The river calls its tributaries —
they are drawn to the flow —
all water follows
by virtue of what it is
Of water moved by Spirit
we are formed, we are born,
we are borne along the course prepared
Of water and of Spirit
we find ourselves
new as this breath,
steady as the presence of the infinite.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 7, 2019
“give unto the Lord glory and strength”
It is rightfully called glory,
this internal exaltation,
this joy, this calm,
this shining out of
what I now experience as me
and know I don’t create it
Strength, as well, can truly be called given,
when I know this power
(which doesn’t come from me)
keeps welling infinitely,
supports me without end,
defines me as I use it
not to some grand end
that I have conjured up
but in the bright being
of eternal Soul.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 25, 2019
A world made
of everything that happened,
an armature of sighs,
something seen the moment
before I opened my eyes,
not enough time
to make any difference
There may be hope
in the very slightest of things,
the gossamer of insect wings,
the care that has been taken
at every scale where things can be perceived —
we may not understand
but this may help us to believe.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2019
Here is a secret:
Being is not something you can fail at.
This despite the very loud
opinions to the contrary
and their constant repetition,
throughout all your years
Here’s a truth to take you by surprise:
You didn’t make yourself. And what did make you,
what makes you still, in each moment
of your breathing, each eye-blink of awareness,
is no podunk show, no lazy shop, no third rate joint
The enormity of what you are
(broad as the stretch of your imagination)
bears witness to the size of your creator,
which, besides being too big to fail,
is also the only thing in the whole stupendous
here of consciousness
And it doesn’t let you fail. Not you,
not any of these others.
If you think you stand in opposition,
think again. You are given, after all,
a deep enough understanding
to take this in.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 23, 2016
I find myself suddenly
very small,
very still,
glad enough to have
nothing to say,
profoundly relieved
to realize
I’m not my life’s designer
Even more, I see
that it has never been my job
to design or to evaluate
any other life.
I am small and still
in the great hush of seeing
All these lives are each their own,
yet meshed together
in a design so many spectra vaster
than I can even count
These lives, like mine
are loved with such tenderness
there’s nothing I can say about it.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 15, 2015
After the convulsive flex of fear,
we come back, we take stock,
and we see
there is nothing we can stand on
except what we have always known,
nothing we can flee to
except the truth
If Life planned to destroy us,
it would have done so a long time ago.
If Life could destroy us
it wouldn’t exist
for it would have discarded
the love-cohesion
that holds things together.
It couldn’t make a universe
without being Love,
and it couldn’t be Love
without cherishing each of us.
What Love cherishes,
it can’t destroy,
so we are safe,
as is every being
that moves in the grand circles
that constitute everything.
This is the truth we stand on.
Fear couldn’t find it for us,
and fear can’t take it away.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2015
On your shoulders,
no weight of generations,
on your head
no folly of past years,
no unredeemed misunderstanding,
harbored, confusedly,
by your parents, your grandparents,
theirs —
You are born of this day,
fresh as a swift cloud
after showers,
sailing through storm washed blue
with its answering catch of breath
You are born in this moment,
ever inheriting
the bright conception
that creates itself constantly,
building the whole timeless universe
in every inspiration,
embracing it all, right now,
embracing you.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 29, 2015
Give me the lens to see the causal bones,
the structure upon which all movement hangs,
Let me see them shining there like jewels
beneath the mounds of things accumulated
Beneath the the names and forms,
the grades, the price tags,
and everything we shore up
in our struggle for security
Let me see how they stretch out
smooth and powerful,
glowing in translucent iridescence,
moving with the sovereignty
that marks their gait,
framing the procession of all life,
tuning the spheres
world without end.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2015
Well, here’s the story of redemption:
You are redeemed, for you are here.
It takes attention
to choose you for a story,
to put you in,
to hedge about your life
with these meticulous details,
to give you motives,
give you a past,
give you this burning hope
that somehow
your life has worth and purpose:
It takes an overarching care
to author you. And look —
you’re here.
Know, too, that there’s no character
the author doesn’t love.
It is the way of things —
the way creation works:
The act of care that thinks you up
(pulls you, as her child,
right out of her head)
is always an act of love.
So have no fear.
You are redeemed
and always have been.
Just look inside yourself to see —
You’ll know.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2015