Lyrics/Text Transcripts
"Remembering Things" - Lyrics
Can I help it if I was born,
With a knack for remembering?
Good and bad and happy and sad.
All sorts of things.
Obsessed with helping strangers
And ignoring the home front.
Her lack of attention is what made you
As strong as you are today.
Can I help it if I was born?
--
"Long Day" - Lyrics
It's been a long day.
Ran out of words to say.
Trying to find a way
To get through to you.
It's been a hard time,
Though I may seem fine.
Balancing on the line
Of not knowing what to do.
But I don't want to give up before I've tried.
No I don't want to give up to make you change your mind.
But I don't want to give up on all we've done.
No I don't want to give up on everything I love.
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"May You" - Lyrics
May you live in interesting times.
May your path be ever winding.
When you've crossed all boundaries and lines,
And broken everything that's binding.
May you find what ever you look for.
Be recognized by people on high.
Maybe then we'll reach understanding...
--
"Invisible Skin" - Text
I’m still not very good at this.
My grandmother Mildred “Mee Heung Fong” Lowe used to peel the skin off of each individual section of mandarin orange. I remember as a young child, thinking that this was a really bizarre thing to do, and very time consuming and super messy. But when she would do this for me, it felt really special—all the extra time, care, and detail that went into peeling this invisible skin off the orange before giving it to me to eat. It’s little things like this that make me really miss her.
When my grandma passed away, I remember going to visit her home and being drawn towards the bookshelf. Amy Tan’s “The Hundred Secret Senses” caught my eye and when I pulled it from the shelf, I noticed a bookmark sticking out of it. I opened it to Chapter 16 “Big Ma’s Portrait”—I think this is as far as my grandma got in her reading. When I looked at the bookmark I noticed five silly stick figures on one side, and five flowers on the other side. It said, "Happy Mother's Day." It was then that I realized that this was a gift that I made my grandma when I was probably in kindergarten or first grade, and that the figures on the back were my drawings of my sister, me, my mom, my dad, and my grandma.I remember feeling really surprised that she had kept this gift for so long, and touched, and happy, and sad, and nostalgic...there were definitely some tears involved. As I was reading the book, I noticed that my grandma had bracketed three phrases. It felt like I was meant to read this, and that she left me a message.
"Can I help it if I was born with a knack for remembering all sorts of things?"
"Obsessed with helping strangers, and ignoring the home front."
"Maybe her lack of attention is what made you as strong as you are today."
