The Effect of Kindness

Since my body had been

soaked in kindness,

it had no voice to complain —

it wanted to stay there

in the memory and present fact

of kindness,

where it confessed

it was eager to learn,

eager to do anything I might ask

It was willing to abandon

any tales of injury or weakness

and just stay there in the aura

the kindness had bestowed

When it next moved

it was a different body

than the one I had walked in before.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 19, 2020

Like Light

Light comes in the morning,

orange, then gold, then white gold,

etches shadow filagree on walls through windows,

folds its glow through cracks of doors

And if I simply don’t allow

for any place to be untouched,

if I let light bathe every curve of thought,

I’ll leave no place inside for dread or worry,

I’ll entertain no images of scorn

And if, like sun, my love is humble,

indiscriminate because its source is infinite,

it will leave space for birds to shine and sing

in their own language, and smiles to well up

from their profoundest depth.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 20, 2019

Bed of Acceptance

At the end of our day,

size of remaining tasks notwithstanding,

we have to acknowledge

what was accomplished —

two vehicles saved

from the ravages of mice

(at least for now)

and some flickers of clarity

rising up in the firelight

as we considered

our past and future course

Now I can hold you

in the love that offers

a bed of acceptance

like coals hold the wood in the fire —

whatever you may think of your life

can be transmuted, offered up as warmth,

rendered translucent in the service

of that which glorifies us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 19, 2019

This Changes Everything

Streams of living waters,

rivers of pure light —

we speak of it in metaphors,

for how else can we convey

the feeling, and the importance of it,

the way we’re borne up

in the swift current,

the way it fills us

and lifts us

and becomes that which we are

And if we thought love

was a distant spark

that might or might not ignite,

if we thought love depended on

finding someone, or being found,

if we thought love was anything less than

the fountain of life itself,

or anywhere less than right here,

this changes everything.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 29, 2019

Then and now

I tell myself, in those days

I didn’t understand much about love,

though I did love

(as now I see we all do)

haplessly, perhaps,

helplessly at times,

with an intensity that could have been a key

I didn’t understand love’s power,

didn’t know to use it

so the ones I loved would feel encouraged,

safe, encircled, ready to go forth

to meet their own exigencies with love

I ask myself, well,

how much more of love

do you know now?

And are you able

to shine the light in such a way

that it illuminates instead of blinding?

And if I am, and when I am,

then all those other times of love

will also be redeemed. 

That is the way of love,

and love will teach me how.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 25, 2019

Clearing

Our enslavement lifts like fog.

Our freedom begins to shine

like fresh-washed air —

Though there may be

many layers till we walk

fully unencumbered,

till we fly

in the manner we’ve always desired,

every little liberation

makes us stand taller,

lets us breathe deeper,

gives us the grace

to love each other

with more generosity and kindness,

shows us that we all are moving

through the same layers of clearing,

our eyelids tingling with the dew of heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 20, 2019

Footing

If I find you before you set foot

in the world, before its quick traction

grabs your steps, flings you

on an unintended path

If I find you in the impulse

of your desire, in your wish

for all the beauty and perfection

in all your interactions

Then I will see you as you are,

and hold, perhaps, a beacon

to help you find your footing

in this day.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 6, 2019

Recurring Lesson

Back to the loop again

of learning

not to be afraid —

it’s not that difficult,

though it may seem so

in the echo chamber

of my benighted mind

I free myself from there

by tracing, in my thought,

the circle that enfolds us all,

that leaves out nothing,

so everyone, and every cause,

surrenders to the fact of being loved.

And in the all embracing love,

there is no fear.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 30, 2019

The object of our hope

What we’ve been taught to hope for

is so paltry, so far from being able

to deliver satisfaction, that it’s surprising

that we feel so disappointed

when those hopes are not fulfilled

If someone told you,

You can have the sky,

and free flight in it,

you ca have fellowship

with all the thought, with all the music,

you can sing color and dance

the whole kaleidoscope of pattern,

would you believe them?

If someone told you,

You can be the love

that comprehends and celebrates

every small and large

impulse of being,

you can be the love that nurtures,

that engenders joy and exaltation,

would you embrace that hope?

Here is the voice telling you all that.

You don’t have to say if you believe it —

only notice if you want it.

