All the poppies in our garden have sown themselves and are very much appreciated.
I’ve shared other of the carefully chosen words of Thich Nhat Hanh before and came across this poem today that I found very moving both in its recognition of the beauty of nature and of the awfulness of humans finishing with much needed compassion.
“Please Call Me by My True Names”by Thich Nhat Hanh
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow,
even today I am still arriving.Look deeply: every second I am arrivingto 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 deathof all that is alive.I am the mayfly metamorphosingon the surface of the river.And I am the birdthat swoops down to swallow the mayfly.I am the frog swimming happilyin the clear water of a pond.And I am the grass-snakethat 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 oceanafter being raped by a sea pirate.And I am the pirate,my heart not yet capableof 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 payhis “debt of blood” to my peopledying slowly in a forced-labor camp.My joy is like Spring, so warmit makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.My pain is like a river of tears,so vast it fills the four oceans.Please call me by my true names,so I can hear all my cries and my 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 so the door of my heartcan be left open,the door of compassion.
