Becoming Free
Sometimes, I want to chase my heart’s desire. I want to act on my feelings. But at times, I have to stop for a moment. Because I’m still young, acting on my feelings sometimes makes people around me uncomfortable. That can happen at airports, restaurants, museums, and cafés. When I act like that, I might get bad looks from a lot of people.
The thing is that children still have a lot of pent-up curiosity. I’m a fountain of curiosity. There are still many things I want to learn about and look into. My hands are always reaching out for something, words pop out of my mouth before I even know it, and my legs want to climb up on the couch and start jumping around. But I need to stop for a moment because that can hurt other people or make them uncomfortable.
How wonderful it would be if people would try a little harder to understand children’s feelings and show them some consideration! That would make me grateful and help me grow up to be an adult who is thoughtful and understanding of everything. By then, I would have positive habits both of mind and body that would allow me to follow my heart without making other people uncomfortable, rather than just suppressing my behavior.
Growing up without stress is only possible when everyone is thoughtful and understanding. True freedom means not getting bad looks from anyone even when you act on your feelings. I will train good habits until they come naturally to me so I can find that freedom.
Becoming Free 2
The Lost Bear
Blinded by the bright lights people made,
the bear lost its footing on the melting ice.
The world is brighter than ever before,
but the lost bear is plunged in darkness.
The Years May Pass
The years may pass, and all kinds of things may change, but some things will never change. The truth that we know clearly reveals this great law of nature. We live our lives in obedience to natural laws. The long years may pass, but flowers will bloom and fall and bloom once more.
Somewhere in Jeju…
Somewhere in Jeju I stopped in my tracks. What was I trying to accomplish with my paintings when such a beautiful painting was right there before my eyes? No work of art is as big or beautiful as nature. Compared to nature, all the pictures I’ve painted seem worthless.
A Delicate Balance
All creatures on earth are part of a recurring cycle. They consume, and are consumed by, each other until they eventually come to us. Crawling bugs, running animals, swaying flowers, fluttering bees and butterflies, flying sparrows and eagles . . . in the end, they all come to us.
We don’t notice the extremely delicate balance that extends to everything on earth, from the tiniest things to the hugest things. Even the breeze that was blowing this morning might be part of maintaining that balance—or even the tree that Wootae tinkled on this morning. All things seem to maintain their position through subtle motion while affecting, and being affected by, each other.
This got me curious about how well people live in harmony with nature . . . . I hope that people won’t break the delicate balance that has been in place in creation since the very beginning.
A Windy Day 2
I can’t see the wind blowing with my eyes, but I can feel it with my body. Flower petals tell us, too. I want my thoughts to be carried away by the wind as it rushes farther and farther away. When I think about how everything that happens to me is like this wind rushing past me, my heart feels at peace.
A Windy Day 3