Tag Archives: personal growth

Things come together

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Things come together
Sometimes it only takes
a few extra hands
to wrestle the springy withes
into place, to get them to
the latching interlocking
where suddenly the boughs
support each other and become
a basket, or a shelter

Sometimes it takes
holding a gaze long enough
that there can be no doubt:
This smile is meant for you
This welcome
recognizes you
Yes, you
with joy
for what you are

Things come together
Efforts of days
Sproutings of far-flung hopes
unfurling daily:
The fruits of your sweet intentions
nourish your soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 1, 2013


Barriers

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It’s easy for me to put up a barrier.
I can say
Here is a thing I need
And without it I can’t find
the full connection.
It can be a very reasonable thing,
A need that anyone would understand
But however compelling
my justification,
It’s still my choice.

I don’t have to let anything
be a barrier
between me and full connection
Not my inhibitions, or yours
Not your preoccupations, or mine
Not habit, not rhythm, not time
Not species, not genus, not gender
I can run into these barriers
but I don’t have to.
It’s my choice.
Let me remember.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2013


Homecoming: a vision

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She makes her way along familiar streets
now rendered narrow
by the broadness of her vision.
Her light-filled eyes
scan these scenes
of her recent past
which tug up tears she scarcely understands.

Her skirt snags on corners;
She tries to pull it in;
It keeps on spilling outward
Like her love,
Like her tears.
She wants to gather all these up;
She wants them to come with her,
Wants them to see her.

They are afraid
that they have lost her,
that she won’t stay home,
that in her brilliance
she has no time to see them.

She will find a way to bring them in
She will be patient
She’ll come up from behind,
Shine through them softly
So the light they see is theirs
Rising from within
to meet her own.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2013


Rededication

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Though I have been distracted
by all these thoughtscapes
with their shifting edges
and their treacherous crevasses —
cliff faces thrust up suddenly,
clefts and foldings that engulf
huge chunks of time —

Though I’ve been distracted by
considerations of relative fortune,
and what is given
and what is owed,
evaluations of trusts and loyalties,
and what’s conjectured
and what is known,

Today I stop,
to let my thought sink down,
steady as a stone,
to its home
where I know 
none of these thoughtscapes ever mattered —
They have no weight, no substance,
no attraction
and they can’t distract me anymore.

Today I dedicate myself again
to the pre-time worth
of everything we are,
the silent eloquence
of every vital heart,
our precious heat,
our unremitting glow.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2013


A Place of Need

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How convenient it is
for me to croon about
holding angel presence
and moving out beyond a place of need
to a place where I can stand and give and heal!

How cherry-picked the role
of one whose challenges
have all been overcome,
who then can share her wisdom
to the good of all the world!

How bogus to imagine
I could somehow cease to need,
when Life has set us 
in this web of caring,
where every strand 
is tied up with the others,
so that we breathe and rise and fall together.

And I, I’ve fallen prey
to this same trap before
and laughed about it afterwards,
as if that time I’d finally
outgrown the childish tendency
and wouldn’t be so foolish anymore.

Ah! Have mercy! 
Please forgive me, be my friend —
Hold me up precisely when I’m laughable,
Keep your vision of me
based on what your wisdom holds,
Now and when I tumble here again.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2013


Wake up

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Wake up, wake up,
This is not your life —
It’s just that old dream,
The one that loops and loops
and never finds its resolution

Wake up, notice the signs
that this is just a dream:
The way you never get what you desire
The way it seems your only choice
is to feel empty
or fill the void with things you’re loath to do

Wake up — there’s more —
Your life is made
of stunning bands of chords and light
You’re vast as all those distant burning stars
Release this tiresome dream
and fill your sight
with what they tell your heart
of who you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 18, 2013


You Must Not Hide Your Power

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No, you must not hide your power
Nor stuff it in a shell of smallness
in some attempt at bland conformity;
Must not succumb to thoughts that say
To cloak your power 
would make you more like others,
More acceptable, more lovable,
Deserving of more care —
That, to fit in, you must be small like them.

No one is small!
And you must not be fooled
by shells that make them seem so
or games that shells may seem to play.

If you stand up
And breathe into the depth
of your own power
You will awaken
a rush of recognition
And hear the ripping
of all the shells of smallness
Cracking open, falling off from all the others
Who each have found their power
And now step free.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 17, 2013


More storms

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There have been blizzards before.
Cold nor’easters have blown through
Dumping snow on the city.

There have been storms before —
Harsh winds of regret
Hurling memories back and back
against the walls of thought
Swirling re-imaginings
of how it should have gone.

They say the shift in climate
Makes for fiercer storms —
More frequent and pronounced circulation
of all that water. 

They say the shift in consciousness
Brings up these storms
So they can fall away —
Emotion rising up
before the clarifying of the field.

Afterwards, snow angels
May be revealed.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 9, 2013


Depth

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Here is permission
To let your body move
Here is permission
To sink
To let your thoughts
sift down and settle into stillness
Here is permission
for the clear pool of yourself
to mirror back
the full depth of the moon.

Yes, you can speak from here
And yes, you can be heard —
There is no shallowness
in the expanse of sky that you reveal.
There is no limit
to what you find you know
There is no limit
to what you heal.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2013


To free your soul

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OK, first
you have to get it to be still
for a while:
Bring your hands in gently
on its crazed, self-harming struggles
Hold it so close that it can’t flutter,
till it calms.

Then all the loud repeating voices
pacing through your consciousness
inciting one another to a greater din
will cease,
startled to silence by the pause within.

They will look on in awe
as you take your soul
cradling it
to the open window
Reach your hands outside
And let it go.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 11, 2013