“If I could, I would like to cut out some of my time and give it to writer Kim Shin-ji.
“If I could just read such a good piece of writing, I wouldn’t mind spending my time at all.” - Author Kim Min-cheol

Author Kim Shin-ji, who sang about living as a special witness to ordinary daily life through 『Weekdays are Life Too』 and 『I Decided to Record』, has now taken out the word 'time' from the deep pocket of her heart.
He realizes that he has been saying “later” all the time and that he is becoming a “busy person” to his loved ones, and he realizes that the only thing he needs is “time.”

“Living is courage.
“The courage to continue to find what’s right for me and choose a future that makes me smile.”

To move on to the life you want, you must be able to let go of the things in your hands.
But it's easier said than done. It's not easy to break out of a stable daily routine on your own.
Still, he holds onto the courage he has yet to use like an oar and turns the ship with all his might toward the time he has dreamed of.
This book is a confession of boundless love for the things I finally met on that land.
The coming and going of seasons that can be felt without effort, a phone call with a more affectionate mother, a morning when you wake up without an alarm, the breadth of heart that can smile and look at people rushing to get on the bus…
Only after gaining time did he finally walk into the life he wanted and become the person he wanted to be.

Is it because I went through growing pains?
In this book, the world of Kim Shin-ji has become even richer and deeper, to the point where author Kim Min-cheol's rave review of "such good writing" is not without merit.
'Life is an open ending', so 'you can go anywhere'.
The fact that he says, 'Anything is possible' makes me trust the infinite possibilities he will show as a writer even more.

I want to be the person who, instead of silently covering my mouth in disappointment when my favorite friend at the restaurant counter stuffs three free tangerines into his right pocket and three into his left pocket, claps his shoulder and says, "Eugh."
Not despite that, but because you are just that kind of person, because you are an ordinary person, because you are close.
You are like me.
Sometimes, I get so greedy that I look like I hate you, but when my heart suddenly breaks, I give everything to others without hesitation and just live like that.
I wish you would stare at me like that and pat me on the shoulder.
I wish you could understand my flaws, my weaknesses, the lies I often tell, the mistakes I can't apologize for, the many moments when I was not proud, the cowardice that only I know about, and this heart that points fingers outward but cannot see itself.
Mumbling as if looking in a mirror.
“That’s what it means to be human.”
---From "That's What a Person Is"

When I left for Seoul in the winter of nineteen and always thought of home as a place I would visit for a while, when I was busy going to school and work and was absorbed in things like good things, busyness, and sadness, and thought of my hometown as a closed room covered in dust.
Even then, time was flowing here, and my grandmother, walking with a bent back, would have stopped again, caught sight of my mother working alone, climbed up the ridge of the field, and pulled out the weeds.
As Mom's wrinkles grew, Grandma's back must have become more and more bent.
Now, I'm left standing there blankly, while my old mother and even older grandmother pull out weeds under the scorching sun.
With a face that can neither laugh nor cry.
Uye Iki is a good person.
I still don't know how to live a good life without feeling like I want to hide somewhere when I hear things like that.
(…)

Standing beside the grandmother who helps without any calculation, without expecting anything in return, and without any awareness of helping, I relearn, as if hearing for the first time, the obvious fact that one person can help another.
Sick people help sick people, struggling people help struggling people, sad people help sad people.
We are beings who can help each other like that.
Accepting that fact also allows us to understand that we cannot carelessly use words like pessimism, that the world is already wrong, or that we are disillusioned with people.

---From "The One Who Helps Without Any Calculation"

When the moment of wanting to run away grows bigger and bigger, I think not of In-sook, but of the things in front of In-sook's house.
I fight with them inside.
Cucumbers that grow their tendrils with a frightening momentum all night, peppers that are condensing their spicy flavor under the scorching sun, shiitake mushrooms that are sucking up the nutrients of the oak tree, and sesame seeds that are ripening like periods.
So as not to be influenced by such things.
No matter how lushly you all grow, I must be the strongest of all the ones Insuk has raised.
By cherishing this life, I will become his pride.
When I think about it that way, I feel like a crop standing tall with its limbs stretched out in a field without a single shade in the middle of summer.
As if there was someone he wanted to show off.
My life is still growing.

---From "The things Insuk treasured most in her life"

When I had free time, how would I spend my days? On nights when I was alone, I would write in the margins of my diary about the "time I truly wanted."
Because I want to live a life where I take even one step towards something good, rather than a life where I retreat to avoid suffering.
Just thinking about that question made me quietly rejoice, like someone who had discovered a less bitter hope.

---From "If Today Were All Mine"

Instead of making no choices out of fear of failure or calling things that don't go as planned a "failure," I want to keep trying.
Good failures, actually good experiences, that will help us move forward.
However, when it's hard to get out of frustration, try thinking of it as an 'open ending'.
Our story is still being written, and life is an open ending for everyone who lives.
I want to walk with the mindset of watching to see which path this experience will lead me to and how far it will take me.
Less discouraged, more courageous.
In a story with no set ending.

---“It didn’t fail.
From "We Make Good Failures"

At the foot of the mountain, several buildings made of red brick have large, round, gray roofs that resemble hats.
Between the buildings, there is a spacious, well-landscaped garden.
A friend who came to visit my house once said it was like a resort in a country where it's summer every day, and it wasn't until I searched that I found out it was a convent.
When I record the scenery outside the window in the morning, I write down everything I saw, heard, and smelled that day, but there is a sound that is heard repeatedly in the convent.
The sound of blowers clearing fallen leaves and branches from the road, the sound of cultivators going out to work in the gardens throughout the convent, the sound of the mower motor cutting down the grass that has grown tall in the rain.
Every day, I hear a different sound that makes me wonder why I am so diligent.

Yesterday, as I lay down to sleep, we talked about living next to a river and a convent.
A place where you can see the hands that take responsibility for and care for the surroundings you live in every day.
It's fortunate that such a place is next to the studio.
Whenever I feel down or depressed, I cheer up when I see someone pulling out weeds, growing crops, and weeding with the same speed and same heart.
I need to get up and take care of my daily life.

---From "Things in Today's Season"