[TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains information that may be disturbing to survivors of sexual assault.] “For Warmth”by Thich Nhat Hanh(from Zen Poems) 

I hold my face between my handsno I am not crying

“Great is the matter of birth and death, quickly passing, passing, gone. Awake, awake, each one, awake. Don’t waste this life.” This is the message written on the Han, a wooden instrument used in Japanese styled Soto Zen centers around the world, to call practitioners to the zendo (meditation hall).