One Swing Philosophy — What Golf Taught Me About Life

A cold wind suddenly arrived yesterday. Just a few days ago, it still felt like autumn. Now, it feels like winter is just around the corner. This morning, I opened the window and immediately felt the cold air. “Wow, it’s cold!” So I put on warm winter pants and a warm jacket. But I didn’t close the window. I wanted to breathe in the cool autumn air as much as I could. I like this kind of weather. Then I started thinking about yesterday’s golf round. There were golfers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. Just before teeing off, my younger golf buddy, who is in her 50s, suddenly said, “Oh, I left my arm brace in the car. My arm hurts, so I need to wear it.” And one of the older golfers in his 70s had a small bandage around his right little finger. He told me he had been having a problem with it for about two months. Eventually, he decided to have surgery this winter. I looked at them and laughed. Then I said, “As we get older, it would actually be strange to be perfectly healthy. 😊” At the time...

Now that I’ve lived to 60, I’ve realized something . Getting older doesn’t necessarily mean that your heart gets older, too. My heart is still in its twenties sometimes. When I want to do something, I want to try it. When I see something new, I get curious. And when there’s something I really want to do well, I still get ambitious. Today was a perfect example. I went to the golf practice range, and for some reason, the swing that worked so beautifully yesterday just wouldn’t work today. At first, I made a small adjustment. Nope. I changed something else. Still no. Before I knew it, golf practice had turned into a battle between me and my swing. “Why isn’t this working?” I gave myself so many sarcastic little smiles. 😏 There I was, 60 years old, holding a golf club and acting like a competitive twenty-something. Eventually, after changing this and that, I managed to get about 80% of my swing back. But by then, both my body and my mind were pretty much wrecked from the battle. ㅎㅎ And th...

I think life is better when we live with people rather than completely alone. During COVID, many of my relationships naturally became distant. In some ways, that was a good experience for me. I learned that I could enjoy being alone. I learned that I could spend quiet days by myself and still be perfectly fine. But after a while, I realized something very simple. I actually like people. Maybe I have always been that way. I enjoy living alone, and I love my quiet time. But warm conversations, laughter, sharing a meal, playing golf together, or simply having a small connection with someone are still precious parts of my life. I just had to learn a different way of being with people. For a long time, I think I was a little bit of a dictator. ㅎㅎ Especially with my family. Because I was older and had experienced many things, I sometimes thought I knew more. So I would say, “Let's do this together.” “Let's go there.” “This will be fun!” And then I would organize all kinds of family e...

This morning, as soon as I woke up, I said something to myself. “If I can’t avoid it, let’s enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!!!” These days, Ruby and Rich often wake me up one after another during the night. So I sometimes don’t get enough deep sleep, and I feel a little tired when I wake up. But what can I do? This is my life. So I decided to enjoy the day anyway. Today Was My Day to Work in My Field Today, I had decided to go to my field in Yong-su-ri. I packed my weed sprayer and headed out. But when I arrived, I was surprised. There were not many weeds. It had not rained for quite a while, and we had only had some rain during the last two days. The summer heat had also gone down a little. There were some weeds in one area, but instead of spraying weed killer, I decided to pull them out myself. Honestly, I don't feel completely comfortable using too much weed killer on my own land. So I spent about one hour pulling weeds by hand. And that wasn't all. I also cleaned up the ...

About a year ago, I learned a new name for something happening inside my body: Rheumatoid arthritis. Honestly, I was scared. My finger joints had been swollen for quite a while, and eventually the pain became so severe that I could barely hold a golf club, let alone swing it. But the biggest problem for me was something else. “Does this mean I can never play golf again?” That thought made me surprisingly depressed. I thought I could handle almost anything else. But no golf? That was serious. 😂 If I could never play golf again, what was I supposed to do with the rest of my life? Would my golf clubs become decorations? Would the driving range become a place from my past? Would I have to go to the golf course just to watch other people play? I imagined everything. Looking back, it makes me laugh. But at the time, I was genuinely devastated. “This is the end of my golf career.” For a while, I was practically holding a funeral for my golf career. 😂 At first, I thought the finger problem w...

Something a little surprising has been happening lately. About 400 to 500 people now visit my blog every day. A few days ago, I had more than 500 visitors in one day for the first time. And yesterday, it happened again. My second 500-plus day. 😊 When I started this blog, I never expected anything like this. I simply wanted to write about my life. My life in Jeju. Golf. Swimming. My dogs, Ruby and Rich. Small things that happen during my day. And, of course, my thoughts about turning 60. At first, it was just like keeping a diary. But little by little, people started coming. People from Korea, the United States, France, Singapore, the UK, and other places have been reading my stories. Sometimes I think, “So, the ordinary life I am living every day has become a story that someone wants to read.” That thought makes me very grateful. When I turned 60, I thought life might become a little boring. I had already tried most of the things I wanted to try. I have never been a person with huge a...

Yesterday, I met two police officers I had gotten to know through an English interpretation job. Both were a little younger than me, and they looked very healthy and strong because they exercise regularly. To be honest, I went there hoping to get some good energy from them. But after talking with them, I felt like they had taken some of my energy instead. Haha. Both of them said that life had been very hard. Being a police officer, they told me, means dealing with much more than most people probably imagine. Of course, there are serious crimes and accidents. But there are also many smaller situations. Couples have arguments and call the police. People have emotional fights with each other. There are small traffic accidents where no one is seriously hurt. In Korea, if you call 112, the police come. If you call 119, someone comes to help. We are so used to this that we sometimes forget something very simple. The person who comes to help is also a person. After spending the whole day deal...