Origami Cranes
A few months ago, I found myself in Phoenix at the Mayo Clinic, for an unrelated reason to my own personal health. The chaplain there, while making an origami crane for me, shared a beautiful metaphor for the paper’s transformation. His story has continued to stay with me and I hope it brings you as much peace as it has brought me.
He said we all start as a blank, flat sheet of paper, pristine and unaware of what is to come. While the paper is being folded, from the paper’s perspective it has no idea what is happening. The paper just knows that it is no longer as flat as it once was.
While the paper is going through this process, the paper doesn’t see it, and it is uneasy. But, the master is carefully making every line.
Every line has a purpose. No line is done by mistake.
Even though in the middle of the process everything looks completely different, the form begins to change. Just as we believe our lives should be a certain way, we are not in control, and unknowingly, we are turning into something beautiful. When everything is done, the paper is no longer a flat shape, but a little dimensional bird, ready to take flight.
When we have hope, we have so much freedom.
The chaplain makes an origami crane a day, to give to patients and their families with the intention that even in challenging moments, we can always have hope, and therefore we can always have our freedom.
A couple weeks after, to honor this beautiful practice, my parents and I made our own origami cranes, and that morning allowed ourselves to be healed through imagination and brighter skies ahead. I hope today, especially today, we all can find a little more hope.
I will be forever grateful for my green crane and the message that it holds.
Origami paper can usually be found at your local art store. If you are in Denver, I recommend Meininger’s. This great YouTube tutorial shows you an easy step-by-step process to make your own origami crane.