Somewhere in Time
It's July 2019. I'm at Baekyangsa Temple about two hours south of Seoul up in the forested mountains. It is a Buddhist monastery, open to the public for temple stays where they can meditate, commune with nature, learn how to prepare kimchi in the traditional way from the resident monks, and train in Korean martial arts. I didn't come all this way to learn how to make kimchi. "Are you well?" asks a sister monk, her head shorn of all hair as she sits on the wooden floor across from me. The dialogue catches me off-guard as the first two hours of the day had been spent observing and respecting the order's vows of silence as they start their day before reciting ancient prayers and striking traditional drums. She notices I'm perspiring, with Korean summers always running hot even in the mountains, the heat radiating through the rice papered buildings. " 예" I respond in my broken but serviceable Korean. "Thanks for letting me stay with you for