Four Treasures of the Sky

There is no such thing as luck, I told him. Luck is just readiness that meets opportunity.

I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of no longer living.

My life was written for me from the moment the name was given to me. Or it was not. That is the true beauty. That is the intent. We can practice all we want, telling and retelling the same story, but the story that comes out of your mouth, from your brush, is one that only you can tell. So let it be. Let your story be yours, and my story be mine.

Every calligrapher, every artist, starts the same way, he said. They set out to create art. But this intentionality is what makes the art become work rather than art. What you must practice is creating art without a destination or plan in mind, relying only on your discipline and training and good spirit. This is a stage few calligraphers will ever reach. This is what following your heart looks like.

At my most alone, I trace English letters in the dirt floor. Next to them, I write the Chinese characters that match their sounds. The one that puzzles me most is the English letter I, companion sound in Chinese love. I, in English, to represent the self. Love, I, in Chinese, a heart to be given away. I, in English, an independence, an identity. Love in Chinese, a giving up of self for another. How funny, I think, that these two sound twins should represent such different things. It is another truth I am learning about English and the people who created it.

A resilient brush is one that, after depositing ink on paper, can spring back up in preparation for the next stroke. But resilience is not achieved by pressing harder. No, the artist must master the art of releasing the brush, giving it the space and freedom to find itself again. Resilience is simple, really. Know when to push and when to let go.

There is something lovely, heroic even, about letting another person look at you.

An entire year has passed. Time is important. This I know now. As in, how much time has to pass for a forgetting to occur.

In calligraphy, you must have respect for what you are writing and who you are writing for. But above all, you must have respect for yourself. It is the monumental task of creating unity between the person you are and the person you could be. Think: What kind of person could you become, both as yourself and as an artist?

Resilience is simple, really. Know when to push and when to let go.

But above all, you must have respect for yourself. It is the monumental task of creating unity between the person you are and the person you could be.

In calligraphy, as in life, we do not retouch strokes, Master Wang often said. We must accept that what is done is done.

Master Wong told me that in ancient China, time was kept according to the position of the sun in the sky. Inherent in this character is the understanding that time is circular, that no matter how much the sun moves, it will always come back around again. In English time is spelled with four letters. A finite thing made of finite letters. Maybe this is the difference, I think, for those that speak English, there is a limit to time. That is why it is so important to differentiate between past, present and future. When I know this, I also know I will be able to write time perfectly for the rest of my life in both languages. This is how I begin to understand English.

That is the true beauty. That is the intent. We can practice all we want, telling and retelling the same story, but the story that comes out of your mouth from your brush is one that only you can tell. So let it be. Let your story be yours, and my story be mine.

She knows that this feeling must be what they call heartbreak. It is the same thing she felt when her mother died, but somehow, this time, it is much worse. All she knows now is that she must get it out of her.

I am beginning to realize that everyone has two faces to them: the face they show to the world and the one on the inside, that keeps all its secrets.

I am reminded of the summers of my childhood, chasing rabbits through the tall grass, later soaking myself in ocean water. The water always left a brine that caked my arms and legs. No matter how hard my mother scrubbed, I do not think the salt ever truly came off. There may still be some left in the crooks of my elbows and knees now. Be careful with me, I want to tell the man who has dragged me to the end of the line were Nam, Lum, Zhou and Nelson kneel. I am carrying an ocean.

Your intentions were good, she said, but your actions betrayed you. From now on, Daiyu, you must learn that the two cannot ever be separate. No matter what your intentions may be, you also must think of your actions and act from a place of truth. Relying on just one does not make you a good person.

was easy to spot a wounded animal if you were hungry enough—and these men were always hungry enough.

Everything clings to me, and I to everything.

I will always be the girl tearing the grasshopper into pieces.

every disgusted eye I defiantly faced, was a stone given to me, until eventually, I had enough stones to build a fortress around myself.

A promise is a promise indeed. But is it any different from the promise my parents made to me, that they would always be there for me? Or is a promise the one they made to themselves, that they would do everything in their power to help those without power? Both were promises. Both were important. My parents were good people. But they had a higher calling.

I remember what Lum said about the sum killing all the bad things withing a body, and wonder if I stand there long enough, could it kill the demons that follow me?

Black, or the way time disappears and something else suspends in its place. The way of being alone.

Summer moves like a song coming to a close, circling its reprise.

In English, plurality and timing matter. You cannot talk about an action, without also talking about when it happened, the past, present, or future, can define an entire experience. This is the hardest part. It is not enough to say that someone gives you something, the old woman tells me, you have to express when. Everything is rooted in time. Say give, say gives, say given, say gave. Give, gives, given, gave. I want to ask her why. Why is it so important in English and not in Chinese. What difference does the question of time make? The Chinese character for time, Shijian, is made with the charter of sun to represent the four seasons.