"I feel immense relief when I hand over my passport, knowing that the next time I lay eyes on it, a visa will be buried deep in its folds like a pearl."

"I chase my taekwondo instructor, Mr. David, through the forest, trying to mimic his graceful stride."

"It's December 20. My recovery birthday."

"December becomes a month of subtle life-giving."

A post late by almost two weeks. "My life is a mandala. I am not a bloom of every day, constant, unchanging, and predictable. No, I operate on a much more questionable almanac of hibernations... I must shed this skin, and shape shift, and sail into a new ripple of dawn."

"I suddenly saw how almost everything great I've accomplished wasn't entirely my own. These victories were always influenced by how others would see me, and, more importantly, by how I was mistreated, by how I was hurt... I'm not sure if mistreatment should be motivation for beauty."

"Almost one solar orbit ago, the moon rose onto a night that transformed the rest of my life into an aftermath... I know that my story, for now, must be here, in my garden."