Excerpts

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.

My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom in all over the Earth.
My pain 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 my 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.

-Taken from Call Me by My True Names by Thich Nhat Hanh