“Life's greatest gift is another life.”
42 new prose pieces by the poet, inviting you to a special seat at the Theater of Life.

A new collection of essays following “Birds Don’t Look Back as They Fly” and “Who Knows Whether It’s Good or Bad?”, which have been read by 300,000 readers and translated into five countries including Germany and Spain.
As an author who has shared his unique outlook on life with the world through his many works, the things he has realized while living as a traveler are contained in his colorful stories.
The power of truth that comes from the author's own experience is felt.
The charm of the writing style, combined with a deeper understanding of humanity, heightens the anticipation from the moment you read the preface.
It is a feeling of being overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery of a travel destination that you set out on with light steps.


As such, his writing has both lightness and depth.
Not the lightness of a feather, but the lightness of a bird.
When people encounter something that cannot be expressed in words, their relationship with words becomes stronger.
The writer says that you cannot write if you do not believe that your message will be conveyed.

“The greatest gift life gives is ‘another life.’
Birds don't sing because they have the answers.
I sing because I have a song.
The more difficult life gets, the more we should keep something beautiful in our hearts.
“Its beauty saves us.”

"This is not the life I imagined," "Define yourself with the color you like," "Finding my writing," "Not with the lightness of a feather, but with the lightness of a bird," "A library that lends books read during growth," "Laughter was hidden in the last tears," "Plan A is my plan, Plan B is God's plan," "If you can see the path laid out before you," etc. This collection includes 42 pieces by an author who has changed the lives of many readers through the power of writing.


As I read each piece, various symbols pour out into my mind, as if I were looking into a glass cup filled with fireworks.
I feel the excellence in verbalizing the sensitivity of hearing and smell.
So I started reading diligently.
You can take strength from the sentence and take a step forward into tomorrow.

J.
D. Salinger tells the story through the protagonist Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.
“My favorite books are the ones that make the reader laugh sometimes.
And the books that move me are the ones that, after I finish reading them, make me wish the author were my best friend and I could call him whenever I wanted.”
The joy a writer experiences is when readers read his book and feel a sense of connection, thinking, "There's someone who thinks like me."
And the reader who says, “I feel like you’re reading it right next to me, in your own voice,” while reading a book is no longer a stranger.
A reader who reads and empathizes with your writing is more of a comrade than a lover.
The reason is that the comrades are hotter.
When I meet someone who has read my writing, I feel a sense of camaraderie, a fellow traveler on the same path.
The poet Pablo Neruda once stopped by a coal mine in Chile during his travels.
Then a miner working in the mine, his face covered in coal dust, came up to Neruda and hugged him tightly, shouting:
“I’ve known you for a long time!”
This is what comrades say.
A Japanese writer who goes by the pseudonym F quoted a publisher's advertisement that said, "Conversations are possible even if you read just one book," and wrote that if people read not just one but several copies of the same book, they would be able to understand each other deeply without much exchange of words.
“It is highly likely that you have read the same book as someone you can communicate with from the beginning.
And if there's no communication at all from the start, there's a good chance the other person hasn't read the book at all.
(Omitted) It is good to read as many books as possible.
Because the number of people who can communicate through words and solitude will increase as the number of books read together increases.
And when you come across an interesting book, it's a good idea to recommend it to as many people as possible.
“This is the best means of resistance against a world that is becoming more and more disconnected.”
And Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist and Nobel Prize winner in literature, says:
“Carrying a book in your pocket or bag means carrying a world that will make you happy, especially in unhappy times.”
You and I, who are reading this book now, are not simply reading the same book; we are in an incredibly close relationship between the author and the reader.
Because through your solitude and mine, the two solitudes become brighter and the two worlds meet.
“Some people will make you smile, many will make you cry.
But the most special person is the one who makes you laugh while crying.” Here, you can also replace ‘person’ with ‘book’ and it makes sense.
C., who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia.
S. Lewis said, “We read to find out that we are not alone.”
It's important to know that you're not alone.
A man was driving along a country road when he got distracted by the scenery and his car got stuck in a mud puddle.
No matter what I did, the wheels just kept spinning and I couldn't get out.
So I went to a nearby farm and asked the farmer for help.
The farmer pointed to a mule in the field and said,
“Warwick can help you get the car out of the puddle.”
The man looked at the old mule, then back at the old man who was repeating the same words.
But I figured I had nothing to lose by trying.
The farmer tied the mule Warwick to the car with a rope.
Then he grabbed the reins and pulled the mule, shouting:
"Pull, Fred! Pull hard, Jack! Pull with all your might, Ted! Pull hard, you too, Warrick!"
Then, surprisingly, the mule pulled the car out of the puddle without much effort.
The man pats the mule on the back in disbelief, thanks the farmer, and asks,
"There's only one mule, so why did you keep calling out other names before calling Warwick? Does this mule have multiple names?"
The farmer says with a smile.
"no.
Warwick is old and can't see.
But if you believe you are working with other mules, you can pull anything heavy.”
Writing is a solitary endeavor, but when you believe in the presence of an unknown reader, that solitude becomes empowering and your sentences shine.
A writer cannot write if he does not believe that his message will be conveyed.
I hope this book brings laughter and emotion, and makes you want to call me anytime.
But Salinger, who actually said that, was famous for his eccentric personality and avoiding meeting readers.
"Come on, pull, Salinger! Pull hard, Neruda! Put more force into it, Louis! Pull with all your might, Ryu Si-hwa! We must quickly drag out those 'unruly hearts' mired in the mud."
---From "Preface - We read books to know that we are not alone"

