“With five plain-colored flags in hand, the shaman pulled out two at a time. She would briefly study the color combinations and begin to rattle off ― with frightening accuracy ― a variety of facts about my life, identify problems that I was currently facing, and make predictions. But her attention soon turned to spirits.”

“For those of the Korean diaspora, including Korean adoptees, working with ancestors can be deeply healing. It’s a reclamation of pre-colonized Korea, before Westernization, the Korean War, Japanese Occupation, or Buddhist hegemony. We just need to walk up to the peak of the mountain, to the tops of our hearts, and pull back the veil. “