Don’t hurry up, my light

Don’t ever hurry up/Don’t hurry up, my light/Oh, oh, life – A spring night, Kim Su-young

This morning, my daughter told me to see something by pointing at it. Unlike her, I was in a hurry. The pedestrian signal was about to change. Her finger was pointing at apricot blossoms. The apricot trees were about to shine just as the pedestrian signal. They were not in full bloom, but those colors were heralding the warm spring days to come. I realized spring was here.

Spring has come. Seasons go round and round and stand before us just as always. Spring does what it is supposed to do despite the yellow dust, fine particles and even COVID-19. It thaws the land, blooms flowers and let children go back to school. That was my short appreciation of the apricot blossoms.

From this spring, I will be in charge of taking my daughter to school because I quit my job. I don’t have to get to the office by nine, but now I have to get to the school gate by nine. It takes less than 10 minutes, but she makes the most out of it by talking incessantly. When I listen to her voice, my anxiety melts away and leaves only grey traces just like snow in front of spring sunrays. I get buried in thought looking at her from behind.

I decided to start a publishing company. I don’t have books to publish yet, but I registered my business, opened a bank account and started to meet with vendors. I started along with spring, so to speak. “A spring night” is my favorite among Kim Su-young’s poems. I admire his greatness that orders light not to hurry up. It may not be what the poet intended, but the sentence feels like a self-help book to me. It is a fine spring day. I hope it is a fine start, too. But I am not going to hurry. Spring is next to us only when we stop by and look at apricot blossoms.