I did not lose myself all at once.

And then she had to fill out so many forms she forgot why she had come and what she had left behind.

If she doesn't speak, she is making a choice. If she doesn't try, she can lose her chance forever. -An-mei

And I remember wondering why it was that eating something good could make me feel so terrible, while vomiting something terrible could make me feel so good.

If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.

I like to go somewhere where I learn something I didn't know before, like the Dry Tortugas between Florida and Cuba.

So this is what I will do. I will gather together my past and look. I will see a thing that has already happened. the pain that cut my spirit loose. I will hold that pain in my hand until it becomes hard and shiny, more clear. And then my fierceness can come back, my golden side, my black side. I will use this sharp pain to penetrate my daughter's tough skin and cut her tiger spirit loose. She will fight me, because this is the nature of two tigers. But I will win and giver her my spirit, because this is the way a mother loves her daughter.