Landing

maple, alone

We are each in this place
where life’s currents
(so it would seem)
have set us,
much like these hills
dropped by floods
so many times
so long ago

The seeds within our banks
wake up and start their processes,
roots seek into soil, scout into places
where water collects under pebbles,
where threads of mycelium
extend their welcome,
shoots lift their heads
as if nothing else had ever happened,
as if no cataclysm
had rent the land,
as if, indeed,
this opportunity to live
had been expressly prepared for them,
this dew, this sun,
this whole community,
this hour, this day.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 3, 2016

Death, Choices — Random Thoughts

blossoms

Death hovers at the edges,
an uninvited guest.
We make our life decisions —
where to live, who to live with,
how to fill our days . . .
We say we never choose death

We say it’s not our choice,
it’s a clanging gong, and
you never can predict
when its dark tone
will snuff out all the plans,
will make both hopes and fears
irrelevant. (We may call it seductive,
for just that reason.)

We make our choices
as if we could manage death —
schedule it at the end
of all the other things

(Some people whisper
that you never go without a choice,
that you can remember
you always can choose life —
however strongly you are told
you must choose death, it’s never true)

Whatever. In this life, today,
I choose living. Because I am.
And life is what I Am always chooses.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2016

Deepening

Marcola oak

Truth will not let my love be shallow.
It will deepen me
if needed by carving canyons
with the restraint of a Missoula flood.
There won’t be any time for mourning —
all I cherished as myself
will be gone in a flash,
and in the ravished, newly purified
place of my being,
the rocks will stand exposed.
I will be deepened
along the channels that pour through.

Love will not let my life be shallow.
It will send its roots down
to the very depths of me,
finding the ancient water,
drawing it up
to nourish everything
that grows within my sphere.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2016

Going Forth

Green Lake sunlight

I will take nothing with me,
no preparations, no opinions,
no preconceptions as to
what I may contribute,
what I may receive,
no assessments of the problems
or the limits, no concerns
about the inputs or the outcomes

I will take nothing with me
but the promise
that what I need will arise
in the alchemy of interaction,
in the provision, in the book of Life,
for the perfect meeting of everything
and the exultant spark
of the connection
that lights up all the stars
that comprise our presence.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 9, 2016

Nothing More

pond in golds

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

Reasoning

fall oak2

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

Feeding

Alpacas

When the mouth goes seeking,
the whole beast needs to come along —
the impulse of desire must bring
the ribs, the shaggy rump, the hocks

They all flow in one movement,
they summon grace,
they give it their attention,
they feel the call kicking them alive,
they carry out the shared intention

What the mouth finds
they all partake of —
in the feeding,
all the beast is blessed.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2015

Delicate

delicate

In the grand array of Life
there’s nothing fragile —
The most delicate of flowers
is securely held
in the space around it,
in the air and light that haloes it,
and in its neededness
within the web of everything,

the tenderest of fronds
is supported
in the isometric force of life,
pushing out and down,
and in the cycling of energies within it

The finest of perceptions
and the sweetest of emotions,
the deep empathy and sensitivity,
are anchored in a love as vast
as all the universe
where nothing ruptures them
nor overrides their purity

So, too, this day,
this epoch, and this moment,
are held in their perfection
by a law, a love, that leaves
no room for falling —
a law, a love, that cherishes us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 19, 2015

Indication

dandilion

There is no small light —
Every light is indication
of the vast source, reflection of
the brightness that illumines everything —
Any one you look at
will lead you back
to the infinite

There is no small life —
Beneath each spark, however dimly seen,
is that potent force
that needs to be expressed,
that needs to shine, and to engage,
and dance relationship —
to make more life,
to bless and to be blessed.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2015

Because how else?

Holly's creek2

What if that inner elixir,
that euphoria,
that quality of the peak moment
we hardly dare hope for
is just a glimpse
of our natural state,
the fullness we are made to ride on,
the flight we are designed to soar in,
the heights on which our natural home
is settled?

What if every moment
is a launching off point,
a way to get there,
and there is no pedestrian
in between
waiting for goodness
half-living state of being
in our true existence?

©Wendy Mulhern
August 1, 2015