With gratitude, this spring
Published: 16 Apr. 2025, 00:05
Oh Kyung-ah
The author is a garden designer and CEO of OhGardens.
After returning from an overseas trip, I was greeted by a full bloom of cherry blossoms outside my home in Sokcho, Gangwon. The cherry tree-lined path through Seorak-dong had transformed into a palace of flowers. Though still weary from the trip, I resumed my commute to the mountains of Gangneung, where work on the greenhouse and garden has already begun.
Three years ago, I completed the initial garden project in this remote area. Now, I am constructing a secondary greenhouse. Coincidentally, I find myself making the same springtime commute I did then. In the garden, the plum trees I planted three years ago are blooming for the first time. Aronia shrubs are beginning to sprout leaves, and the green shoots of tulips, daffodils and camas lilies are pushing up through the soil.
![A view of the cherry blossoms in full bloom along the cherry tree-lined path in Seorak-dong, Sokcho, Gangwon Province. [OH KYUNG-AH]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/04/16/cd31015b-645f-4ce2-aefc-9ba5123ecad9.jpg)
Winona LaDuke, an ecologist at Harvard University and an advocate for Native American environmental knowledge, notes that the langauges of some of North America's indigenous people recognize six distinct seasons. Each season is named not according to the calendar but by the earth’s visible changes. In Ojibwe, the names include Ziigwan (spring), Minookamin (when the good earth awakens), Niibin (summer), Tagwaagin (time of falling leaves), Piiji-piboon (when the earth enters winter), and Piboon (winter).
We are currently in Minookamin — the time when the good earth awakens.
The blooming of cherry blossoms is not merely the arrival of flowers. It marks a wider awakening. Bees and butterflies stir from dormancy. Roots swell and draw water to make sweet sap. Birds begin scouting old tree trunks to nest. Squirrels dig into the softening ground. Earthworms wriggle through soil, aerating and enriching it. This season is not an isolated moment but a reminder that nature is a tightly woven network with all life connected by invisible threads.
The U.S. poet Ross Gay once wrote, “Joy, it seems, is the act of recognizing and celebrating the many forms of mutual care.”
After a long and trying winter, we too could take this to heart. May we move through this season with gratitude and a renewed appreciation for the delicate and generous systems that sustain us.
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
The author is a garden designer and CEO of OhGardens.
After returning from an overseas trip, I was greeted by a full bloom of cherry blossoms outside my home in Sokcho, Gangwon. The cherry tree-lined path through Seorak-dong had transformed into a palace of flowers. Though still weary from the trip, I resumed my commute to the mountains of Gangneung, where work on the greenhouse and garden has already begun.
Three years ago, I completed the initial garden project in this remote area. Now, I am constructing a secondary greenhouse. Coincidentally, I find myself making the same springtime commute I did then. In the garden, the plum trees I planted three years ago are blooming for the first time. Aronia shrubs are beginning to sprout leaves, and the green shoots of tulips, daffodils and camas lilies are pushing up through the soil.
A view of the cherry blossoms in full bloom along the cherry tree-lined path in Seorak-dong, Sokcho, Gangwon Province. [OH KYUNG-AH]
Winona LaDuke, an ecologist at Harvard University and an advocate for Native American environmental knowledge, notes that the langauges of some of North America's indigenous people recognize six distinct seasons. Each season is named not according to the calendar but by the earth’s visible changes. In Ojibwe, the names include Ziigwan (spring), Minookamin (when the good earth awakens), Niibin (summer), Tagwaagin (time of falling leaves), Piiji-piboon (when the earth enters winter), and Piboon (winter).
We are currently in Minookamin — the time when the good earth awakens.
The blooming of cherry blossoms is not merely the arrival of flowers. It marks a wider awakening. Bees and butterflies stir from dormancy. Roots swell and draw water to make sweet sap. Birds begin scouting old tree trunks to nest. Squirrels dig into the softening ground. Earthworms wriggle through soil, aerating and enriching it. This season is not an isolated moment but a reminder that nature is a tightly woven network with all life connected by invisible threads.
The U.S. poet Ross Gay once wrote, “Joy, it seems, is the act of recognizing and celebrating the many forms of mutual care.”
After a long and trying winter, we too could take this to heart. May we move through this season with gratitude and a renewed appreciation for the delicate and generous systems that sustain us.
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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