Entering at the door

Let me approach

with utmost respect,

with reverence for the size and shape

of the place in you

that is designed to open

You will recognize me

in our mutually reflected light —

you will let me in,

you will come out to play

We will multiply our brightness

like flames in oxygen,

like fragrant blossoms in the midday sun,

we will be fed

and we will feed each other

in the pastures of the Allness of the One.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 29, 2020

A Way of Seeing

I start to believe

that this is not a matter of

evolving, not about

some distantly perceived

far off enlightenment

This perception has run

like sheen on fabric

all along the weaving of my life,

in my waking moments, in my memories,

in my hopes, in my assessments of my days

Everything Spirit — the spirit of everything,

everything held in its essence inviolate,

everything formed in the Mind that conceives it,

nothing whose essence can fail 

Yes, this has been a thing I didn’t know,

something whose knowing now saves me from fear

but in its perception, I see that it has to be

something I’ve always known.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 10, 2019

I take my shoes off

Once again, I settle in to Soul,

the home that dwells in every moment

waiting to support, affirm,

waiting to release me

I take my shoes off.

I breathe deep. No longer

out of breath from sweating,

I can find the rhythm

of the full cycle. No longer pinned

under conflicting propositions,

I feel myself float. I let myself expand

It’s so freeing to remember

I am not enslaved. I owe no consequence,

have no indebtedness,

no fear, no shame —

my life is here in Soul,

and Soul knows my name.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 28, 2019

Meaning

With infinite patience

I’m brought round again

to learn the new meanings

which are the old meanings

from before the world began

I will learn them

here in the calm of late afternoon,

here in the rain washed, sun graced moments

when the turkeys wander back

from across the field

and crickets sing softly

and grasshoppers click

This isn’t something

I could ever learn alone,

and the great wonder is,

I don’t have to.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 19, 2019

In the midst

And if I ask myself

the reason for my joy,

I may consider how we breathe beauty

in sight and scent and sound,

and how we work humble —

ready to serve and learn,

and how in all this

(constant as cricket song)

we are borne up

by the presence we’re coming to recognize

as our own,

as it is given us

in the midst of every day.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 12, 2019

Rise By Fire

Hold your body to the flame —

you will phoenix-rise again,

this is nothing you can name —

these are your essences made plain

The burning bush is not consumed,

the burning life is fueled by learning,

steady down the steps of days

to your eternity returning

Set your sight on what you are,

glimpsed beneath your deepest hope —

the guiding lights you see afar

are nearer than you’re told

Hold your body to the flame

of all that lights and fuels your being —

this will now define your days,

becoming all you’re seeing.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 14, 2019

Preparation of the Heart

I may bring tears to this process —

it doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here,

doesn’t mean I don’t want to be cleansed

I may bring tears —

it doesn’t mean I’m sad —

they are, I guess, a way that I surrender,

a way that I acknowledge

I can’t do this alone,

nor even know the “this” I should be doing

Prepare my soil —

banish the traffickers of worldly ways,

break up the rocks, dissolve the thorns,

prepare my soul,

and I’ll be here to water your sweet seed.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 10, 2019

Hymns

We found songs in the wilderness —

some were left for us

by ones who had traversed the path before —

they told of things

we hoped one day to see

Others rose out of the rock

and the work, and the constant travel,

and the bone pure perception,

in the air, in the stillness,

of the Truth that guided us

along the searing way

We sang songs in the wilderness,

and as the land began to green,

we recognized some things

that we had sung about so often,

only guessing and imagining

how they might be

We sang songs of the wilderness

resting in the promised land, rejoicing in the gardens,

learning the things our songs had named,

also remembering 

how we were inspired

when we were headed here

from far away.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 30, 2019

Your Spirit Today

The trees give shady respite —

I see their gentle breathing

in the rise and fall of limbs —

they are at peace with wind,

with Spirit

You are like that today —

in the calm of your demeanor

I feel the day breathing,

your spirit a balm against the work,

your steady motion

bearing us forward

along the course that we are learning

not to plan so much as ride,

not to engineer so much as live.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 27, 2019

