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“We drove for three days into the mountains in a car that struggled to go uphill. Still, we made it and I was finally back in my tribal homeland. In the beginning, it felt like coming home, even though I'd never lived there and rarely visited. My family members were welcoming, and the water and forest calmed the fluttering darkness deep within me.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“The anxiety in me grew, as this place that had always felt like home in my mind began to shed the rose-colored visions I had coated it in.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“The anxiety in me grew, as this place that had always felt like home in my mind began to shed the rose-colored visions I had coated it in. It wasn't quite right. I was welcomed by many, but I didn't belong. It wasn't quite home anymore.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“I sat to take in the view. The wind blew just hard enough to push my heavy, unkept hair back. I filled my lungs with the cool air and felt roots begin to take hold. I had always been a restless person, even at this early point in life, and this was a new experience: peace. I felt as though the trees and earth of the mountain reached up into my soul and curled around it, making it whole. The inky blackness I had yet to name, the dark pit that buzzed just below my surface and corroded my thoughts, was quieted. For a moment, it was like I didn't feel it at all.

When my mom asked me what was wrong, I told her exactly how I felt as best I could.

"My home is in Georgia, but my soul is at home here.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“My home is in Georgia, but my soul is at home here.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“Thus, she begin her own journey. Along the way, she will transform into Unniyachi, the aboriginal mother, into Kanchana Seetha and Sree Kurumba; into Vanadurga, the goddess of the forest, and Jaladurga, the goddess of the water; and into Kali, the primordial power.

She will ride the waves between life and myth into the darkness of stories that are brighter than light.

Through fields of marigolds to the slope of Kannanthalikunnu...

To forest verges where the chempakam blooms...
To screw-pine-scented canal banks...
To riverbanks red with the blood of revolution...

Through it all, Manjadikunnu will keep her company, silently, as the night of stories unfolds.”
― Sheela Tomy, Valli