No Flower Blooms Alone

The road is for him who chooses it, happiness is for him who takes it.

The words you hear can change your life.

•The Bible verses in this book are from the Holy Bible (NWT), which is close to the original Hebrew Bible.   

•Names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

No Man is Wise from Birth

The secret of a happy life is forming the right relationships, and putting the right value on them.

Introduction  index-4_1

Having suffered my share of hardships in life, I have encountered many close relatives and friends seeking true happiness. Since I came through such hardships and grappled with the problems of life, I have often tried to offer them answers and hope through words of comfort gained from my experiences.  

I visited a close friend at her house one day. Her sister had suddenly died of an illness and she was weeping bitterly and refusing food. I tried to comfort her, but she only cried more violently after hearing my futile words of encouragement. But - when I sent a letter quoting passages from the Bible, our letter from the Father in heaven, my friend said that her courage returned and her tears stopped. Later, when I met her again, she again had tears in her eyes, this time not of grief but of appreciation. 

I gave another few verses to someone who had become suicidal, and he said that he also gained the hope and courage to live. The Bible is counted as the most widely read book in the world. There are innumerable cases of people reading this book to heal their minds and gain courage and strength. For example, when Dr. Norman Cousins, father of laughter therapy, was suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis, slowly dying from inflammation of the vertebrae, he happened to find a verse from the Bible that led him to the idea that the best medicine is pleasure in our heart.

With that realization, he treated himself with laughter and was healed miraculously from the disease. He went on to become a scholar of laughter.

He is called the father of laughter therapy. The verse that caught his eye was, the joyful heart is good medicine, from Proverbs Chapter 17, verse 22. This one verse made up of only eleven letters caused the miraculous recovery from his terrible illness and changed his life from that of an editor to a professor of laughter. Dr. Hwang, founder of good motivation and positivity who tells the story of Dr. Cousins, stumbled upon a verse in the Bible that gave him a great awakening in his life, since which time he has made a constant effort to live a life full of happiness and eventually become a university professor lecturing about the life of laughter. The short verse that changed his life was, Always rejoice! from Phillipians 4:4. The fact that this thirteen letter verse not only changed the impression of his face and his philosophy and outlook on life but also positively motivated others to action can only be considered amazing.

When we encounter a problem while making our way through life, we look for advice. We try to find someone wise or intellectual through counselling, psychology and self-help books, or fictional works about life. However, it seems that people don’t realize the fact that such books are based on none other than the Bible. If the problem is serious, why wouldn’t you want to find the one who created and designed human beings and the universe they occupy?

Let’s consider an example. A young man driving down a road had a sudden accident which stopped him in the middle of the street. Then an older gentleman stopped his car asking him, Young man, could you show me the front of the engine of the car?   

Do you really know so little about cars? answered the young man, to which the old man replied, I am the one who designed this car. He was Mr. Ford, an expert in automobiles.

As with the case above, if you want to understand human happiness, the various pains and problems you have in life, in mind, etc., I think that the most efficacious way to find a solution is looking at the only Troubleshooting Manual there is, written by the one who created existence and knows the solutions. It is the one book with the message that can wipe away the tears of so many people, turn their thoughts from suicide, heal their diseases, soothe their despair, change their jobs, and give them the ultimate joy and hope. And from this book, I have quoted that message of beautiful and precious hope as it was discovered in real lives.

I discovered the sudden light in darkness, the hope in deep despair, and the moments of direct, illuminating clarity in the midst of seemingly intractable problems. Now that you also look forward eagerly to experiencing such bright hope, think about the good things that lead to the truth. There is a saying that You will know the truth, and the truth set you free. 

Everyone wants freedom from worry and fear, freedom from past mistakes, and freedom from sadness and trouble. If you meditate seriously on the experiences and life of a person who obtained that freedom, you will be helped enormously in obtaining ‘true freedom,’ because the truth always guides the way of joy and hope and life. Great events, as well as trivial ones, and stories of ordinary people who struggle to hold the thread of hope amid the challenges of living will unfold before your eyes like a panorama  My wish is that all readers of this book, regardless of their religion, gain courage and sincere hope. I truly wish that this book would bring many people the peace, hope, love, and the chance to recover. I hope you find the three Ps in this book:

Peace, prosperity, and positivity

October 2016  Joy Park

Chapter 1

Valuable :  My Existence Is Found

Depression But No Despair

True Love Goes Beyond Fear 

Happiness Comes From Simple Things

The Sick Taking The Medicine Of Love 

Are You Tired Of Crying Over Failures?  

