Author Archives: Wendy

Collective Silent Prayer

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subtle clouds and sea

We in this room,
a handful, or a little more,
we with everything we’ve brought
that floats upon the surface
of our lives,
the things that everyone can see,
the things we think or fear they can,
the things we try to show but doubt are seen,

We are leaving all that,
in the deep dive that finds
the many fathoms of our being,
past the breath-holding place
to where inspiration
is what we breathe.

We are alone in our thoughts,
yet we know
we are here together,
discerning a truth
that changes everything.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2016

Growing Pains

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Innis Arden walk

Learning to be real
is hard work sometimes,
as I remind myself
from my cozy living room
where I didn’t lift a finger
to make the lights come on,
to make it warm

You wouldn’t know
I’m struggling for my life,
struggling to connect
my causes and effects,
to find a way to know
that what I do has value,
to find a way to deal fairly
with all the beings
with whom I interact,
with everyone on whom my life depends.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 12, 2016

Needs

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willows and raindrops

Any one of us can give
that which is needed,
and our giving will be
what we most needed as well

Anyone can catch and kindle
the contact of eyes,
which forms a spark,
forms a river,
which warms us up and quenches our thirst
at the same time, as no single element can do

Any one of us can forgive
that which was not given —
we all have suffered
the momentary overwhelm of fear,
or the stuckness of static suppositions

Today I need both:
the giving and forgiving.
Grant me the moment,
grant me grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 11, 2016

Indeed

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wind, indeed

The wind chimes sang to me
through the night
and into the morning —
they sweetened my dreams
and my prospects.

They were untiring
in their celebration of
the wind that came
up ocean, through trees,
across the craggy rocks of mountains,
bringing the fragrance of
the powerful rightness of everything,
that which returns each day, as if
all our pathetic twistedness
had not touched it at all

And indeed
the freshness that escapes
in these rifts of wind
is proof.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2016

Window

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Oak Bluffs sunrise June 2015

I waited for joy to come
like rain clearing,
but the rain didn’t —
I found myself tensed against
its cold drops, and against
the tasks at hand
(or lack of other ones)

I noticed there was nothing
I could summon to pine for,
no conditions that I felt
occasioned or could remedy
the gray occlusion of my countenance

Later I remembered
how anyone can be a bright window —
Anyone can show a tiny hope,
just enough to engage the recognition
that brings me back,
that fills me up with light.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 9, 2016

The Counsel

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the counsel

We summon the wisdom
of all that are here —
the sentient beings,
with their channels to
the flow of all things,
the moisture as it travels,
as it breathes its meditative circuit,
the rays of sun emerging
low and brilliant
in a sunset pause between the rains

We summon experience, we summon
hope, we summon new-found
discovery of what we are.
This counsel will tell us,
with the certainty of dawn,
how to bring forth the purpose
that calls us to this place.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 8, 2016

Provision

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provision

The source of everything,
the source that gives me everything,
will give me this as well:

The hearing of rain coming —
patters in the distant fields —
the chatter of little birds,
crows’ pontifications,
the upwelling behind my eyes
that shows me how much I care

And it gives me
all the thoughts that dip their threads
through the present hour,
that trail their colored tendrils
through the bubbling mix of How I Feel

And the perfect timing
that finds us cozy as rains descend —
We will receive everything
as we need it,
including the gratitude
that lets our joy take root.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 6, 2016

Knowing You

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smell of ocean

Ah, let me not know you
according to the little box
you have created for yourself,
however sunny its windows
and engaging its points of views

Let me not think
we can only know each other
if our boxes haply interlock.
We are so much grander than that!

Let me know you by the
bright winds of your thought,
the way you meet the broad air
and the smell of ocean,
Let me know you by your tender observation
of that which captures your delight,
by what you come to understand,
and what your hands master

Let me not even require connection
to know your worth,
Let the free ranging of your being
give me joy
for whatever span
it falls across my day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2016

Jubilee

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lagoon reflection

This is the jubilee,
and all debts are forgiven.
Nothing that has weighed heavy
on your sense of worth,
nothing you have tallied,
no way you were measured
and found wanting
gets to stand

Consider the sheer brightness of it,
like sheathes of water falling down mountains,
like the water-colored silence
where all clamor ceases,
like the clarity that fills your face
after the water splash:
in this moment, you are free

None of the acts or reactions
you thought had trapped you,
none of the ruts
you thought defined you,
none of the bad choices
you thought required atonement
have any mark upon your being

This is the jubilee
where you start with
what you now see
you have always been.
All debts are off. Begin.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 2, 2016

Testing

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greenlake fig

The testing is entirely internal,
though I may see it
as challenges inflicted from outside,
and that which tests me
is no external judge
but just the propositions of my mind

They hold themselves up to the light
to test for truth, for purity, transparency,
and if they have a splotch or fracture,
I’ll see that flaw projected
on what my consciousness
calls my experience

Then I can choose what I believe —
the trueness of the universe
or the refraction
imposed upon my vision of my life

And what I call reality
will then determine
if I spin out and flail
against the sadnesses and failures,
or take a stand for Life’s integrity.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2016