Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
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 cry,
In order to fear and hope.
The rhyme of my heart is the birth and death
of all that are alive.
I am the 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 also the grass-snake who,
approaching in silence 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 rape by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.
I am a member of 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 job is like spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so full it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laugh 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 so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.
(Thich Nhat Hanh)
