Calm

 

And for this gift of all inclusive calm,
I thank You.
I do not thank the hurricane,
the hailstorm, the tornado,
though You have shown
that they can do no harm

It hasn't been their storming
that has brought me here,
but rather how Your presence
puts them to silence,
in this and every instance

My sense of calm grows stronger,
not because of them, but clearly
because of You. You whose calm rules,
in whose most focused love
I dwell.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 30, 2023

Always

 

I suddenly saw
the events in our lives
like the curve of the smoke of a candle -
no need to remember exactly,
no need to pin down its shape

For we have been here forever  -
before the mountains, before the earth,
and if we've ever known each other,
it follows that we always have,
and always will,
in the timeless mindfulness of being

This is the only field vast enough
to hold my love for you who I called daughter,
and you who I've called Mom -
think of us all together in boundlessness  -
what laughter! and what power!

©Wendy Mulhern
March 29, 2023

A Way

 

We walk the fields together,
and many tasks could dog us -
dropped projects, ones we haven't even started,
things that once were done
but now must be maintained

We see the green
that sprang up after snow,
we see the slope of ground,
the rise of trees

There is a way to look at all of this,
that we may master
as we practice with ourselves and with each other,
there may be
a way to harmonize all this
and see the springing grace inherent here.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 28, 2023

Flow

 

Take me, take me along
this singing rumbling tumbling flow,
and though we speak of gravity,
and though I feel it,
throughout this run
there is no foreign force exerted

All is mindful here,
from molecule to glint of light,
to leaves submerged and floating,
to swirling and cavorting waves
and branches leaning, catching

All is mindful here
and each contributes
what defines itself
and how it fills the whole.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 27, 2023

Tone

 

As my tone of thought grows firmer,
the dispiriting voices
with their barbed and stinging filaments
are exposed  -
there is less space for them to hide in semi-consciousness  -
they can no longer pose as part of me

No strings that could be pulled by foreign agents,
no voices that result in giving up,
no inclination to conceal a faulty motivation
will get to be presented as my thought

They are squeezed out
and I become more vigilant,
learning myself in the new strength that stays.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2023

Relaying

 

Even when things aren't passed down directly,
father to son, mother to daughter,
even when things that happen
tear great holes
in community, in continuity,
these threads still have a way of catching,
clasp on some level
that was never severed,
and the elixir of life
refreshes itself,
giving rise to what feels like
brand new light,
though it's been here, latent, all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2023

Learning myself

 

This morning I found

a breath like the taste of snow,
a satisfaction
down in a place
I didn't even know I could feel,
a way all of me moves together,
a way to not be moved at all.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2023

A beginning

 

I stand here at the beginning,
having spent so many years
in the illusion of paths,
the illusion of progress

Gather, my thought forces -
we will go together from now on.
You will no longer be repositories
of false starts and dead ends

I will listen to you, and we will listen,
together, to what calls us to life,
what unifies us, and unites us
with others who are traveling

I'm sorry for all my foolishness.
But there is a way before me now
which promises to steer me wise.
I give us to that purpose
day by unfolding day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2023

On the kitchen porch

 

These could be memories,
these could be dreams  -
astonishing how they are still here -
we can bring them back to mind
so many years later

But even more amazing  -
how my thoughts make pictures
of your words -
you climbing trees
and galloping horses across the field,
the wind through pines
lifting your hair
caught in a shaft of sun,
the sudden recognition of presence
holding you all by itself,
hallowing you in that private expansive moment,
leaving its promise
of blessing and peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2023

Reflections on a gathering

 

Ways we are together,
ways we are alone,
how we may find ourselves, at any moment,
far away or cozily at one

We wheel in orbits,
diverge and intersect,
strive to tune our harmonies,
reverberate, reflect

So many broad paths of opinions
can sweep on through us and divide us,
so many hidden little bridges
enable us to close the distance

Within this dance
of taking turns and sharing stories,
with things we say, that people really hear,
we lead each other to a shared oasis,
haloed, safe, belonging, dear

And what we still can't say
peeks out, and wonders - maybe someday
it can bring its own intimacy -
when we build a safe enough container
that it, too, can emerge into the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2023

Who you are

 

This is more important
than anything I could say,
anything I could tell you,
anything you'd hear from me

This will be told to you
by your own being,
all the galaxies of you,
their suns and planets,
the connecting pull between them,
and all the life forms growing in their sphere

