Author Archives: Wendy

The Place of Adventure

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This, right here, is the place of adventure,
here with the hole in the clouds
where blue sky sounds through,
here with the broken bootlace
and the black bugs that ate our greens,
here with the work that needs to be
pried and prised from our powers of invention,
and then, on top of that,
needs to be done

This is the place of adventure
where we plumb the depths
of our understanding, then go deeper,
where we live in the light
as far as we know it
and still keep going

There may be other adventures,
years down the line, lifetimes away,
but this is the path by which we’ll get there,
placing our feet down
in every step of today.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2019

Quick Release

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Today I see the value of a quick release,
the way I can unhitch myself
from trains of stories, when I feel them
careening towards a cliff,
when my emotions
have set up camp
and prescribed a course of action
that entails me crouching in the mire
of hurt

I asked myself,
which would you rather?
This, or being strong, resilient,
competent, and free?
— That was my quick release —
my choice was clear —
to leave the crouching mire
and center, here.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2019

Day of Freedom

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And now I’ll tell you of the time
when we all took off our crooked glasses
and shook our heads to focus our surprise
and spent some puzzled moments
trying to readjust our eyes
but then admitted
that here and now, as never
in our prior experience,
we could see

— because no longer did we need to fear
what someone else might think of us,
no longer did we need to squint
to weigh each other in the scales,
no longer did we think that judging others
was something we or anyone
was tasked to do

So we were free —
free to move with all the strength
and competence, and sweet compassion
that we always dreamed comprised our being,
free to love, with no fear of rejection,
free to trust our clarity of seeing.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2019

Morning Prayer

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Let me feel Your presence
like morning dew
that settles in so gently,
occasioning the tiny movements
of my thought, the small adjustments
that let the truth sink in
so I am nourished,
so I am changed

Let me respond
in opening of new blooms,
the possibilities Your truth advances
in places where the untrue myths
have melted off,
the startling expanse
engendered by Your everpresent light

Let me grow into it
in just the pace that You design,
calling me by name,
saying, “you are mine.”

©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2019

The True Thing

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The true thing
present in this green and golden
afternoon, with events suspended
while time ripens
and firs sing wind songs
while little birds converse

The true thing,
older than all the human stories,
newer than anything we’ve thought before,
is Life’s unfurling of itself
in multiple dimensions,
in ever awe-inducing harmony
for all of us to be.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2019

Life Power

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In the dream, the little girl
pulled the shining life jewels
right out of the air,
and when others scrambled for them,
reaching out in desperation
for the ones that pulsed with power,
she seemed surprised. “It’s right here,”
she said. She opened up her hand
and pulled out more

On waking, and in latter days,
I find that what she said is true —
It’s right here — infinity of life power
waiting to be pulled out from the air,
waiting to be lived.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2019

Slow Learner

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I am learning
it’s not enough to sit
well beyond the fray,
and see, with eyes amazed
at loftier perspectives,
the inner workings of the human scene

It’s not enough
to see the heartache and the failings,
because, if I can see them,
they are mine —
mine to soothe and smooth,
mine to see whole

If I haven’t seen that yet
then I’ve seen nothing —
there is no wisdom
but the one that heals.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 16, 2019

Summer Communion

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The heat comes on sudden
and the garden
which yesterday looked lush
looks parched,
and our efforts
which yesterday looked ready to fruit
appear to face a desert

But my boots have filled
with daisy petals and grass seed
from my ministrations to the young trees
and there is a deeper communion
that makes me feel
like a watered garden
that does not fear in times of drought
and I will stay here
in this more verdant place
until the world around me
does the same.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 14, 2019

Twinkle

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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

At the Public House

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All these people walk through life
slicing their intersections through the day,
each from their center perspective
with their invisible wake

We could make a pattern
like marbling in a scarf,
we could know, or never see
the change we make in passing through

As to the grand plan of things,
the design that we all make together,
collective results of all of our movements —
that is beyond my perception.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 12, 2019