By Asa O’Connor Jaeckal
As a dove flies past,
In the clear blue sky,
A feather falls.
A wind sweeps it up,
Making it swirl, and summersault
over grassy fields, and snowy mountains.
It floats gently in the breeze,
connecting with the infinite power of
time and thought,
While slowly, very slowly, making its way
to the ground.
It lands,
Already a subscriber? Log in
You have read 5 articles this month.
For only $3 per month or $28 per year, you can read as much as you want!
A digital subscription includes unlimited access to current articles–and some exclusive digital content–released throughout each week, over thirty years of articles in our Dharma archive, as well as PDFs of all back issues.
By Asa O’Connor Jaeckal
As a dove flies past,
In the clear blue sky,
A feather falls.
A wind sweeps it up,
Making it swirl, and summersault
over grassy fields, and snowy mountains.
It floats gently in the breeze,
connecting with the infinite power of
time and thought,
While slowly, very slowly, making its way
to the ground.
It lands, and sits quietly among tall
grasses
By a pond, unnoticed.
Yet somehow the world changed
by this one little feather.
Asa O’Connor Jaeckel, Fearless Ocean of Generosity, lives in Victoria, British Columbia, is eleven years old, and enjoys Capoeira, climbing trees, Playmobil miniatures, reading, writing, and acting.
MEETING ONE ANOTHER
By Bruce Ho
(age ten)
When you come across the shore,
that is where you’ll meet me.
When you row into the sea,
that’s where you’ll greet me.
We’ll meet each other.
We’ll find that both of us
have been searching
for the other.
The puzzle fits together
like the Earth
and one another.
The Earth is whole,
and so are we.
The Earth is whole,
like you and me.
From The Mindfulness Bell #9, Autumn 1993
COMPASSION AND LOVE
Child’s question: “How can I remain calm when I see so many
bad things in the world?”
Thich Nhat Hanh’s response: “Whenever I see violence or
cruelty, it still makes me angry. We all get angry sometimes. But
we can learn to take care of our anger. If we look closely, we can
notice that people who are cruel have a lot of suffering inside.
When we see this, we can be compassionate, and help the situation
by creating peace, even if what is happening around us is not very
peaceful. We can use our breath and our mindfulness to transform
the energy of anger into the energy of compassion. When we have
the energy of compassion, we can do a lot of things to help people
suffer less.”
Child’s question: “Why do I sometimes feel lonely and that
no one loves me?”
Thich Nhat Hanh’s response: “Sometimes the people around
you are distracted and may forget to express their love. But if
you feel like no one loves you, you can always look outside at the
natural world. Do you see a tree out there? That tree loves you.
It offers its beauty and freshness to you and gives you oxygen so
you can breathe. The Earth loves you, offering you fresh water and
delicious fruit for you to eat. The world expresses its love in many
ways, not just with words.”
Reprinted from Is Nothing Something?: Kids’ Questions and Zen Answers About Life, Death, Family, Friendship, and Everything in Between (2014) by Thich Nhat Hanh with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, parallax.org.