The Goal Of Life Is To Finish, Not To Be The First One.

Alone, Forgetting Someone Is With Us.... 

Sin, Forgiveness, And Love.... 

The Light In Hard Times  

Brilliant Success Obtained By The Pain Of Failure

The Happiness That Persecution Brought.

Chapter 2

Hope In Me :  The Search For Lost Dreams

A Wish Granted Out Of Patience

Disability Doesn’t Cut Off Hope 

Attractive Lips, Lovely Eyes, Slim Figure 

Wings For The Weary Soul 

A Blue Diamond Out Of Trials 

Practice Casting Off Our Burdens

Aging Appearance, Inner Youth

In Spite Of Suicide, Finding Love 

Humiliation, To Learn The Wisdom Of Life 

Temptation Is Merely Tempting 

Searching For Lost Dreams 

Chapter 3

Respected : Accepted By Others.

Please Forgive Me 

Love Overcomes The Walls Of Prejudice 

Healing Others With A Broken Heart

Recovering Lost Honor

Searching For True Freedom From Bondage .

The Friend That Comes From The Heart 

Inner Peace From Forgiving 

Our Wanderings Write The Story Of Our Life 

Fighting Lies With Truth 

Death Is The Hope Of Meeting Again

Chapter 4

Falling In Love :  The Blossoming Flower Of Love

Love Blossoms With Patience

Love Covers All Differences 

Make Your Wife A Queen And You Could Be A King .

Love Never Fails 

Wise Parents Let Their Children Find Wisdom

Divorce? Think About It A Little More. 

Invisible, With A Visible Heart 

The Little Mermaid Does Not End In Tragedy

Love Will Come

Love Returns With Love 

The One Who Was Always There

Chapter 5

Living Happy Lives :  Bearing Beautiful Fruit

Contentment Makes Us Rich

Blessings Out Of Loss.

God Clothes Even Plants

True Richness Of Heart 

Trials Caused By Greed 

The Miracle Of Donation 

The Day Begun With Thankfulness

Practice Casting Off Our Burdens 

The Angel With Tolstoy 

Chapter 1 

Valuable 

: My Existence Is Found 

index-10_2 Depression

But No Despair

Junghee Gwon was like a mother to me while I was living in the United States. I often confided in her during difficult times. One day she invited me to a performance of Mozart by Korean musicians. After the performance was over, I saw her make her way to where the members of the orchestra were greeting the patrons. She spoke to them affectionately.

Then she looked around as if searching for someone. After a while, she looked up at the ceiling with a hollow look in her eyes. Her face while coming out of the theater was dark and her eyes were wet.

Is it that the music was so beautiful? So you’re feeling emotional now? I asked her, wondering.    

It’s nothing. I was just thinking how nice it would be if my son were still alive.   

Oh? You have a son?

Yes, He used to conduct that orchestra.

......    

Then, listening to her, I felt deeply the power of her life’s story. She married and went to South Pyongan, now a province of North Korea, when she was young, had two children and lived happily with her husband. One day she had to visit her aunt’s house in Seoul and so had to leave her husband and young daughter at home during the trip.

Be good while I’m gone. Be sure to eat well…

She held on tight to her baby girl’s hand while saying goodbye to her husband. She then boarded the train for Seoul, anxiously gripping her son’s hand and constantly looking back at the faces of her husband and daughter. Those were the last glimpses she would have of them. The Korean War broke out and, after long years of fighting, the dividing line between North and South Korea (DMZ) was drawn, making it impossible for her to go back. She had become a widow.

She shed desperate tears over her lost family, but she couldn’t cry for long. She still had her son to raise. She had no experience working, but she had to make her living doing anything she could. She found laundry work and encouraged her son to study music and make use of his talents. For her son’s future, she brought him to the United States, where he succeeded in becoming a conductor. One evening, her son finished his meal saying, Today I want to go rest a little early, and went to his room. 

The next day her son was found dead of an unexpected heart attack.

He was her only son, for whom she had suffered so long, and now he had suddenly left her just as he was arriving at the path to success. She was seized by an impossible sadness. Although his students never failed to invite her whenever the orchestra put on