This Autumn, with Love
On the first day of November,
I went to a special wedding.
It was the wedding of CEO Jeong Hyeon-bok’s daughter. For the brave, spirited older sister who had been the guardian angel of her little brother, very ill in childhood, the brother gave a moving speech, and to the saxophone of her uncle, her father sang “Gomapso (Thank You)” at his daughter’s wedding. It was a truly warm and meaningful wedding.
Watching the lovely couple’s new beginning, I recalled the promise of our own newlywed days 26 years ago, and took time to open happiness again myself.
1. A PuNolChi mind picnic from the reception hall
Two people with different pouches of blessings meet and bring a fragrant flower of love into bloom. Hoping that, through love and respect, the flower of happiness would bloom and its fruit would spread to those around them, I expressed a five-minute PuNolChi Mind Journey on a plate.
Let us keep that first promise unchanged,
and love with love.
Amen🙏
2. A promise taken out again from Conversations with God
I open again the Conversations with God I have kept in the cafe like a diary for 20 years.
2013, the morning of our thirteenth wedding anniversary in New Jersey. On the fried egg of the breakfast my groom made, a heart and the number 13 were carved.
“Lovey-dovey until our black hair turns white as onion roots.
Thank you, I love you, I’m sorry I didn’t understand you better.
Let us love each other more, understand each other more…”
And in February 2023, at the Benedictine retreat house in Jangchung-dong, Seoul, during a retreat on Thomas Merton’s spirituality, I met a book by Father Anselmo Park Jae-chan.
Anyone can do love (Doing Love), he said, but becoming love (Becoming Love) is a path that passes through self-emptying and self-surrender.
The words a wife said to her husband, who had become severely disabled by meningitis:
“Because you are hurting, I will love you even more.”
To Raphael, who always stayed by my side when I was hurting after the car accident, I wanted to say the same: “I will love you more~♡”
The promise of 26 years ago, the fried egg of 13 years ago, and today’s plate in the reception hall. Our love has grown, little by little, from something we do into something we become.
3. An initial-letter quiz at my sister’s breakfast table
My sister and her husband, together for 43 years.
Through every kind of hardship,
lovey-dovey at seventy-one, getting along so well:
my sister and brother-in-law.
A couple’s love (夫婦愛) so lovely to see.
The morning after the wedding, having breakfast with my sister and her husband, both ten years older than me and the same age as each other, we expressed a PuNolChi Mind Journey.
ㅇㄱㅇ ㅅㄹㅇㄹ
Guess the Korean initial letters.
My brother-in-law: “Ding-dong-dang~🎵” (Correct!)
Even the trail a blueberry leaves behind becomes a work of art.
When I came back from a short outing, the PuNolChi work had changed shape on its own and become even prettier. With a grateful heart, I meet the PuNolChi Mind Journey again.
The parish bulletin I brought from my sister’s home, who attends the 120-year-old Susaek Catholic Church, is full of good reading.
4. Today is a gift
The Daum cafe Healing Space Haengbok Yeolgi, where I have written for 20 years: I am grateful for all the writing gathered there.
These days I am learning vibe coding, and as a complete beginner I am building the PuNolChi homepage myself. To post one piece a day, I look for records in the cafe that connect the past and the present, just as I wove our anniversary of 13 years ago into today’s diary.
Today is a gift to me.
The present is a present.
Coming up to the wedding on November 1,
discovering a special meaning,
and receiving November 2 as a gift.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
5. The beautiful autumn of a Sangam-dong park
A park near MBC Mall in Sangam-dong, Seoul, where I walk with my sister and her husband.
A park along a stream of the Han River,
the water sparkling between the reeds.
Thanks to the people who keep the park clean, the autumn is even more beautiful. Thank you.
A man flying a kite,
clouds and sky reflected in the water.
Filling my phone camera with autumn photos after so long brightens my heart.
6. Soft tofu stew from my brother-in-law and a five-minute mind table
For lunch, my brother-in-law treated us to delicious soft tofu stew.
With the meaning of energy springing up, I set a five-minute PuNolChi mind table and ate it filled with happiness.
The PuNolChi Mind Table for a healthy and beautiful world. Raphaela’s steps continue at the table, carrying the energy of health and love, steadily and quietly, one step at a time.
7. In front of the 120-year-old Susaek Catholic Church
The 120-year-old Susaek Catholic Church had only a morning Mass that day, so in the afternoon its doors were closed.
It was a little disappointing, but the red berries and yellow leaves beside the church seemed to pray in our place.
8. On the train home
Before I knew it, the sun was setting. 6:21 p.m., on the train home. The Han River and the Seoul skyline I saw as we pulled out were truly beautiful.
The answer to the morning quiz
was “This autumn, with love.”
Like the first promise of a wedding,
like my sister and her husband’s long journey together,
from doing love to becoming love:
this autumn, may we all
love with love.
This autumn,
who would you like to walk with?
Healing Santa Kim Ji-yu
This story was first posted in the Conversations with God spiritual coaching of the healing space Haengbok Yeolgi cafe, woven together with the record of a 2013 wedding anniversary and the story of Spiritual Diary 18.