Yi Sun-sin
When my resources seem smallest, what can I still begin?
📝ONGO's Reflection
Before the Battle of Myeongnyang, Yi Sun-sin had only twelve ships left. The single sentence in his report to the court — "Your servant still has twelve ships remaining" — is the most solid line in Korean history. At the very end of despair, he did not see the despair but the twelve ships that remained. We too have our twelve ships: thirty minutes of time, one friend, a single small resolve. The eye that recognizes them as twelve ships is Yi Sun-sin's eye. The same resources are an ending for one person and a beginning for another.
"Your servant still has twelve ships remaining."Yi Sun-sin, 宣祖實錄 / 李忠武公全書 (Veritable Records of Seonjo, 1597)
🌱Apply It Today
Before the most impossible-seeming task today, write down what your "twelve remaining ships" are. A spare thirty minutes, one person who could help, the small tools you hold. That list is the beginning of your own Battle of Myeongnyang.
