The light keeps brightening
as we remove the layers —
what once was dim and fickle
becomes a stronger flicker,
becomes a steady glow,
becomes a blaze
We will drink this light
like flowing water,
we will be borne
in its currents,
we will rise like bubbles,
all that we thought defined us
fully forgotten
in our daily learning,
in our daily flight.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 29, 2017
Today I feel small but mighty —
small as a chink of light
under a door,
small as the time it takes
to catch an eye,
small as a seed, small as an inkling,
mighty as kindness, mighty as truth.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 28, 2017
I want to be satisfied
but not self-satisfied.
I don’t want to take my life for granted.
I want my life to be a quest,
a quest for more and deeper, truer,
of what is.
I have read, and I believe
there is no room for superstition
in understanding. I will endeavor
to place no weight on life’s events,
leaning instead
on the Spirit that is
the Life of everything.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2017
Every one of them, it was said,
has their drug. Once they taste it,
they’ll go to great extremes
to get their next fix.
They’ll feel the promise of that
rush of aliveness, they’ll crave
the affirmation that seems
so certain to be felt
as they receive, once more,
the dearly sought elixir
Every one of them, it was said,
can be roped in just like that,
can be controlled, can be enslaved . . .
They didn’t reckon on
the dawning recognition
of the light that saturates everything,
that satisfies everyone’s desire.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2017
Light falls across your face
as trees outside sift sun
through their low branches
Late afternoon finds us here
refreshed, at peace, settled
into what has been revealed today
of steady power, solid strength,
sovereignty
In the end, we can only be
true, we can only emanate
what we really are.
We learn it here, in the centered
witnessing of each other.
We learn it here
in what we see
and what we give.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2017
There’s no turning back —
all the contexts, after all,
are so quickly forgotten —
those things we thought would be
so worthy to attain
no longer shining with the same allure
It’s not that I mind
the ease in my days,
the gentle cooling
in the summer wind,
the time to breathe in consonance
with bees and flowers
Just that what I’m called to
is something more
than what I had assumed would be enough –
more than ease and comfort,
more than entertainment,
more than heady thoughts
on how I think and feel —
I need it more than image,
more than branding, more than tribe —
something that will show me I am real.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2017
The first ripe plum
from our tree —
juicy, sweet, tangy, sour,
the birds that flit from fir to cedar
as they darken (birds and trees)
while the sky is still full of light,
summer laughter of children
in the next block,
the scent of buddleia in the evening air
These, and the slow progress
through the tasks,
the tasks of learning,
the tasks of growth.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2017
Summer is kind,
pockets of peace offered
in wind, in the play of light in leaves,
in shade. There is a lightness
that lifts thought like a kite,
dances it against the high currents,
brings new sight
Summer is replete
with memories of freedom
playing like breeze across the mind,
still impelling the thoughtful to dream
of liberty for all mankind.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2017
My hands are slowly learning the terrain,
the steps, the reaches, changing intervals,
the black keys and the white,
which ones are called for in this signature,
coordination of the left and right
I didn’t know they had so much to learn,
I thought that they should know these things,
despaired to find they didn’t. I took a long time
crashing them through songs
thinking they’d never get it right
But they are learning
and I’m learning, too —
patience for things that take time,
willingness to do the work.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2017
You can have
all the freedom, all the blessing,
all the grace you want —
just don’t try to hoard it
You can be
a changer of the world,
whose outlook
transforms the frames you see —
brings them to alignment
with their essential goodness —
just don’t seek to take the credit
You can know the bliss of oneness,
commune with Allness, dance infinity —
you won’t miss
the things that can’t come with you,
wake up — shake off the dream —
you’ll see.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2017