| Please call me by true names |
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I just returned from a Sufi dance retreat, celebrating the unity of all life in the beautiful Canyonlands of Utah. The events of September 11 have just taken place, but I feel a deep joy in the center of my being as I attune to the planetary initiation emerging for us in these times. Much is still hidden but I feel the undercurrents of a birthing of something so grand in our planetary consciousness that generations to come will look back on these days as the time of the Great Awakening... Meanwhile, here's a beautiful poem by a Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, whom I have long admired. It speaks of the unitary vision in a manner that truly has the power to touch us in the deepest place of the heart! Kiara Windrider September 2001 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 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 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 is alive. I am a mayfly metamorphosing On the surface of the river. And I am the bird That swoops down to swallow the mayfly. I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. And I am the grass-snake That silently feeds itself on the frog. I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, Mu 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 the four oceans. Please call me 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 Could be left open, The door of compassion. |