Partial image of an incense offering bowl at a temple in Asia. Image by frank mckenna via unsplash.

Partial image of korean onggi (earthenware) in the midst of persimmon fruit trees. Image by Insung Yoon via unsplash.

AN ETHOS OF JEONG (정)

할머니 (grandmother’s) squat.

약손 (medicine hands).

꼬리곰탕 (oxtail soup).

Lighting incense.

모기향 (mosquito repellent coil).

Community coalition meetings.

민중 (The People’s) struggle.

우리 (we) togetherness.

Partial image of a hanok, traditional korean house, with white cloths draped by wooden structures. Image by Finn via unsplash.

Partial image of a teapot and tea set in earth tones. Image by Oriento via unsplash.

These are senses, sacred elements, and the roots of 정 (jeong) in my life.

Jeong is a korean relationality of interconnectedness that saturates everyday living. It’s a kinship that crosses boundaries, an emergence and cultivation of affection, compassion, and solidarity. Jeong is a profound survival wisdom that has sustained people of a peninsula and diaspora in struggle for liberation, reunification, and dignity.

Image of a lit mosquito repellent incense coil. Image by Ronald Langeveld via unsplash.

How might we presence ourselves and one another with guidance and connection to the earth, tending to the co-mingling of our griefs, ancestral wisdoms, hopes, and emergent futures?

I turn to 약손 (yak son) lineage – medicine hands that mothers, elders, and caretakers have been practicing for generations – as tradition and technology to accompany us in these times of deep reckoning, awakening, and un/becoming.

Jeong is the ethos of my practice for spiritual, social, and community care.

‍

Join me in practicing and resourcing our spirits, bodies, and shared paths of struggles for solidarity, liberation, and future building.

Website and brand design + development by Winnow+Glean