When the Elephants Dance

When you start to say to yourself, just one look back, just one glance, the danger will have begun for you.

My heart aches for my people. I don’t understand why God gives more power to some and less to others.

Your sight will be lost. It is not too late. You are humble still, pure. Let go of this fascination with earthly riches. You have so much more than they.

I know one thing. If you let your personal hate interfere, you will bury your cause.” We

I am frightened, yet I cannot help my mouth from saying these things. It has always been this way with me. My thinking and my mouth have been the matter of many arguments with my mother. He

we must be thankful that we are all together. And we must believe that there is a reason we are still alive,

Family is important above all else.

It must be all or nothing. We cannot approach the situation halfway.” After

Overhead, the Amerikano planes buzz by, great birds swooping down with a vengeance. But who is winning? I cannot imagine the Amerikanos will win. How can they? They have lost once before, and how will they resupply themselves when their country is so far away? The Japanese need only jump north and they will be home. How I wish they would both go home.

Those things belong to the darkness. We must rely on God. We must ask Him to make us strong, unafraid. To give us the strength to band together, to defeat these devils.” She makes the sign of the cross. “God will guide us through this.

there will come a day when this war shall end and we will have the sunlight on our faces again.

When there is no family, what else is there to fight for? I was blinded with obsession, for something that could never fill me. I lost everything that mattered.

I prayed in my heart for a real father, since the one I had been given was a failure to me. That was my deepest wish, and my deepest sorrow.

Even a mama dog will protect her young to the death. What more of a mother?

They want to break the only thing we have left, our spirits. I will not let them. No matter what they do to me.

I look him straight in the eyes. I know I should not do this, but it has always been this way with me. Once I feel fear, I can stand it for only so long before I become angry.

They were hollow words. I think God heard this and knew. Promises should be sacred; I think I cursed myself by making one I did not intend to keep.

mine is not the only family to consider. There are many others that may die if none of us were to fight. You see how many volunteer to go up against the enemy now? Me alone in this room of hundreds. If no one fights, then I will have the satisfaction of saving only my family above the thousands more. I could not live with that. If I lead my men, if we assist the Amerikanos in our own way, then many more may be saved. You yourself saw how being selfish served you. Only your family became rich, the others in your village lost everything.” Mang

I have been her greatest foe, and she my biggest protector. Her heart is so pure, like a child’s. She gives without thinking. She longs to have beautiful things, I see it in her eyes, but she always thinks of us first.

The doors to my heart had shut. I had only hate inside me, complete hate. I felt as if my life were just a series of betrayals. So when Jamie, the one good thing, finally arrived, I was too hardened. Like a dried-up grape, nothing could bring back my sweetness.

In church, does it ever seem to you a kind of game? Hypocritical. Be humble, they say, yet people come in their best clothes. Give penance, yet as they close their eyes and kneel, they compare who is better dressed, the beauty of someone else’s wife, the sway of her hips, they think of anything but prayers.

I must wait, bide my time. There will be an opportunity. I need only keep my eyes open. Back

Do not hold this pain of what has happened to you close to your heart, Isabelle. You must let it go. No matter matter how painful. It will ruin you. If you keep silent, if you swallow it, it will eat you liked cancer.

Do not hold this pain of what has happened to you close to your heart, Isabelle. You must let it go. No matter how painful. It will ruin you. If you keep silent, if you swallow it, it will eat you like a cancer.” I

I tell you now, better to spit it all out, cry a hundred days over this matter, an entire year, than ruin your life over it. You must acknowledge it now, so that it has no power over you. I do not assume to know what you are going through, but I do know something about hate.

Do not hold on to the bitterness, Isabelle, it will eat at your body like worms, and you will ruin your future because of it. I was not always this unhappy. I know what people call me behind my back,

I thought to myself how lucky, how lucky that I jumped at my only chance when I could. Sure, I did not love him, but I was loved. I had everything Corazón had wanted. I had beaten her at every round, yet I felt nothing but a devastating emptiness inside. Y

I had many dreams, too. But I became bitter, and by the time I realized it, I had almost wished my whole life away.

Be glad that you have your health. Do not always be so concerned with money,” my father said.

Domingo, your family needs you. Let me explain why I feel strongly that you must stay with them. I had a family once too that loved me. But I made a mistake. I was lured away by other things. When I realized they were what mattered, it was already too late.