Heart of Compassion

                                               Photo and art by me....hands by Anna.

Call Me By My True Names

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow - 

even today I am still arriving. 

Look deeply: every second I am arriving

to be a bud on a spring branch,

to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,

learning to sing in my new nest,

to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,

to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,

to fear and to hope,

the rhythm of my heart is the birth and death

of all that are alive.

I am a mayfly metamorphosing 

on the surface of the river.

And I am the bird which, when Spring comes,

arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily

in the clear pond.

And I am the grass-snake

that silently feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,

my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.

And I am the arms merchant,

selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl,

refugee on a small boat,

who throws herself into the ocean

after being raped by a sea pirate.

And I am the pirate,

my heart not yet capable

of seeing and loving.

I am a member of the politburo,

with plenty of power in my hands.

And I am the man who has to pay his 

"debt of blood" to my people,

dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.

My pain is like a river of tears,

so vast it fills four oceans.

Please call my by my true names,

so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,

so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,

so I can wake up,

and the door of my heart can be left open,

the door of compassion.

                                      ~ Thich Njat Hanh