The Beauty of Kindness [사람에게서 만난 아름다움]

Two days after arriving in Spokane, Washington, it was Sunday.

We found a small Korean church in the town and decided to attend the service.

We had simply mentioned that we were visitors,
but the pastor prayed a special blessing over us before we left.

After the service, some of the elders stopped us and warmly insisted,

“Stay for lunch.”

While waiting in line, a young missionary began talking to us.

Although we had just met, he sat with us at the table and shared a conversation as if we were old friends.

As we talked, he invited us to go flying with him before we returned to Los Angeles.

The weather did not allow us to fly before we left,
but the day before our departure, he invited us into his home instead.

He told us, almost apologetically,

“I only have kimchi.”

Then he made kimchi stew and kimchi pancakes for us.

It was such a simple meal.

But sitting at that table,
it felt warm, generous, and precious.

There was another person we met who heard that we were going to spend some time by the lake.

Even though we had only just met,
he kindly offered to lend us his paddle boat.

Thinking back, it still feels almost unbelievable.

How could people who had just met us
open their hearts to us so freely?

It was a very small town,
and every person we met there had been a stranger to us.

And yet, strangely,
when it was time to leave,
it did not feel like we were leaving a place of strangers.

I found myself thinking of a Korean word:

Jeong.

There is no exact English word for jeong.

It is more than kindness.
More than affection.
It is the warmth that grows when we make room for another person in our lives.

It is offering what is yours to someone you have only just met.
Inviting them into your home.
Sharing your time and your table.
And, even for a brief moment,
letting someone become a small part of your life.

That day, I thought,

Ah.
This is jeong.

We had left home to discover new landscapes.

But when we returned,
the thing that stayed with me the longest
was not the scenery.

What made us miss that little town
was not only the beauty of the lakes and mountains.

It was the warmth of the people we met there.

The people who made a little room for us in their hearts.
The people who shared what they had without asking for anything in return.

As we made our way home, I found myself thinking,

Perhaps beauty begins
in the small space we make
for someone else in our hearts.

Looking back on this journey,
there is one word that has stayed with me the longest.

Jeong.