Hello, this is Healing Santa Kim Ji-yu. Today I am attending a special lecture at the Hankyung ESG four-week course hosted by Hankyung Academy, the “1st Master Class on Responding to Mandatory ESG Disclosure.”
The story of how I came to take this class goes back two years. At Mirae Hakdang I found wide opportunities for lifelong learning and fresh encounters with people from many fields. I am Healing Santa, who came back as someone who learns and, loving and sharing, is restarting life at the age of sixty.
The eleventh story is about grateful encounters that grew from the kind connections of Chairwoman Heo Eun-young, who became a guardian angel of my life.
1. One text message, sent after falling for a single lecture
On November 30, 2024, at Mirae Hakdang, I heard a lecture by pro Heo Eun-young for the first time.
“Meet people without a purpose, and you will reach your goal fastest.”
“When you decide for the other person, the greatest beneficiary in the end is you.”
She laughingly introduced herself with “an arrogant self-introduction,” and I simply fell for her humility.
After the lecture, having hesitated for a long while, I sent one text message carrying the wish, “I would like to join you.”
For me, who had been standing still for so long after the traffic accident, reaching out first took a little courage.
Branden called the fourth pillar of self-esteem self-assertiveness, the courage to show my heart honestly. For me, that one text message was the permission I gave myself: “I too deserve to be here.”
The poem by Nazım Hikmet I heard in that lecture still hangs in my heart.
“The best days are the days we haven’t lived yet.”
That time when I did not know where to go was the beginning of the true journey.
2. The first encounter my guardian angel arranged: Teacher Park Jae-hee of Seokcheon Hakdang
After that, Chairwoman Heo Eun-young connected me, one by one, with good people.
The first encounter was with Teacher Park Jae-hee of Seokcheon Hakdang.
“Good solidarity through study”: a place of learning where we look at one another with warm eyes and receive one another with warm hearts.
While studying the I Ching, the words “the noble person stays firm in hardship (君子固窮)” and “if you put in sincerity and trust, it will in the end be auspicious (吉)” comforted my heart after its long time of recovery.
On the day we read Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money together, I lingered long before the sentence, “Don’t buy self-esteem with money; use it for your freedom.”
That true self-esteem comes not from what we have but from what kind of person we live as resembled Branden’s sixth pillar, personal integrity: a life in which what we know and how we live become one.
3. Gifts received through music: a concert and a year-end house concert
Thanks to my guardian angel I also received a treat for the ears: in spring 2025, an oldies pop concert of memories at the M Theater of the Sejong Center.
And at year’s end, a warm house concert given by a humble wealthy person.
Rather than showing off what they had, they opened their home, opened music and opened their hearts to invite people, and I learned from watching them.
I learned that sharing is not something we do because we have plenty, but something a person who respects themselves does naturally. People who treat themselves as precious know how to treat others as precious too.
4. This year’s gift: Chairman Ra Je-geon of the Kakdang Welfare Foundation and Volunteeum Han River
And this year, in June 2026, I volunteered for two days with a PuNolChi healing experience at Volunteeum Han River, organized by Chairman Ra Je-geon of the Kakdang Welfare Foundation.
Children made faces, the sea and flowers with onion-ring snacks, and adults put down their smartphones for a while, ate cherry balls and called out their wishes.
When Chairman Ra Je-geon asked me, “What is PuNolChi?”, I found myself organizing again, from the beginning, the 20-year path of Food Expressive Arts Therapy I have walked.
After everything stopped with a traffic accident in 2018, I carried the question, “What will I leave behind in this world?” In the night breeze of the Han River, its answer grew a little clearer.
Branden’s fifth pillar, living purposefully. Knowing where to let the love I have received flow was exactly a life of respecting myself.
5. When we are ready, Kairos, the god of opportunity, appears
Kairos of Greek myth is said to have a thick forelock and no hair at the back. He is the god of opportunity, whom we must seize as he approaches.
Looking back, my Kairos always came with the face of a “person.”
But I could grab that forelock because, even in the time I stood still, I did not let go of myself and kept preparing: the times I rebuilt myself by caring for my body with the five-minute mind table, learning every Saturday, writing and keeping records.
I learn again that self-esteem is not something someone gives us, but trust we build ourselves by keeping our promises to ourselves like this, every day.
6. 2027: Healing Santa’s guiding question
I am excited to think what the coming 2027 holds. My guiding theme for 2027 is this:
Sharing what I have prepared,
being actively engaged,
growing together,
and living a life that contributes to a healthy and beautiful world.
Learn and give it to others. I want to share the spirit of Hongik Ingan (benefiting all humanity) that my father taught me, now without overdoing it, only as much as I can, and joyfully.
7. Today’s five minutes: a gratitude table
One.
On a plate, express with food one “guardian angel of my life.”
Two.
Link, one by one with small fruits, the encounters that began thanks to that person.
Three.
Take a sip of warm tea while thinking of one answer to “What have I been preparing?”
Four.
In the center of the plate, let one gift you will share in 2027 bloom as a flower.
Closing
To Chairwoman Heo Eun-young, who preciously carried on the bond from Mirae Hakdang; to Teacher Park Jae-hee, who led me into good solidarity through study; to Chairman Ra Je-geon, who opened a new path of volunteering; and to the angels of my life who held my hand every step of the way — I give deep thanks with both hands together.
When we share the love we have received, self-esteem grows firmer, and when we share together, the world grows warmer.
Who is the guardian angel who came into your life? And in 2027, what would you like to share?
With love, Healing Santa Kim Ji-yu
This story was first posted in the Healing Santa's life of learning, loving and sharing of the healing space Haengbok Yeolgi cafe.