When I was in college, I was in an art class once where we had an assignment to do a daily project. We had to pick something that we would do everyday and do it for a month. It had to something that we weren’t already doing, something tangible that we could look back upon and something that would record our life in some way. Someone in my class took a photo of what they ate for lunch every day, some one else made a tiny painting every day. Another person took a picture of themselves in the mirror every morning when they first got out of bed. I choose to make a paper crane every day out of an old 365 desk calender with quotes from the Dalai Lama on it. I also linked the crane making practice to my yoga practice and would write the intention I had for my yoga practice on the wings of the crane. I then strung the cranes together. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve started making cranes again, for no apparent reason other than I love making them. This morning, as I sat down at my desk to write a paper, I found my hand swishing a piece of square rice paper out of the ziplock bag I have full of oragimi rice paper and then my fingers begin to fold and crease the paper into a delicate bird form yet again. I remembered then the assignment I’d had in college and thought that perhaps I would start it up again and make a colorful little bird every day with an intention left on its wings to be flown out into the universe. In our creativity meditation today, I invite you to ponder the impact a small creative daily practice might have on your life. What kind of small creative thing could you do every single day? As you begin this meditation and begin to move into the quietness of the breath, imagine the possibilities of one small creative act!
Spend a few moments gathering together the materials you would need to create this one small thing, rice paper for a paper bird, a camera for a picture, a piece of paper and a pencil for a quick drawing. Choose materials that can be collected in just a few moments so that this one small creative act won’t take a large amount of time in your day. Place your materials in front of you. When you are ready, press play on the podcast! Enjoy!
4 comments:
You paper cranes with intentions written on their wings reminds me of the Tibetan wind horses... the little pieces of paper with prayers thrown into the wind...
Also- your classmate who took a picture everyday in the mirror. That reminds me of a video P and I saw online of this guy who took a photo of himself everyday for 8 years and then made the string of photos into a 3 minute movie. It was so interesting to watch… how his face, and hair and clothing styles changed… I’ll see if I can find the link.
I need to look up the significance of the paper crane...but I was definately inspired by Tibetan wind horses, as everything that year was inspired by Tibetan culture (spring of senior year! hmmm..wonder why!). The prayer flags also have prayers written on them too, yeah? To be taken into the wind?
Oh yeah, if you find the link def let me know! Pretty amazing that 8 years of photos could be boiled down into a three minute clip...
Your story of the paper cranes reminds me of a time when someone once broke my heart... to help myself move on and to cultivate forgiveness, I wrote onto a paper crane all the words I hoped for this man and his future - including the words that he would find love.
There was something incredibly healing about the process, and I'm glad that today you've reminded me on this one small act of love that I had forgotten about... PS Your voice is so soothing, so beautiful... would you read my podcasts for me;-)
In college, I did an independent study with an English professor/poet. She had me write one sonnet a day for a whole semester. Some of them were absolutely terrible! But the project was illuminating.
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