The way you see the world is the way the world sees you.
Have you ever heard a rose weep? Roses weep when people talk about their thorns rather than their beauty.
You've probably cried rose tears too when people do that to you.

---From "Define yourself with your favorite color"

From the moment we are born, we are on a journey through life aboard a rocky planet hurtling at 100,000 kilometers per hour.
It rotates and even orbits.
Sometimes, the pain of losing the 'feeling of being alive' in an unstable life that shakes at magnitude 7 is not big or small.
No one's life can be summarized in one sentence.
Your life, my life.
Eight billion people are experiencing today in their own unique ways.
---From "The Battle That Happens Where Soul Meets Bone"

Rather than floating around without a center or direction like a feather, you should be able to fly lightly like a bird.
Just as a bird must have a space for air to pass through its bones so that it can fly, there must be a space for freedom to breathe within one's being.
It is not a frivolous lightness, but a lightness of heart that embraces freedom.

---From "Not with the lightness of a feather, but with the lightness of a bird"

I am not an unhappy person.
There are just unfortunate moments.
I am not a crying person.
There are only moments of crying and moments of laughing that intersect.
The fixed idea that I am an unhappy person, an angry person, a person from the past is a prison that I imprison myself in.
---From "Wildflowers Bloom from Broken Hearts"

Each flower should be called by a different name, one taken from the pocket of spring.
Just as people of the same race each have their own name… …the same goes for wounds.
It is not right to simply call it a wound because each wound has a different memory.
Wounds are the work of the soul, so each wound should be called by a different name.
That's respect for that wound.

---From "I know how you feel"

There is a Tibetan proverb that says, "When times are tough, make yourself happy."
We hope, we despair, we hope.
This is our wingbeat.
If you fall face down in the water, the first thing you should do is get up quickly.
Instead of trying to find oxygen in the water or build gills.

---From "I Was a Giraffe"

Life makes you lose your way to show you the way.
In a life full of twists and turns, both unpleasant and happy things happen at the same time.
Plan B may be better than Plan A, no, it's better.
Because Plan A is my plan, and Plan B is God's plan.
---From "Plan A is my plan, Plan B is God's plan"

I may not be in this world tomorrow, but seeing it through to the end is the best sincerity I can give.
Anyway, I was born to be defeated by death.
But it's up to me to lose beautifully.
If your heart feels silent, you must wake it up yourself and listen to its beating.

---From "I may not be in this world tomorrow"

The only way to heal pain is to not ignore it, but to grow through it.
Dr. Twerski says:
“Times when you feel uncomfortable and stuffy are signals that it is time for you to grow.
“If you use this adversity properly, you can grow through it.”
---From "The lobster sheds its skin twenty-seven times"

“If you can see the path ahead of you, it is likely not your path.
Perhaps it is someone else's path that you consider your own.
You have to find your own path step by step.
“The soul loves the journey itself.”

---From "If You Could See the Road Before You"