Yenna Yi

Ring of Fire Yenna Yi

"Ring of Fire" is my memoir of my growing up in the post war poverty in South Korea. The war followed my displaced family when they repatriated from Japan at the end of the WWII. When I left Korea, I ended up in Hawaii where we (me and my husband then) built a catamaran, 'Melelai." We sailed the big waters of the globe while raising and schooling our sons on board. Family is important for me, for family is the basic building unit for community. I often compare my threesome family; me, hulmonie (grandmother), oma (mom) to the family I have on my own. These two family units are vastly far apart historically, geographically and politically. But I find that the family carries the same inner core of love and care above the external discrepancies. I try to apply the same philosophical approach when I work with family as a psychotherapist. We sailed many big waters of globe learning different cultures, languages and local customs. I find life an inner and geographical journey as we grow to receive joy and sorrow. There are beauties in differences like colors of rainbow. Acceptance of others and sharing our differences with others are healing. As I reminisce my childhood war in Korea, I am fearful of the bellicose nuclear rhetoric across the two hemispheres. I was a child then, now I am a grandmother of two grandchildren.