That, eventually, will be clue enough.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 7, 2019

Together

I guess I don’t know how

to pull myself together,

have no antidote

for centrifuge

I’m overcome

with feelings of expansion —

want shining love

for all these people,

want to understand

how this present light

fills them all with the overwhelming sense

that who they are

is just perfect

and how they look

is just fine

and what they give

is absolutely needed,

truly seen and gratefully received.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 21, 2019

On Love

What we collectively

don’t understand about love

has filled volumes

We keep trying

one person’s map or another,

we feel so sure at times

and then so doubtful,

and much of what we’re sure about 

is false, and as for what we doubt,

who knows if it is true?

And yet we keep on seeking it,

and somewhere deep inside we know

that something in us always loves

and so is always worthy

And any love we know

is real

and it will shine out

through our misconceptions —

every love will purify itself

until, with deep relief, we understand.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 7, 2019

Twinkle

A lot can ride

on the twinkle of eyes —

the smoothness of days,

the feeling of having done well,

the ease of incitement to laughter

These things testify

to the presence of

that which engenders the twinkle —

the substance it’s made of,

how it appears

out of what you might think of as nowhere,

thus proving as everywhere

what you may never see

but still most certainly need.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 13, 2019

To Edward

Though I may not know

in the eternal scheme of things

just what you are to me,

I can say

you are more than my calculus problem,

more than my ongoing test,

more than the mirror

it’s taken me too many years

to recognize as such

We hold each other up

in undetected ways —

perhaps we each receive

direction, motivation,

perhaps we are encouraged

and in our different vectors, strengthened

by each other.

I may be vine

to your trellis,

you may be

bird to my tree.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 2, 2019

Outsmarting the Devil

In the story, the devil rubs his hands

and says, “I got her!”

but I will slip free —

I will not allow sticky webs

to be built in corners

anywhere in my mind

I will not allow any compartments

to limit the luminous goodness

I see in the face of my neighbors

and sense in the love that I feel

I won’t be drawn in to complaint,

for it hides the brightness inherent

in each one’s desire to be loved.

It’s easy enough to just love them

and let the devil lose.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 15, 2019

The look of love

You wear the look of love

on your face. It’s easy to see

that someone lets you know

that you are cherished, every day.

It lends a sense of comfort

to your gait, your smile,

lets you move easy

through the changes in your life

If I can help someone —

—anyone — to look that way,

I’ll surely do it. It’s worth considering

in what small ways, and in what kind

of continuity of care, I can convey this

to people in my life,

so they will have the comfort they deserve.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 14, 2019

My ipod serves up love songs on the plane

I listen and my empathy

follows the threads of passion

(threads like water veins

upon the land below,

the rivers, lakes, the melting snow,

the cities clustered there, along the roads)

I feel the longing and the pain,

I feel the exaltation —

my spirit hums an all-embracing chord

that circles round the threads

and drops beneath,

enfolding them in overarching blue.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 24, 2019

Tree Planting

When you talk to the baby trees

before and as you plant them,

I hear your boy heart

pure and clear as blackbird song,

unmasked and frank,

strong in its innocence

I know its power in you

is like a tree core —

able to root down deep

and send shoots soaring

higher than anyone ever thought was possible,

high as hope, as love, as sky.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 20, 2019

Reflecting on precious times

I collect these moments like stars.

I can hold them in my hand.

Though they may be short blips in time,

they are as infinite

as what they reveal

For sparkling grace is this exactly —

the evidence in one small moment

of one great Truth, 

big enough to guarantee

heart-waking beauty,

tender and wonderstruck alignment

in the unfoldment

of the perfect peace

of now.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 27, 2019

As often as you need it

You were here

when the morning stars sang together,

you were here

at the foundation of the earth

When you know yourself as essence,

as what steps out in wonder

at the gifts of the day,

you can see that years

have never changed you,

and all the twists of circumstance

will always fail to knot you up 

in some unfortunate condition

Your belovedness

is clear as light

and as immutable —

you don’t need to make yourself be anything —

you are here

And I will tell you this

every day, every hour,

as often as you need it,

and if I weren’t here

the day would still tell you the same thing.

The trees, the wind, the bright waves on the water

—they will tell you, and the birds will, too.

Listen, and you will hear.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 25, 2019

As it continues

We have covered ground here,

through the longest night

and well into the year,

we have found healing,

sometimes tenuous

but slowly coming clear,

and though you’ve flown,

we still will walk this path together

The sun this morning

was almost match

for the gusting winds,

blue ruled the water and the sky,

we skirted puddles

on the familiar road to town,

hand in hand, you and I

So far we’ve come, beyond the judgment,

beyond the strife, beyond the words,

we think we see the curving of the earth,

and maybe on that circle

we’ll find our way back home

and taste the flavor of our native worth.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 14, 2019