Tag Archives: life

Hollows

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Sound loves hollows —
deep bodies of cellos,
silver shafts of flutes,
wet echoes of tunnels
and the ever-longing span
between the heart and throat

In the roundness of the cavity —
concave convergence of the waves —
the sound can dance and dance 
and gather strength
till it emerges, pure and confident

Some hollows must remain unfilled,
must wait in ready emptiness
to send the sweet song 
down the cove of deep desire —
must welcome it in circled emptiness
a steady vigilance
that holds the still
that gathers joy.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 14, 2013


The way it has to be

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Life is life —
in every place it finds itself,
it has one goal:
to live —
And living is the grace
of making more life,
more branching life-ways,
more ways more life can thrive.

You are life,
and you have always, always
let yourself be borne
along the course
of Life’s enduring flow,
effortless, inexorable
in your resplendent gravitas

No false stories
can divert your motion,
compelled, as you are
by Life’s law:
You will grow,
and you will bring with you
lush gardens,
rich communities,
deep fecundity
of soil and seed —
so much fruit will come
so naturally, from what you bring,
from your saying yes
to what you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 10, 2013


Yes

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I say yes
to your innocence,
Yes
to your innate beauty,
Yes
to the rightness of your purpose.
Yes
to the clarity
with which your essence —
from the sub-molecular on up —
informs your wholeness,
impels your action
in the perfect dance of service
where you feel
so providential,
so propitious,
so graced to be able to give
that which enables the loop of life
to thrive

I say yes to you
and nothing —
no phantom shadows of supposed necessities,
no lies about your substance or your motives —
can blind me to the truth of who you are.
I say yes,
and in this vast permission
there’s enough room
for your magnificent infinity
to be expressed.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 6, 2013


Resistance

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We will slide
with the weight of water
out from the grasp
of all that sought to hold us.
We will collect in pools,
we will run in rivulets,
very quietly at first.

We will hide
in soft hollows
and be taken up by roots.
We will engage in cycles
that can’t be regimented.
We will use the tools
that can’t be taken from us —
gravity and surface tension,
super qualities inherent in our molecules.

Without our presence, all the structures —
every edifice of fear and guilt,
all the avenues of shame and blame,
all the lies that say we need their toxic brew —
will tend towards dust, becoming very dry,
will grow more brittle, and will start to fail.
It won’t be long before they blow away
and cease to plague our world.

We will slide softly
but with growing power.
We will build with what’s alive.
We’ll own our moments
and claim our hours,
and in our reclaimed truth,
we’ll thrive.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 4, 2013


Succession

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(for Edward)

In the way that ecosystems climax,
You and I are most-enduring trees,
surviving fires, holding the soil,
spreading our crowns
to shelter and extend
life’s dear elixir

And you have been
my strong companion,
filling in where I have faltered,
anchor of my habitat
throughout the years.

In the way that Life designs us —
brought forth where our purpose can be met,
So, now, I see it finds you
in the time where you’re uniquely set
to bless

It is my privilege
to witness you, and your unfolding,
and to hold with you
and keep on holding,
while all our former fetters fall away
and we stand splendid
in the dawning truth of day.

Happy birthday, love —

©Wendy Mulhern
July 2, 2013

A new way of looking at patience

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Patience is knowing
that everything moves
in the rhythm of Life,
and every need is being met —
all the microscopic needs
in the give and take
that feeds each tiny mouth,
and the orchestrated needs
of larger systems —
great living networks
of realized mutual trust,
resulting in the intricately timed provision
of each response along the moving wave

And as this is the case,
Life’s essence operating
in every place,
it surely will continue
in the arc whereon you gaze,
anticipating some desired conclusion.
Grace is not capricious,
not the gain of luck or chance —
it is the rhythm,
fractally repeated,
present where you need it —
it is the constant motion
of Life’s defining dance.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 1, 2013


Ecology

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Nothing is condemned,
Nothing thrown away —
There are so many branches
along life’s paths —
So many cycles
at every speed and scale
and everything is moving,
aligned in some great plan,
rolling out the endless course of life

No one is condemned,
No one cast aside,
for every life uniquely serves its purpose
and all shall be embraced,
for everyone belongs
and all of us
are needed where we are.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2013


Entering

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Bring nothing with you,
for everything you need
is in your power to see what’s here

And there’s a lightness in knowing
every moment has, within it,
deep wells of richness,
plenty for your present thriving

And there’s no lack
of the substance in yourself
that calls forth that dark glow —
the subterranean shining
that quenches every thirst.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 26, 2013


Life Cycles

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There is no part, no particle,
no path of life
moving in the over-under cycle —
down, down to the depths of brown,
up, up in springing green —
which is not held in Love, 
and so attended,
profoundly celebrated in its present state,
wherever it may stand along the circle.

There is no end
to the bold, exploring,
pioneering edge of life
which leads with eager interest
and is fed
with all the newness
that rewards its rapt attention,
cascading and rising,
flowing and turning,
round and round the cycle,
ever free.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 14, 2013


Foundational Principles

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My life depends
on my getting this right.
Not as in
I’ll die if I don’t
so much as that
I live when I do,
really live.

Which means that life itself
will thrive around me
and give me life
just as I give to it,
And I will move within the brightness
of the being that fulfills me —
brings out my essence
as I bring it forth.

It is given
that I’ll get it right,
If not in every case,
at least in moments,
which then must grow
till they’re the only kind —
the bracing breath
on which my life depends.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 11, 2013