Transitioning

It’s not like I’m leaving, 

I said, though by some counts

I was already

long gone

It’s not like I could leave

the new and old nets of care,

not like I could stop loving

Just that the goals

here in this rarified air

have nothing to do with

what used to possess me

Just that my time is spent

along a different vector

and the measurement

of what is worth my doing

has completely changed —

other than that

I’m just the same.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 11, 2017

Touch Wisdom

Touch teaches tenderness,

teaches bones to soften their approach,

teaches the curl of the snuggle that,

coming in close and quick,

still doesn’t crash

Touch teaches affection

regardless of intent —

even mundane creature care

(diapers and washing)

leaves a connection that lingers

after the touch is released

My cerebral world taught me

the mind must decide first

if touch has been earned, is permitted,

but now my helping arms have learned

touch doesn’t need a reason.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 9, 2017

Presence

In the new light

in which I see myself,

there’s no more room

for grudging thoughts —

(grudging acceptance,

grudging allowance

for the needs and presence

of another)

I am not justified

in seeing anyone

with something less than love

This is, after all,

my whole being. I have no presence

except the presence of my love.

No point in striving

for some other goal —

only in loving

am I whole.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 8, 2017

Changes

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

Meeting Place

Not me, not you,

not the accumulation

of our feats and foibles,

not our prowess, not our evolving,

not the challenges we’ve met

or failed to conquer

But rather, the willing leaving

of all those stories, all those chains,

responding to what calls

the radical insides, the rawest

and purest of desires,

that which, when we ride with it,

thrums us alive,

each moment more

than we could imagine

This is where, meeting,

we will be amazed with each other

and at the same time, with ourselves —

this is where we’ll tell ourselves,

over and over,

yes and yes, yes and yes and yes.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 6, 2017

Counting Costs

In important moments

we realize

we have gone forward

without counting the cost —

something has overridden

all our cautious tallying

In these moments we find

a profound momentum

as the continuing imperative

takes over 

everything we normally judge by

Afterwards we may consider

it never makes sense to count the cost

for there is no price

that can be put on living.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 5, 2017

The Physics of Innocence

This is the physics of innocence,

the way no harm can attach

to one whose only impulse

is the call of life

Life calls to life

and life answers

in that quickened attention

that runs circles around the moments

even as the gaze holds steady,

connection a constant discovery,

oneness a revelation

The physics of innocence

is how we all fit

into the same song —

we find the harmony

and are glad.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 4, 2017