Vow

Ok, let me take a moment

to breathe deep, for I will need it

in this dive below the surface.

I will not bypass this opportunity,

I will look clearly

I’ll watch out for signs of shallowness,

of touching down to a false floor.

I won’t harbor fear

by pretending it’s not there

If I am truly fearless,

my movements and my voice

will be powerful —

they will stop things

in the tracks of mindless motion

They will demand

all things that pass by here

to take on the full light

of their own meaning.

They will not let go

until they are transformed.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 13, 2018

Change

I have not changed

but I have cycled round again

like tree rings, layer on layer of growth,

branching upon branching

I have not changed

but I have pulled the veil away

layer by layer,

coming towards a clearer focus

All this time I thought that I was changing

but that was part of me —

the ever hopeful slant,

the sense of progress

which has come with me

like my hands, my eyebrows

And I will not change

until the final veil’s lifting

shows what I have always been,

changing me all the way back

through my past, and showing how

I have never changed.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 12, 2018

Now

You don’t owe loyalty

to past stories,

you are not bound

by what you’ve done before

You are not bound by thoughts

or what you think people expect

or by trajectories you launched

from where you were

You are here now,

and what you are

comes to you fresh and pure

in this moment of your being,

in this moment of receiving

what is given you

and what you’re called to give.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 11, 2018

Regarding Love

The feeling itself is real

even if the players that enacted it

were false, or were ephemeral

and dissolved in the distractions of the moment

like bubbles in the wind

The power itself is real

even if the constructs that occasioned it

or that you hope will do so

are nowhere to be found

Love is its own substance —

it may flow through these things

but it doesn’t need any of them.

Love is its own creator

and it is Love which is creating us.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 10, 2018

Still

I am with you

because we have found a way

to gather, as a thing distilled,

in the condensing places

where whatever mattered

from our words, and from our efforts,

what we noticed, what we cared about,

is concentrated in the quiet that we sit with

and shines the crystal brightness

of what’s true

I am with you

through and after all our struggles

because, willing or not,

we have been pressed to this purity.

Having come this far,

nothing else makes sense.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 9, 2018

In Sum

It comes around to

what tasted sweet

at the beginning —

simple companionship,

working towards a common goal

The things we gained and lost,

the ways we failed, what we gave up on,

and what graced us in between

when we were least expecting,

are all packed up now,

or packed off,

and here we are

not far from where we started

It’s been a good life, so far,

to quote a phrase,

a life to keep renewing 

in these later days.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 8, 2018

Mindful

Put your mind

in a place where it will dream,

let it be a wide open space

You will have, after all,

all the freedom you give yourself,

you will be able to get around

the things you stumbled on before

Let your dreams be teachers —

Even if you don’t remember

where you were,

you may be able to bring back

a way of understanding,

you may bring back

the potent calm you walked in.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 7, 2018