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A few years ago, whenever I came to this forest, I used to see stone cairns here and there, and they always delighted my eyes. But there was one absurd Christian who denounced them as satanic and went around destroying every one he saw. Because of that, the person who used to build these cairns as a hobby became so discouraged that he stopped making them altogether.

Today, however, when I went to the forest and saw this stone cairn by the water, my heart was filled with joy and relief. Unless you’ve tried it yourself, you wouldn’t know how difficult it is to stack these slippery, uneven stones on top of one another. The man who built this one is a Korean gentleman, at least six years older than I am.

He also volunteers as a ranger in this forest, so I’ve run into him many times. Whenever we meet, he loves to stop and chat, and over time we’ve become friends. But for some reason, I haven’t seen him at all this year, and I’ve been worried. At his age, when someone disappears for a while, you can’t help but wonder if something unfortunate might have happened.

That’s why seeing this cairn today made me so happy.