The Boy Who Fed The Nightmares

The boy woke up from another awful nightmare. Bad memories from that
past that he wanted to forget were replayed on his dreams every night and
haunted him nonstop.

He was terrified of falling asleep, so one day, he went to the witch and
begged. “Please get rid of all my bad memories, so that I won’t ever have a
nightmare again. Then, I will do everything you ask.”

Years went by, and the boy became an adult. He no longer has nightmares
but for some strange reasons, he wasn’t happy at all.

One night, a blood moon filled the sky and the witch finally showed up
again to take what he had promised in return for granting his wish. And he
shouted at her with so much resentment, “All my bad memories are gone
but why can’t I become happy.”

Then the witch took his soul as they had promised and told him
this, “Hurtful, painful memories. Memories of deep regrets. Memories of
hurting others and being hurt. Memories of being abandoned. Only those
with such memories buried in their hearts can become stronger, more
passionate, and emotionally flexible. And only those can attain happiness.”

The story tells us to overcome the pain of living inside of us. Let’s make a
commitment to learning from those experiences, acknowledging the hurt,
and move forward to live a life without chips on our shoulders so we can
find the happiness we’ve been looking for.
Zombie Kid
A baby boy was born in a small village. He had pale skin and large eyes.
While raising the boy, his mother naturally came to the realization that he
had no feelings at all.

All he had was the desire to eat like a zombie. So, his mother locked him up in
the basement so that the villagers wouldn’t see him. And every night she stole
livestock from her neighbors to feed him. That’s how she raised him in secret.

One night she’d steal a chicken. The next day, she’d steal a pig. A number of
years passed like that, then one day, an epidemic broke out. It left the
remaining animals dead, and it also killed many people.

Those who survived the epidemic left the village. But the mother couldn’t
leave her son all alone. And to appease her son crying of hunger, she cut off
one leg of hers and give it to him. After that, it was her arm. She gave him all
her limbs when she was left with nothing but her torso, she embraced her son
for the last time to let him devour what was left of her.

With both arms, the boy tightly held his mother’s torso and spoke for the first
time in his life, “Mom, you’re so warm.”
The Cheerful Dog

Once upon a time, there lived a dog that was very good at hiding his emotions.
The dog was tied beneath a shade tree. He always wagged his tail and acted
cutely. So he got the name, the cheerful dog because he is as cheerful as
springtime.

The dog always had lots of fun with the village kids during the day. But every
night, he’d moan and whine when no one was around. That’s because he
wanted to cut off the leash and freely run around out in the spring field.
However, he couldn’t. And that’s why he cried every night. Every single
night.

One day, the voice inside him asked the Cheerful Dog, “Hey, why don’t you
just cut off the leash and run away?”

And this was the cheerful dog said, “I’ve been tied up for way too long so I
forgot how to cut myself free.”

Moon Sang Tae

We are a cheerful dog. We are good at hiding our emotions. We pretend

that we are happy, that we are okay, but deep inside we are in pain, in
struggles, in confusion. As it happens, we don’t want to show these
sentiments, to reflect our weakness, we just keep on waggling our tail and
fail to realize that we are the ones who put ourselves in a deep trap by
suppressing our feelings.

Let’s pull the plug off playing “everything is awesome”. Let’s muster our
courage to spill our bottled emotions. We should stop holding on to
someone or something that torments us. It’s okay to moan, to whine, to cry.
It’s okay to be weak for a while, it’s okay to seek help, to share our feelings,
to release our hate, to accept the things we cannot do. It’s okay to stop
denying, we don’t need the validation from others of what we are feeling.
Let go, cut yourself free. Get off the leash of being a “cheerful dog” so we
can play and run in the Springfield happily and wag our tail in all sincerity.