All the same

This may seem infinitely different

but it is all the same,

the binding loops of fear

are not distinct, there is no

relative virtue in the systems

that hold us down — one pathology

is just as haunting

as another

We can find comfort, then, perhaps,

in what we share,

stop putting ourselves down,

forgive each other,

and in the space that makes,

we’ll come to see

it is the same release

that frees us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 7, 2020

Forgiven

In my dream I said I was sorry.

You said it was OK,

and your forgiveness

lifted my spirits mightily

This is the case with much that I remember —

I’m sorry for what I didn’t understand,

but forgiven, for I didn’t understand. There is no need

for dwelling in regret —

new perspective brings a brand new page

So in the light of day

as in the dreaming night,

forgiveness wins —

there’s nothing more to pay

except attention to what is given,

the grace to love,

the fresh-washed day to live in.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 9, 2019

A large place

You come into this place

where all is forgiven —

this place too big for indignation,

too big for shame,

too big for being right,

too big for having thought

all of those small thoughts

that kept things in their place

and called some things impossible

and other things unfortunate,

that called some people good

and others bad

This place is too big for any of that.

So you look, clear-eyed and amazed,

surprised at what you never knew before

but certainly are sure of now.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 14, 2019

A Touch of Grace

And if you feel you can’t forgive,

can’t be forgiven,

if barbs from old stings

tear at your flesh,

let that body go —

it was never any more

than just a dream

Whatever scars it has

will melt away, along with

all its trappings of identity.

The memories it holds

that waited to be triggered

will melt as well, giving place

to what has longed to waken

to the touch of grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 30, 2018

Amnesty

Every little one

gets to be comforted,

however muddy

they may have become,

however muddled,

however wrong-headed

they may have been

in their self justified crusades —

every one of them

gets to come home

In this new regime

there is no contest,

in this understanding,

nothing less than the absolute worth

of each of them,

the hush inducing glory

of each tiny one, and each great one, too,

set holy in the rightness

of encircling Love.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 23, 2018

In the Garden of Belonging

Let me stay here

in the soft bubbles

of easy laughter

where everything is forgiven

because no harm was ever done

because how could it be?

—Given that we always

have been beloved,

given that we always have walked

in the garden of belonging,

always have owned

the grace to move

softly and deeply

through the landscapes of our lives.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 27, 2018

A Time of Power

This is a time of power,

this is a time of jubilee

from all your faults —

you don’t need to repeat them

anymore. You don’t need to

pay homage to your past mistakes

by making them once more again today

This is a time of freedom

and the sweet release that comes

from simple pure repentance

and from standing up again

in the resultant clarity

of who you really are,

to make amends

in a way that really heals,

to set things right

from this new place of strength.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 9, 2017

Forgiven

We wanted to be forgiven.

We wanted this, without even knowing

who, or for what —  some deep shadow

cast within us. Some light

we hoped would shine on all our being,

showing that we were never

what we most feared we were,

and we never needed

to be punished

We have sensed there is such a light

like an orange glow 

in a distant upper window,

a window that turns out to be ours,

a place that turns out to be home.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 19, 2017

Collective

In this place of everybody’s tears,

it feels amiss to have opinions —

better to let the collective pool deepen,

better to hear the cleansing music

of the quiet drops

and let the gathered ocean

sigh and shift, pour in, recede,

find its common rhythm,

sweep us up within its cycling waves,

rock us, rock us, till our sobs subside

till our restive motion

finds its restful ease.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 18, 2017

At One

Underneath the slow drift of thought

(so many horror stories how it got that way)

there lies the urge

wild as water

wild as virgin rivers

to reconcile

to flow together

to abandon all divisive tales

and breathe as one

None of us really wants anymore

to be the winner —

we have started to see

that when one of us loses

so do we all

and we have all lost so much already

that we are really desiring

to come home

to the place we are all washed clean

and we are all sorry 

and we are all forgiven

and we can start anew

to live at one.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 15, 2017

These places along which we’ve laughed

Getting further down the line

of what I’ve called my life

I find that many things

that seemed of ponderous importance

make no difference at all

Whereas what really matters is

the times we’ve laughed —

the way they make a path

down which its easy

to laugh again, catching each other’s eyes

at the top of a giggle,

opening up the corridor

through which joy can bubble —

joy and belonging and some

wonderful forgiveness

for any former blaming

These places along which we’ve laughed

define the ways we know each other,

give the flavor of our family

where we come back, so eagerly, to drink.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 31, 2017

