AN ETHOS OF JEONG (정)
할머니 (Halmoni, grandmother’s) squat. Tearful farewells. 꼬리곰탕 (Kkori gomtang, oxtail soup). Burning incense. 모기향 (mogui hwang, mosquito repellent coil). Community coalition meetings. 민중 (Minjung, People’s) activism. 우리 (uri, we). Kindred spirits.
These are memories, sensory connections, sacred elements, the grounds from which 정 (jeong) emerges within me.
Jeong is a Corean relationality of interconnectedness that saturates everyday living. It’s a kind of kinship that crosses boundaries, an emergence that encompasses affection, compassion, solidarity. Jeong is a profound survival resource that has sustained people of a peninsula and diaspora that have been traumatized by occupation, colonization, war, and forced division.
Jeong is a conduit for the stickiness, or the bonds, between peoples, communities, cultures, ecosystems. Jeong is the grounds of which solidarity and activism for liberation are rooted. Jeong is transhistorical memory and emergent future building. Jeong nourishes.
To be with, in care and love, in the midst of suffering and awakening, is like 약손 (yak son, healing hands) that mothers, grandmothers, and caretakers have practiced for generations.
Jeong is the ethos from which I practice spiritual, social, and self care.
* Deep gratitude and acknowledgement of Wonhee Anne Joh’s Heart of the Cross: A Postcolonial Christology. I enact jeong as a way of life that:
Embodies interdependence
Faces the realities of death dealing and life giving conditions
Commits to be with and together resist oppressive forces for mutual liberation
ABOUT KRISTINE (SHE / THEY)
I am a diasporic queer Corean spiritual care practitioner, facilitator, editor, and convener. 정 (jeong, a Corean relationality of interconnectedness and kinship) is the root of my care ethos, solidarity, and activism. My praxis of care integrates liberationist, ecofeminist, postcolonial, anticapitalist, and disability justice aims. My spiritual lineages are that of Corean indigenous and ancestral wisdoms and freedom fighters, inter/intra-religious contemplative practices, and liberationist communities of care.
My teachers and comadres including the following communities: BIPOC, Asian American, immigrant, queer, activist, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, refugee, maritime workers, among others. My education contexts include Union Theological Seminary (MDiv), University of Michigan (MPP), UCLA (BA), Jewish Theological Seminary (Clinical Pastoral Education), and Redlands University (Certificate in the Art of Spiritual Direction).
Some spaces that house my work:
Volunteers of America
SERVICES | OFFERINGS
1:1 Accompaniment Care
This offering is to accompany individuals during times of crisis, transition, deep emotions, or seasons of shift, overwhelm, discernment, among others. Accompaniment care sessions are based on the chaplaincy modality of presence, deep listening, reflection, and spirit care. Sessions are typically 45 minutes to an hour, with integration of meditations, grounding practices, and other healing modalities as welcomed by the individual.
I understand spiritual care as a dynamic that encompasses inner and social dimensions. My commitment is to walk with people on a path that integrates spiritual and collective healing, out of recognition that spirit care is a necessary resource for survival and the capacity to love and build amidst deep pain and suffering. I focus on being, of the earth, as an anticapitalist and liberative practice.
Groups, Workshops, Communities of Practice
This offering is to facilitate group spaces and formations such as healing circles, ritual gatherings, peer support groups, communities of practice, and contemplative practices. Groups can be one-time or a series of meetings on a designated theme or practice. They are typically 1 to 2 hours, and I like to co-facilitate with relevant partners as the size of the group and content calls for.
My experience in facilitating groups runs the gamut from organizing spaces (for activism and community building) to co-learning cohorts to board meetings to self care groups. Facilitation is a site of collaboration, creativity, and emergent processes, and I aim to be adaptive and iterative.
Editing Services
This offering is to provide editorial support on two levels: conceptual/content and copyediting. Words have profound impact, and as someone who has been transformed and restored by words of various mediums, I am committed to integrating inclusive, expansive, reclamatory, liberative, and creative lenses in my editing support.
In addition to being an editor for an Asian American publication, I’ve regularly provided writing support to peers, colleagues, and clients since middle school. Types of work I’ve edited include nonfiction, fiction, academic, application pieces (personal statements, essays), and general works for copyediting.
*Note: I have a sliding scale cost structure for the offerings. I will not turn people/groups away due to cost prohibition and am open to co-discerning feasible alternative means. Contact me for more details.
See also: Engagement Ethics
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