I brought my goal –
to weave the threads of happy,
to make our hosts feel seen and heard,
and glad that we were there
In doing so, I found myself happy –
through places where our conversations
swooped and soared, and opening
of ways to see and understand
And the delight of receiving
a gift freely given – days
filled with beauty and joy
and opportunity
to leave our former stress –
really, why would we bother
to pick it up again?
©Wendy Mulhern
June 5, 2021
The sea air enwraps us in its world,
taking us in like breath, mingling us
in the salt, the moist and sparkle
The sand receives our footprints,
settles in around our toes,
comes with us
We are dampened, we are lifted,
we are washed through with the wind,
the gift of this most needed renewal
resting lightly on our skin.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 4, 2021
As quick as a wistful desire
flitted across my thought
like a tree limb’s shadow, in the breeze,
came in the solid underpinning
as an invitation,
and, as quick as that,
we fluttered free
A little time to pack,
a little time to tend to newly planted trees,
and we’ll be off, while it’s still cool,
in the morning
Leaving behind the calculations
of all the things we have to do,
sensing the boon of this,
a reset, and a chance
to clarify our view.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2021
My mind is written through today
with double lines, as when you write
with broken chalk, where two edges
touch down at once,
my words over my words,
my thoughts looped back,
noticing the echoes
I don’t want to do it often –
it has a graying effect,
like much-used blackboards,
or like checking my phone
far too many times
The afternoon is not like that –
each sun-touched fir and fern
floods itself with presence –
no thoughts of past or checking for the future,
taking in each golden ray of now.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 1, 2021
I’m not afraid of end days,
because I’m learning
that succumbing to the story
would entail an abdication
that I will not do
I will not allow time
to roll like a wheel,
I will not assume that anything
just happens
I am learning sovereignty
over what moves in thought,
I am learning
what doesn’t more in thought
doesn’t move at all
I will stand strong
in my place with what’s unfolding,
my steps on earth continually
approaching heaven.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 31, 2021
I will agree
to not go backward.
We can pause, we can rest –
that’s good – it lets all the ripples
catch up to us, it lets
the consequences of our revelation
settle into place
It is well to take the time to celebrate
the new green, the new calm,
the ready place for long waiting seeds
to swell and sprout, and start to branch
into new understanding
It is not going backward
to take all this in –
it’s just allowing time for new hope
to bear its tender fruit.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 30, 2021
In this moment of afternoon
I walk in quiet wonder
through a subtle quality – the day
softened by tears,
softened by sweet conversation
that went on last night long after dark,
softened by the relief of finding a next step
out of a tight place
There are fewer words in my head,
and that is softer,
and the sun and breeze are softening each other,
and we can have direction
without being driven,
and we can have this day,
uninfluenced by time.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 29, 2021
I watched how the sun
sifted through the firs,
how it dappled the eager forbs,
stretching out long
after months as ground cover
I felt how the warmth was bestowed
in the precise places where the sun hit,
and I considered how precise
my thought must also be,
to pick out truth
and not slop over into lies,
and how sun-like this practice really is,
the bright places and the shadows
all basking in the overflow of grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 27, 2021
When presented with good,
evil, actually, can’t even remember
what it was thinking
It can string impressions together
in the echo of itself against itself,
in the escalation of provocation
It can lance forward
with its narrative of
good as the other edge of itself
(self righteous and indignant)
as that which justifies its bellicosity
But good – real good, pure good,
the one that never justifies
and never is provoked,
that always wishes well
and always blesses –
Evil can’t stand before it,
because, in the face of good,
it can’t think of anything,
can’t imagine what, besides good,
it could have wanted.
In the face of good,
evil drops itself entirely,
and we reach out, innocent,
to take the prize.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 26, 2021
Could be teardrops,
could be raindrops,
could be the tiniest kiss of cream
as we come toward the end
of this puddled afternoon
with a cup of coffee
and some small pools of hope
scattered and deflected
like droplets on my glasses,
and we will be OK,
yes, ultimately,
we will be just fine.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 25, 2021