Kathleen Dunbar Psychotherapy

Call Me by My True Names 
by Thich Nhat Hanh 

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 to cry, 
in order to fear and to hope. 
The rhythm 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 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 in all
 walks of life. 
My pain if 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 laughs 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.