Tea reminds us to slow down and escape the pressures of modern life,” he says.
Our words had to be circumspect. We could not write anything too negative about our circumstances. This was tricky, since the very form of a married woman’s letter needed to include the usual complaints – that we were pathetic, powerless, worked to the bone, homesick, and sad. We were supposed to speak directly about our feelings without appearing ungrateful, no-account, or unfilial.
I have a whole life to tell; I have nothing left to lose and few to offend.
The problem with living so long is that you see too many people pass before you.
Fall down eight times, stand up nine. For me, this saying is less about the dead paving the way for future generations than it is for the women of Jeju. We suffer and suffer and suffer, but we also keep getting up. We keep living. You would not be here if you weren’t brave. Now you need to be braver still.
A weak man always seeks to hurt those lower than he.
The sea is better than a mother. You can love your mother, and she still might leave you. You can love or hate the sea, but it will always be there. Forever. The sea has been the center of her life. It has nurtured her and stolen from her, but it has never left.
Her house is the nest where she hides the joy, laughter, sorrows, and regrets of her life.
Parents exist in children,” Grandmother said to bolster my confidence. “Your mother will always exist in you. She will give you strength wherever you go.
You are not being punished for your anger. You’re being punished by your anger.
Maybe our lives are like gigantic jigsaw puzzles. You find the right piece and suddenly the whole picture has meaning.
We were to be like long vines with entwined roots, like trees that stand a thousand years, like a pair of mandarin ducks mated for life.
A single spark is not enough to warm a room nor is a single seed enough to grow a fruitful crop. Deep love – true heart love – must grow.
A woman isn’t just one thing. The past is in us, constantly changing us. Heartache and failure shift our perspectives as do joy and triumphs. At any moment, on any given day, we can be friends, competitors, or enemies. We can be generous or stingy, loving or petty, helpful or untrustworthy.
Always remember If you don’t love tea, you can’t make good tea.
You have special abilities,” she goes on. “I don’t mean you are a witch or a fox spirit. And you’ve never seemed drawn to the special gift of healing or magic. Rather, you are like A-ma Mata, who gave birth to the Akha people, who pushed against her restraints, who said, ‘No, I will not accept my bad fate,’ and who endured against all odds with her intelligence, compassion, and perseverance. All that comes from this grove. And the mother tree.” A-ma.
I’ve had to think about the dark shadow side of friendship. This is the person who knows and loves you best, which means she knows all the ways to hurt and betray you.
Suffering has brought clarity into my life. Maybe the things that have happened to me are punishment for what I did in a previous life, maybe they were fate or destiny, and maybe they’re all just part of a natural cycle – like the short but spectacular lives of cherry blossoms in spring or leaves falling away in autumn.
Rice is to nourish,” A-ma says. “Tea is to heal. Always remember that food is medicine, and medicine is food. If you take care of the trees, the trees will take care of you.
To understand everything is to forgive.