Darling, You Are My Home, Part 4

You have to be able to look at the cypress tree, breathing in, breathing out, smiling, and tell the cypress, “Darling, you are my home.” Touch deeply the earth that you tread: “Darling, you are my home.” The Earth can be a mother, she can be a sister. Why do you have to run to find your home? Your home is here, your home is now. Recognize it. Everything, everyone is part of your true home. You have a lot of space. You are not isolated. You are us and you can embrace us as your home. Us means a cypress tree, a deer, a rabbit, and so on. 

Everyone of us needs a home. The world needs a home. There are so many young people who are homeless. They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts. That is why the most important practice of our time is to give each person a home. Be a home for them. Each of us has to serve as the home for others. When we look at something or someone, be it a person, a tree, or anything, look at it in such a way that we touch them as part of our home. “Here is the Pure Land, the Pure Land is here.” That is the beginning of a song we like to sing in Plum Village. The Pure Land is our true home.

Thich Nhat Hanh
from Going Home