Author Archives: Wendy

Lesson for Today

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morning by seep

With infinite patience
the land teaches us. The lessons
flow in slowly, altering our attitude,
our posture, changing us
from the inside out, letting us realize
the magnitude of what it demands,
but also the way we can meet the need,
the way to proceed
at the speed of seasons
where everything has time to harmonize,
at the speed of fog rising
and clearing,
of dew forming
and drying,
at the speed of frogs and crickets,
blackbirds and ravens,
grass and fern and fir tree
all breathing together,
at the speed of knowing right now,
of being and doing
what is needed.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 31, 2016

Happy

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Oak emergning

Having stepped
sometime in the night
or so it seems,
into the land of happy

I have nothing to complain about —
not heat nor cold, not missteps,
not setbacks —
the bubbly truth
about the nature of everything
cancels concerns

I notice I no longer
feel myself riding in my body —
instead, I inhabit it,
all the way out to my fingers and toes.
I touch the earth and sky
just in my everyday walking,
at home in this day.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 29, 2016

Submersion

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Erica's swimming hole Aug 2016

The way my body feels —
like jumping with delight
into a cold river,
bright as the sun edge
on the still shining far bank,
mirthful as submersion
where the clean cold is most welcome,
happy and wobbly like trying to
balance on slippery shifting stones

My body feels giddy
before the momentous proposition
of immortality
and the goodness of everything
and the clear conviction
of being rescued
from a sad dream.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 28, 2016

A Love Story

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honeysuckle, cedar

Some recognition sparked between them:
beneath the costumes, beneath
the designated roles,
they could see that they were equals,
that they could hone themselves
against each other, that they
would each feel their own strength rising
in ways they’d never reached without each other

They could see a common destiny —
they rode it for a flash,
they rode it longer, trying to ford
the mounting confusion
gathering around them
because their costumes didn’t match
and the customs that prescribed their roles
had a different story
than their equality

Many imagined their alliance doomed
or just imagined — how, after all,
could they have any common ground?
The end of this story will depend
on what you think is strong
and what you think is true.

Years later,
they will both look back
and see how much they’ve grown.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 27, 2016

Fade

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water glimmer

First there is the light
and then there’s the
trying to remember

For awhile the whole blaze
can be invoked in memory
and there are various
tricks to try to do so

Then there’s the gleam,
a light that’s still real
but indirect, and there’s
the gazing at it, trying to think
if that’s the thing
we saw before,
if that’s the light that dazzled us

And it doesn’t seem quite the same
along the shining stones
but the essence is right.

We start to ask,
did we ever see it
as something more?
We try to re-engage
but ultimately
it will take a new dose of sun,
liquid reflected,
to kindle that first brightness once again.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 26, 2016

Things Come Together

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Sandpoint Cats

And in fact
things do come together,
for that is their way,
like fast friends who
steal away to meet
in their secret hollow,
to share whispers and laughter,
who scheme ways to always find each other,
make plans to often be together

So the things in your life,
what you need, what you desire,
are happily conspiring
to come together in elaborate arrays,
to fill you up, to celebrate your days.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 25, 2016

Joy in Heaven

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sail sandpoint early

We’ve been dwelling in that bright edge
called Joy in Heaven, called
glory of needs met, the clasp
of reunion, the satisfaction
of soul-hunger fully fed

We didn’t know
that what seemed to us as
long nights with no stars,
deep tunnels with no exit,
hopes dashed again and again
was really just a backdrop
for the enduring truth
of our awakening

We didn’t realize that the bitterness
of what we thought was our perpetual betrayal,
when sweetened by the taste
of our belovedness,
would turn out to be
something else entirely,
something deeply craved
by all the host,
something greatly celebrated
as we come home.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 24, 2016

Instruction

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Sun,water,willow

In humble obedience
I loose myself
from the bands of my neck,
I rise
I stand up
shake myself free

What missive is this anyway?
What authority so advocates
for liberty? What judge commands
that I serve no penance,
that I be simply released?

What instruction is this,
that bids me fly on my desire
and soar up quickly
to infinity?
That bids me walk unburdened
from any self-induced
or generational weight

Shake yourself from the dust,
it says. What will this mean for me
in each new day? What worlds
I will master, if I but cleave
to this direction!
What songs I’ll sing
in the joy of fresh discovery!

©Wendy Mulhern
August 23, 2016

Progress Report

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Mill Creek April

No lumps can stay
in the warm river of Love.

There is such a sweet laughter
when they have melted away,
when they have slid, effortlessly
into the oneness of the flow
and a look of understanding
replaces the conflicted look
of frightened defiance
masked by bravado

It’s such a simple connection
when we recognize
there’s never been a battle —
we’ve always shared the same purpose,
been carried
in the same design.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 21, 2016

Standing Up

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birch by canal

Every one of us is sovereign
and the simple act
of standing up
will release us from the currents
that drag otherwise

We can stand up
and our feet will dig in
and what swirls around them
will be as nothing,
strengthened, as we will be,
by the grounded power
rising up through us
and the sight of others standing,
no longer dragged along

Each of us can stand up
in our purpose, in our intelligence,
in our understanding
of what we all desire
and what we all deserve
and have, in fact, been given.
We will claim it for us all for ever more.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2016