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
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
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 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
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
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
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
