The Joy Luck Club Book 4, Queen Mother of the Western Skies

A grandmother talks with her baby granddaughter. She tells her that she too used to laugh freely and easily like her, but then she learned to be suspicious and protect herself. She taught this to her daughter, also. She wonders whether this was the right thing for the two of them to learn. The baby just laughs, and the grandmother sees that the baby is Queen Mother of the Western Skies, who has lived forever, and knows the right way to live. The grandmother listens to the Queen Mother's advice, and says, "Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever." Book 4, pg. 213