"What I Wished For, What I Was Given - Health and Kindness Vol. 1" - Creative Award 2025 (Essay Category) Entry - (Posted 6/5)

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Introduction

Concept of the work

"What I Wished For, What I Was Given"

At first glance, while saying "What I wished for was not given to me," in reality, "what I truly needed was given to me."

"The gap between human wishes and what life provides" When one can honestly accept both of these polar realities, perhaps a door to new values will open beyond that deep insight.🤔💭

Through insight, what feels like "lack" or "deficiency" from a human perspective might actually be necessary for "growth" and "realization" when viewed from a higher vantage point and a broader perspective.🤔💭

It is also true that people seek "power" or "success," but what is actually given is often "weakness" or "failure." However, that "gap" might be what creates the depth of life.🤔💭

I would like to compile such poems into a story-style essay and make it so that the contrast between "What I Wished For and What I Was Given" becomes clear.🤗

Note📝
As of 6/5/2025, there are exactly 20 essays themed around "What I Wished For, What I Was Given." As a milestone, I have decided to submit a short essay.☺️

Image art of the work

A woman's figure: "Reaching for the answers of life in stillness" captured in a moment.
What are her two palms trying to feel? It symbolizes the duality of "the right hand trying to grasp what is desired" and "the left hand quietly receiving what is given."Duality

The woven pattern of the kimono features nebulae-like galaxies and ripples, depicting a cosmic fabric that contains the complex layers of life's trajectory—namely, hope, choice, complexity, and return. The white flower in her hair symbolizes
"wishes" while simultaneously symbolizing the duality of being prepared for "fading away."

The halo and spiral floating in the background represent a perspective from outside this world. We always live within the point of
subjectivity, but the geometry spreading behind her quietly tells us that, in reality, a larger trajectory—a given Kairos time—flows behind it.

✍️ Concept and Art Link

I created this art as a powerful metaphor to provide visual depth to the story's core concept—the message that
it was not what I wanted, but it was what I needed.

• The palm that seeks and the palm that receives

• The gorgeous kimono and the meditative gaze hidden within

• Flowers as desire and the beauty of accepting the fate of falling

• Dynamic background and static presence

Everything converges on the theme that the truth of life resides precisely within the margin of discrepancy.

✍️ Relevance to 'The Power of Harmony with the Heterogeneous'

"What I Wanted and What I Was Given"
Warpandweftcombined to
weaveistextile (fabric), this iswoven fabric

. In this theme, if
what I wantedis thewarp, then
what I was givenis theweft

. Thiswarpandweftcombined to be
woven is anessay (story)

what I wantedandwhat I was given (what I did not want)
the polar"gap"between them, through theessayiswoven

In other words,the polar 'gap' is a 'two-in-one'☯️. That is, the BLUE value of
'the power of harmony with the heterogeneous'itself.☺️

(Reference Article)

💎Published Work💎

"What I Wanted, What I Was Given - Health and Kindness" vol. 1

I visited my grandmother's house for the first time in a while. In a corner of the small garden, the hydrangeas my grandmother carefully grows every year were in bloom.

When I said, "They bloomed beautifully again this year," my grandmother smiled while working the soil.

"I can't decide whether they bloom or not. I give them water and fertilizer, but even so, they wither when they wither, and bloom when they bloom. There aren't many things that go exactly as I want."

I muttered...
"You can take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink."
...Separation of tasks... right?

My grandmother's hands were slightly bent and gnarled from years of farm work. Yet, when those hands touched the soil, it felt as if it became soft and fluffy.

"Doesn't it frustrate you that things don't go as you want?" I asked.

My grandmother was silent for a while, but eventually, she answered while squatting on the soil.

"When I was young, I thought so. I wanted a healthy body, or to be wealthier. But looking back, I feel like I've received many things that were different from what I wanted."

"Different things?"

"Yes. I wanted 'health,' but instead, I was given the opportunity to know the 'kindness' of those around me. I wanted 'success,' but instead, there was a view I could only see because I 'failed.'"

My grandmother gently stroked a small hydrangea bud.

"Things not going as you want can sometimes be an unexpected gift."

I looked out over the garden in silence. I had often felt dissatisfied with a life where things never went as I wanted. But hearing my grandmother's words, I thought for a moment.

Perhaps I was only captivated by the superficialHavinglike wealth, titles, and fame. Perhaps I should have valued the essential
Beinglike way of life, values, and identity more.

Perhaps I have been counting only the things I was 'not given,' while overlooking the things I 'was given.'
What is it that I have now, both tangible and intangible?

The things I sought did not come to me.
But perhaps, in their place, I have been receiving important things I never would have noticed otherwise.

The hydrangea bud touched by my grandmother's hand was waiting for the next rain, quietly but surely.

🗣️ One-sentence summary

What the flower that didn't bloom taught me was the kindness I had been overlooking.

The structure where 'not blooming' equals 'not being given' paradoxically leads to the 'essential value that was given.' It is trulya 'BLUE woven fabric', isn't it? 🪡

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