It was what we Japanese called the onion life, peeling away a layer at a time and crying all the while.

I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about - the tiny hole through the roof or the bottom of a box. There's no doubt it's the most versatile of the five elements. It can wash away earth; it can put out fire, it can wear a piece of metal down and sweep it away. Even wood, which is its natural complement, can't survive without being nurtured by water And yet, you haven't drawn on those strengths in living your life, have you?

I worried she might spend an afternoon chatting with me about the sights and then wish me best of luck.

I stumbled out into the courtyard to try to flee my misery, but of course we can never flee the misery that is within us.

My feelings of disgust had been so loud within me, they’d nearly drowned out everything else.

I didn't say to act dead. I said act helpless.

Neither you nor I can know your destiny. You may never know it! Destiny isn't always like a party at the end of the evening. Sometimes it's nothing more than struggling through life from day to day.