They come together in chorus
so intimate within you,
so comprehensive,
you might not even say you hear it.
It will ring in you
as everything you've always known.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2023

First thing in the morning

 

Here at the feet of the breath and the rhythm,
breath of calm centering,
rhythm of thought,
focused attention and time to reflect on
the lessons that listening brought

Depth of the peacefulness,
scope of the harmony,
place where the stillness is heard,
fast tempo chatter, empty or passionate,
silenced inside of the Word.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2023

Arrivals

The plane rolls in, the door opens,
a woman's hair blows out like a flag

*

Each in the still point of our thoughts,
we plumb surrender, structure, sovereignty,
we share our common threads,
their startling similarity

*

Rain gathers around us,
bringing us along,
closing us into our dome
as we flow down the road
toward home

*

Gratitude flashes iridescent
like hummingbird feathers,
multiplies between us,
fills the room
like warming fire.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2023

My Mom Visits

 

These rhythms run so deep.
Beneath my conscious thought or gesture,
mine and yours have found each other
before I even noticed they were there

It could be our own private world,
could be what marks us as bone of bones.
It's easy to fall into patterns
where these lines so seamlessly flow

Could be I come by that honest -
these ways I am me,
these things others see,
and it could be these rhythms
are how we're entrained
to the grand sweeping rhythm of All.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2023

Giggle

 

The sun came up behind me
and gave me a giggle of joy -
not only for its shining, but for the gift
of having work to do outside,
and having done it,
and the promise of more tomorrow,
and the prospect of becoming competent,
able to hold all this life in my hands
and see it come forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 11, 2023

Structure of Life

 

Considering structure,
the lock and the brace of it,
over and under,
the link and the lace of it,
eager connection, reciprocal, strong,
stretch and contraction,
heart of the song
           
  *

There is nothing mindless here -
within this temple, it all comes clear -
in taut tensility appears
a firm support, the space to care

*

So interlocked, this life extends
through inner and through outer
realms of space -
the loving structure that allows
the soft and still points,
steadfast protection that gives rise to grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2023

Falling

 

Many will speak of
the benefit of falling,
of coming completely untethered
from all that you trusted,
of having that done for you
which you were mightily unwilling
to do for yourself

And there's truth in that,
for any trust that can be swept away
is false,
and what is truly trustworthy
is waiting for discovery
by anyone who's  secretly lucky
to have lost all else.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 8, 2023

Drawing a blank

 

The words in my head
don't need to face emptiness  -
they are always ready to play

My mind fills in the images -
it can chain any two words together
and take them up the winding street
paved with tawny bricks
in the places of dreams
which may or may not be extant
in the world of my daily walk

It is only in the realm of judgment
that I may decide
I have nothing to say.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 7, 2023

Twilight

 

It's magical outside  - mist and moonrise
and the last blue before the final dark.
Snow has chased through the day
but it is gone now - the kiss of cold remains
but that is all

It's magical inside - the windows
show the same last blue,
and the reflections from our lights and fire

It's just a way of feeling about it,
a way that gathers warmth,
and gathers presence,
and peace that deepens
in the rounded shadows of the years.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 5, 2023

Evidence

 

I followed the trail of words
back through my days,
looking for the consolation
and the brave face
that marked the chasm that I never spoke of,
but it was gone

How can it be that a whole memory
is erased? Not exactly that,
for the facts are there,
but the pit of emotion is gone,
and the weight, the despair

In the place of dragons, where each lay,
will be grass with reeds and rushes

Even so. Hope springs from ash,
green and thriving.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2023

Focal distance

Where Spirit sees,
everything is seen,
and everything that's seen
sees with Spirit's sight

No object can obscure another,
no shadow can be cast -
to be reflection is to be the light,
and everything is pure reflection here

Nothing waits to see if it is seen -
we know we're seen by virtue of our seeing -
we know how Spirit shines through us
by seeing how we shine,
see ourselves lit
by that which we light up.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 3, 2023

Living itself

 

Well, the day won't live itself -
the wood will not be chopped and stacked
if we don't do it. The garden plot
won't prepare itself for planting.
But the clouds will roll on through,
sun glad-handing among them,
the deer will make their rounds,
and in the subterranean
channels of thought,
the unseen steps you take
may be the greatest thing that's happening.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2023