aka "origami woman"

Over the years, I've attended a number of rallies, protests, vigils, and other social activism events - and I keep running into people with whom I've shared peace cranes.  They'll say to me - you look really familiar, but I'm not sure where I know you from.  And then I'll fold a crane, and they'll say - "oh, YEAH!  You shared a crane with me when we marched together at X event"  Or when we visited one of the legislator's offices together, or sat at a table together at a lobby day, etc.


Sometimes I'll share butterflies, lilies, flapping birds or other creations - but with activism it's usually peace cranes, because of their symbollism and spiritual significance.  One of my friends is currently writing a children's story, and I will show up in it as the origami woman :-) because of some cranes I shared with her as she was dealing with her mother's death.

Mother's Day this year was especially painful, with my mom and both my grandmothers gone and not having children of my own.  It was really hard with the sense that this will be my last in this house designed by my dad where I've lived off and on since I was nine years old.  So I've questioned my place in the world, and what I've really done with my 44 years, and what I have the ability to do once I leave here.

And in the midst of that - there are various folks in whom I've fostered a passion for the whimsical and wonderful  Japanese art of origami.  There's a trail of paper creations with my finger prints stretching around the globe.  I had the honor of giving my Japanese sister Kimi 1000 cranes when she went back after living with my mother and me on exchange for a year - and of leaving a handful of cranes at Sadako's memorial in Hiroshima when I visited with my sister in 1987.  A friend of my brother and sister in law's took one of my cranes with him when he hiked through Latin America.  And they're scattered all over places I've visited in the US and Canada.

One of my current projects is several hundred flapping birds for participants in a nearby library's summer reading club [smile].

One of the things that's both challenging and most precious about origami is its relative fragility.  It is made of a renewable resource - paper, and can return to the earth without leaving lasting litter.  It can easily be crushed.  And yet, in the midst of that fragility is an amazing way of being a conduit for sharing beauty, whimsy and joy.

One of my favorite crane memories is from one of my periodic visits to Niagara Falls.  A group of folks that I identified as speaking Japanese were taking pictures on the Canadian side of the falls, giggling and dodging water drops from where the mighty current went over the edge of the cliff.  I offered them cranes - and they became very excited.  We shared maybe 10 words total of communication between us.  Even without being able to speak to each other - they made it very clear that they wanted me to be in a couple of their pictures - and so cranes were a bridge beyond the barriers that might have otherwise separated us.



[hands cupped, gently offering a crane]


Namaste!



Sylvia