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 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 death
of all that is alive...
...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.
Behold, my friends, the spring has come!
The earth has received the embraces of the sun,
And we shall soon see the results of that love!
Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life.
It is through this mysterious power that we, too,
have our being.
And we, therefore, yield to our neighbors,
even our animal neighbors,
The same right as ourselves to inhabit this land.