On Further Examination

I break open the day

and find myself innocent

though many records

have intimated otherwise

My current self

has not been kind

to my former self

in terms of estimation of her worth

But there are signs amid the boxes

that grace was also present,

there was lovability

and she was loved

It’s right to learn things,

it’s right to grow and to outgrow

and with that progress,

forgiveness also has its place,

it’s right to leave some things behind

but still remember

in a fundamental sense

I’ve never changed.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 16, 2017

Tone Deaf

Some time afterwards,

the niggling suspicion knocks,

flounces its way in, 

sets its baggage down,

and I start to conclude

I have been tone deaf

Certainly not for the first time,

though I had hoped these incidents

had mostly tapered off,

as has my former swift self castigation

I am a little sorry, yes,

but also curious —

what internal constructs

led to the little gaffe, which rolled out

with such ease and comfort?

Where could my mind be, next time,

to reduce the risk of doing this again?

Ah, let me be included

in the grand forgiveness

that Life gives each of us

as we come home,

where we serenely know

we never fail each other

when in the consciousness of being one.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 14, 2017

Healing the Beast

The beast, wounded,

snarls and snaps.

There is a correlation

between unhappiness

and being mean. The unhappy feel

their meanness is justified —

after all, if they aren’t happy,

why do they owe thoughtfulness

to others?

The beast must be captured

with cords of understanding,

wrapped in kindness

till it can’t lash out. Slowly, then,

we can start to heal those wounds

it has inflicted on itself

It may seem more natural

to try to punish it, for all the damage

of its many incarnations,

but that is what the beast would mandate

Let us then heal

the beast within ourselves,

that our hands may be free

to bind and heal the larger, outer beast.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 1, 2017

Forgive Me

Forgive me, for I didn’t expect

the swift slap of anger that rose up

as if from within me, that blew

my behavior off course a couple of feet

before I crouched down and let it go,

so much useless, howling nothingness

that tried to make me think it was important,

that tried to make me feel justified

Forgive me, for I reacted,

in that moment, so full of myself

that I forgot to see you. Forgot

that seeing you is the one excellent thing

I can do for myself, what makes me

realize myself more fully. That is to say,

seeing you will lift me from myself

to my true being, 

fulfilling the role that Life intends,

good for you and me.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 10, 2017

Clear

Let my heart be soft,

let it release constrictions,

let me trade in my judgments

for innocence

Let my breath be full,

let my soul feel its expansion,

let me trade in my regrets

for forgiveness

This is a time of freshness,

two nights’ thunderstorms 

achieving crispness on the second morning,

the hot thickness, for now,

cleared from the day,

This is a time for clear eyes, too,

scratchy opinions

all washed away.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 24, 2016

Retrospective

What forms us, what

makes us what we are,

what brings us to this place,

this state of being?

(Certainly it’s early 

to wax retrospective,

with this, the greatest work

of our lives, before us)

(Clearly we have seen,

the story of our past is

the product of our present lens,

it shifts with each tilt of the head,

it doesn’t show us anything)

And yet, there is a fullness

in this sunny afternoon

flooded with memories,

there is a fondness

for what we have been, 

however foolish

There is hope that all will yet bear fruit,

and all will be forgiven,

there is time

to let our lives unfold.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 7, 2016

Rise Up

You are innocent.

There are no wrongs

for which you must atone,

no layers of pain and shame

rolled up in justification,

rolled up in anger,

rolled up in desperate deeds

There is no errant course

that justifies your bondage,

no years indentured

that you have to pay,

there are no habits

which keep you stooped, submissive,

no lock and key upon your day

You are innocent,

and you are thereby free

to shine the light of you, to be

the things you always sensed

were your potential.

You have not lost them,

you have not forgotten,

you have not failed

to take the needed way.

Stand up and walk —

all blunders are forgiven —

You are granted your primal peace today.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 27, 2016