Daily Crane Meditation

I decided a long time ago that I would meditate every day.

That plan failed.

Then I read a book by the Dalai Lama and one by a zen priest and listened to a meditation CD and tried to make it happen. But for some reason, I simply do not have the right frame of mind when I wake up in the morning to sit down, and just breathe for some number of minutes every day. I cannot focus. Eventually, I simply gave up.


But, as part of my 1000 cranes project, I decided that it would be a real boost if I committed to folding at least one crane a day. So then I combined that with my desire to meditate daily and formed my daily crane meditation. Now, by any objective standard, when I fold the crane in the morning I am not really meditating, but I do take the time to focus on my breathing. One benefit to the crane is that I am so familiar with the model that I do not need to think about how to fold it. I've gone beyond simple memorization of the crane to something intuitive, like how an athlete does not remember how to move, they just do. I just fold the crane without thought which frees my mind to focus on breathing.

These folding meditation sessions are probably much shorter than if I were to set aside a block of time to meditate the zen way, but they are infinitely longer than the non-sessions I had been doing. And, with a bit of luck, getting in the habit of doing the daily crane meditation every single day could pave the way for a larger commitment that is simply not an option right now.

Origami Ball Game!

So, I woke up this morning and checked my origami day calendar. Most of the stuff in it is pretty mundane, and I often use the paper for projects of my own choosing, but I seriously consider each day's suggested project. Thursday's project was a Catcher's mit (presumably a traditional fold since I've seen it a few places before). What's so cool about that? Well, I had tickets for the Twins game today. Baseball origami the one day that I go to a baseball game? Awesome.

So, we went to the game via bus because we wanted to avoid the downtown traffic and gazillion dollar event parking fees.

Best part: since it was Earth Day, all Twins ticket holders rode for free!

The new stadium is outdoor, mainly because people forgot that they were building it in Minnesota, but the sun was really nice today and the structure had a good feel to it (though, I must admit, I am philosophically opposed to tax money paying for it).

The coolest part (for me) was when I was half-way through folding a turtle in the 4th inning and decided to finish it later. The woman sitting behind us asked me what it was going to be, so I did finish it and let her have it. It made my day that she was so excited about origami, if only briefly.

The Twins lost by 7 runs and who cares (I don't).

After the game we decided to grab some ice cream! A good day.

I like the idea of origami that finds it's own home. Each of the models pictured was left near where the picture was taken, and hopefully someone will discover it. Then they will decide what happens to it!

[The model on the bus is a dolphin designed by Jun Maekawa, the model in the cup is a swan designed by John Montroll, and the standing crane is a modified version of Jun Maekawa's three-headed crane]

First 10 Cranes Complete!

I've finished my first ten cranes and distributed them around the city! I've left one of them in an origami book, but most of them are left in semi-public spaces where someone may find them, in stores and restaurants. I wrote the blog web address on each one, so its actually quite likely that you found out about this blog via such a crane.

I would have folded more cranes by now, but I have been distracted by another project. Specifically, I have been tracing crease patterns of all the folds that I know and cataloging them in a 3-ring binder so that I can compare and contrast different patterns.

First Project!

There is a popular belief that if you fold 1000 paper cranes, you may have one wish granted, much like finding a magic lamp. If you know of this, it is likely because of the children's book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, which follows Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese girl who became ill with the "atom bomb sickness" (leukemia) after the United States nuked Hiroshima. She folded cranes while in the hospital, hoping to fold 1000. According to the book, she reached 644 before passing away. Her friends and classmates completed the other 356 so that she could be buried with all 1000.

In many ways, this is such an important aspect of origami in the world. This story is what has solidified the paper crane as the peace crane. It is one of the reasons people even are introduced to origami in the first place. And so I have decided that I will fold 1000 paper cranes to pay respects to the tradition.

I have no idea how many cranes I have folded thus far in my life, so for this project I will begin at 0001 and work my way up. I have been known to abandon origami in public places, and therefore cannot expect to possess all 1000 cranes at the end. Instead, I will write which crane it is, and then leave it so that someone may find it. Sometimes my origami comes back to me, so I guess I will see if that happens again!