The Power Within

The power within

doesn’t need instruction

any more than water does,

welling up and lifting

whatever rides upon it,

flowing out and gathering,

tumbling brightly down

The power within

is not obstructed

by any circumstance or story —

it rises up

and becomes what you are knowing,

it cascades forth,

becoming what you are.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 5, 2019

All Things New

Not even time is exempt

from the rushing wind of Spirit,

not even the past can harbor wrongs

that don’t get swept away

All things are clean —

no atonement is demanded,

no punishment required

before you enter

the liberating kingdom

of the law of Life

Right now is when you’re governed

by that which has no adversary,

that which holds as sole demand for you

that you be subject

exclusively to Truth.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 16, 2019

By Virtue of Your Being

By virtue of your being, you can know

(before any assessment,

with no need to take your measure)

by virtue of your being —

just because you’re here —

you can know

that you are good

Good for your surroundings,

good for the ones you know,

good for the rolling out of time,

along the course of things that happen

Don’t ever think your being

is just grudgingly allowed —

you’re not a stand-in

for something that would be better

There is no way for you

to be any less than perfectly designed

and implemented

in the universe of Mind.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 12, 2019

Rising

It was never a matter

of us saving ourselves,

never a case where any one

could individually rise,

never a case where some could go higher

with others left behind

I see it now. My own rising

entails the rise of my esteem

for everyone I see.  

The world is saved that way,

as we each see

the face of God in each other,

as we each witness

the glory of collective grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 18, 2019

Even So

If every life story

turns out not to matter,

if none of the shocks and the falls

or the haunting doubts

or the lonely lows

can make any mark on your being

If none of your items of pride

with their giddy highs,

their sidelong looks

(weighing your relative worth)

are anything you can protect,

anything that can remain

Still you will find

that the spark of your love

and all you’re compelled to defend,

your unplumbable worth

and the need for your presence

shine in Life’s eyes without end.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 17, 2019

The Realm of Spirit

In the realm of Spirit

there is no rationing —

You will rise like morning

drenched in joy,

you will drink freely

and light will flow liquid

across the whole page

of your day.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 23, 2019

There is a Calm

There is a calm

that stands against the flurry

of all the thoughts about what must be done,

there is a current underneath the worry —

it bears you down in silent swiftness

all along your truth —

a stream to drink from

and fill with gracious power,

a stream to cleanse away

the images of lack,

there is a calm

that you can find and hold inside you

as you go out

and come, triumphant, back.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 4, 2018

Visions

The man said he saw himself as paint

spread out over the landscape,

he saw himself as if dissolved

but didn’t care

I saw myself as the hills themselves,

and the trees on them, thrusting into sky,

I saw myself as flight itself, as song glide,

comprising all the realm my consciousness could span

I saw myself known, in the sharing of space

with others as vast and as free,

I saw myself knowing them

sweetly and intimately

When we come back with these visions,

what shall we do? How shall we live

in these things that we know to be true?

— Live in the vision, live from the vision,

bring it more clearly in view.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 16, 2018

Realized

I can say at this time at least

that I don’t fear the shattering

of my world, don’t fear that anything I love

can be shattered

I plant my feet, one after the other,

in each place the earth receives them,

feeling the gift travel up

through my frame,

feeling the blessed caress

around my toes

I find myself in this place

where what I am becomes real

as it is realized,

set down like these footprints

on the terrain of consciousness

in the fruition of my mind.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 3, 2018

At Dawn

Be not tormented —

you weren’t, after all,

any darker than the whole canvas,

any darker than the dark on dark

of stories about darkness

and rumors of a thing called light

sometimes dreamed, more felt than seen

And in that darkness,

no one prescription

is any better than any other,

however much prevailing topics

are wrongs of others, wrong on wrong

At dawn, it is revealed

none of these paths

are inaccessible to light,

none of those torments

have any staying power

They will lift

effortlessly as shadows,

we all will bask together in the sun.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 29, 2018

Elemental

And if I am released

from the story of myself,

from its hopes and conflicts,

from its worries and pains

If I am willing, rather,

to find myself elemental —

swelling like magma behind the impulse,

comprised of the joy of the growing edge

Can I then cross over

into timelessness and wonder?

into selflessness and understanding,

into living as lens and mirror

to all that shines?

©Wendy Mulhern

August 22, 2018