Author Archives: Wendy

This kind of changing

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You are not asked
to be more than what you are
but you are asked
to understand yourself

You are not asked
to make yourself be anything
but you are asked
to know your maker

This quiet standing
through what might feel like changes
will deliver you, after a while
to where the you you wished to be
is really who you have been all along

This kind of changing
where you could say
you actually did nothing
is what will save you,
this kind of changing
will win your day.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 3, 2017

Rebuilding

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Lift up your eyes from the rubble —
these blocks are broken, crumbled,
they will not be re-stacked, reset,
they won’t be home or citadel

No use to pore, again,
through all the plans,
no use to wonder
where they were wrong
or why they failed
to keep the city from going under

Let us arise and build —
not with these
but with the substance
we are made of —
bright vectors of intention,
strong cords of close connection
and the steady purpose
that knows us even when
we don’t know it, the one
that guides us ever to our own.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2017

Memorial

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We will draw you in
to the circle of laughter,
we will draw this robe of memory
around you. We will draw
a picture of your life,
we will draw compassionate conclusions

In this act of celebrating you
we celebrate our own humanity.
We celebrate the unseen ties
that hold us up, and hold us, thus, together

We have done well
for we have reaped the opportunity
to lift your life
so golden rays of sun
would shine on it
and light us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2017

Our Transformation

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When you looked up close at us
we were a misfit bunch —
none of our shapes exactly fit,
our parts adapted from some other use

We limped and lumbered along somehow —
it seemed remarkable, in fact,
that we had come this far,
and then the light shifted
and the vectors of our power aligned

Those parts that didn’t fit
never supported us.
As our lines straightened
and our rays gained strength,
the jalopy of our former sense of self
chugged to a stop,
abandoned in our upward climb.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 28, 2017

Questions

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And in these mostly indoor days,
these indoor preparation days
of dusting and of vacuum cleaning,
sorting through and seeking meaning

What thoughts emerge, what entertainment
plays upon my mind? What dreams
might I remember, what stories
do I find?

And have I caught the blessing
of the half moon through bare trees
at four? And of the birch leaves at noon
that left their limbs like a flock of birds?
And the moments, and their gratitude
when I notice the particulars of the day?

©Wendy Mulhern
November 27, 2017

Older

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There are ways these days
in which I feel older,
the tones of my chords
now including sixes, sevens, nines

There is a darkness on the undersides
where previously unknown fears
have flared and charred,
thereby disarmed,
but taste of fire remains

There is a softness now
to my approach, my certainty
is firmer, but its segments shorter —
I look more humbly for direction,
I take stock sooner
to adjust my course

The memory of dipping into tears
is closer to my eyes
and what I care about
is closer to the surface
but more than ever
runs clear and deep.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 25, 2017

All the you there is

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Close your eyes
and feel the stream, the roar
of presence — you can’t not be here,
can’t fail to be aware

Your pulse, your life, your consciousness
is strong — stronger than you think —
and pay attention:
it isn’t something that can turn off,
it isn’t something
that sometimes flows within you

There is no you without this life.
You have no inert state,
and the signal that is you
is never weakened.
How could it be?
It’s all the you there is.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2017

Needed

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The magic of you
is in the place where you find yourself
drawn to where you’re needed
like deer to a waterhole

Your life blooms here —
bright growth along the vein,
your presence makes this wilderness
rich with heart, with meaning

The pattern stays
even when the water
has seeped away —
you are marked by this place
even as it is marked by you.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 21, 2017

Destiny

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Don’t worry —
this is not a place
where you can go wrong,
this is not a test, and not a contest.
In your design, you’re given
everything you need to thrive —
this is your life
and you its only master

Don’t worry —
that which you most deeply wish
won’t be denied, though it may seem so,
many times along the way.
Your desire is part of who you are
and its fulfillment
is in your destiny,
cut, as it is,
from the same rock,
bound, as it is,
in your same Life.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 20, 2017