of rain,
and in compassion
that rises between the stories
of untold pain. I see it
in how much
everything alive desires to live,
and how the sky
hugs us all around
and holds us in.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 6, 2021

Shaken

 I love your happy pictures,

your confident success
and the feeling of security
because you have arrived

What is this braided shadow
that I feel? – that everything I see here
will be shaken
one way or another,
but it will be OK

It will be shaken till you know
your worth is not dependent
on this or any other points
you have achieved

They will be shaken
but with infinite compassion
so you feel
the vastness of the blessing of your days,
that your joy is not dependent
on things that can be lost,
and your goodness what can never fade away.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 3, 2021

Ember

 

I lay by the fire
absorbing warmth like a coal,
and even marinating
in all kinds of sorrow
the cracks of light glowed through me
just like embers
attesting to what I am made of
and what will sustain me
through this and every passage
to the dawn.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 5, 2021

A place of angels

 

Let us meet each other
in a place of angels,
where there is no baggage
of what we said yesterday,
or what we have said and done
these past thirty-nine years

Let us be caught up in the light
of present splendor,
of coming into
all we are meant to be

Let us blend lights
with all the angels here,
especially the one
we learned so much love from

Let's apply that learning
to each other and to everyone
who intersects our vision,
who brings their quintessential radiance
into the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2021