Awakening on Mt. Jiri

By Kim Jin-hyun

On April 27, my school's birthday, I drove to Jeongnyeongchi (the name of a hill on Mt. Jiri) to experience, see and smell the beautiful, fresh leaves. Green, tender and all around the hill and on the mountainside, they helped me to clear my mind.

What allured me to drive there? In late April last year, I had a chance to enjoy the mountainside of Jiri _ the section from Jeongnyeongchi to Seongsamjae. From this height, the colors changed from green to light yellow or red. It deeply moved me and brought tears to my eyes.

As I reached home, I thought about the experience. What had brought me to tears? I realized that trees growing, whether in the sun or shade, in high or low places, allowed a variety of leaves to grow. These colorful trees moved me to tears.

It motivated me to compare its natural beauty to my own lifestyle. I experienced pneumonia in high school, two college entrance exam trials, and chronic stomachaches. I was diligent but continually made mistakes due to my quick temper. I had poor social relations, excessive feelings of inferiority and a dependent attitude in my life.

Sometime in my late 30s, during my awakening through spiritual training, I realized I had had a stressful lifestyle. It showed through my stiff face, my murmuring, my extreme behavior and my relationships. There were unresolved stresses in my life, family problems, friendships and social ideologies. In other words, I tried to hide my communication deficiency with an old saying: ``Silence is golden."

As a way of understanding and improving my identity, I tried to seek absolute values and expressed my thanks all the time. I devoted myself to my lifestyle and to others more sincerely. As a result, I realized my lifestyle had changed step by step.

The more deeply I had tried to touch my identity, the more I realized how extensively rooted the family and social matters had been linked within me. For example, there was only order and no discussion in the relationship between my father and I. There were no programs to help me improve my personality or my surroundings until adulthood. Even in my school days, I had no chance to make things better.

I now understand why I had a hard time when I was young. I had an immature lifestyle, a dependent way of life, poor communication ability, a closed mind and broken relationships with colleagues.

After experiencing the colorful scenery on Jeongnyeongchi, I could compare it with the process of my life. I had experienced dark days, as well as bright and thankful days throughout my life.

John Donne, nn English poet in the 17th century, said, ``No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." I agree. If we don't communicate with our friends, neighbors, or anyone else with open-mindedness, each of us is a lonely island, where there can be ``me-ism," regionalism and jingoism. If we are open-minded, even though we stay far away, we are linked islands, where there is forgiveness, togetherness and cheerfulness beyond any one person.

Our society is made up of a variety of groups: the rich and the poor, the wise and the foolish, the beautiful and the ugly, the progressive and the conservative, the Koreans and the other nations of the world. If all members of society try to understand one another regardless of personality differences, even though we may be in the shade or in the sunshine, we will be able to have a more receptive viewpoint when responding to our students, neighbors, society, or to the world.

The writer is an English teacher at Yeosu Girls High School in South Jeolla Province. He can be reached at shinykim60@hanmail.net.