Cranes for Peace and Wellbeing

In Japan there is a tradition of folding origami cranes for all sorts of celebrations from new babies, to weddings and get well wishes. There is also a popular culture story about a little girl that folded cranes that you can check out at Wikipedia. My dear friend Stacey Ballard is in the fight for her life right now awaiting a liver transplant. This 38 year old woman has touched the world with her art work for decades. When you see Stacey's art you realize that she plumbs the depths of her soul in order to show us where she has been. She has made enormous contributions to her home town of South Lake Tahoe where she is a cornerstone of her community. I had been worrying about Stacey knowing that worry is just a waste of perfectly good energy. I decided that as a way to channel that energy and as a gesture of my wishes for her to get well that I would begin to fold 1000 origami cranes.

Well, 1000 cranes is A LOT! :) I would like to see how many cranes we can get together over the next two weeks. I am planning a trip up to South Lake Tahoe soon and I'm a asking the arting community at large to help with the project of folding 1000 origami cranes. Now, I can already hear most of you say – I don't know how to fold origami cranes! Well, the truth is that I had no idea how to fold a crane until yesterday when I down loaded written instructions and a video from the internet. After about 3 pitiful cranes I found my rhythm with the art and I found the act to be meditative and enjoyable. I sat here drinking coffee and laughing with my friend, Alison, and before we knew it we looked up and realized that we had made nearly 30 in just a little while.

Please join us in our efforts. I would love to see the international art community take up the practice of making these cranes. Even if you can only make a few please send them our way. You can contact me through this blog for a mailing address.

a Buddhist meditation practice for developing loving-kindness includes the following phrases:

may you be filled with loving kindness

may you be well

may you be peaceful and at ease

may you happy

Namaste...

Jul