Paper Cranes for Japan

Friday night, I was out with a friend of mine and we couldn’t help but overhear a couple talking about an earthquake and a tsunami in Japan. He mentioned to his companion power outages and fires, death and destruction everywhere. I didn’t have any access to any news at the moment, so I couldn’t confirm anything. The way he said it made it sound almost like a plot for a film. “No way that’s real,” I thought to myself.

Of course, I was wrong. Prayers were an immediate reaction, but I wanted to help out in other ways.

Thanks to my friend, Anton, I came across the Paper Cranes for Japan movement on Facebook. I’ve made paper cranes before, so why not give it a go?

I tried getting my friends in on it and quite a number agreed to join. The objective of the movement is to collect 100,000 photos of paper cranes to represent the granting of 100 wishes of support for the disasters. This comes from an ancient Japanese legend which says that if anyone will fold and string together a thousand paper cranes, or a Senbazuru, their wish would come true.

I think I should have taken photos while I was making the cranes… but I forgot. I was going for a set of rainbow cranes, but I was lacking the colored paper. I enjoyed making these, and if I have time, I’ll make a Senbazuru of my own.

To all those affected by this tragedy, my heart goes out to you. May these cranes grant your wishes and may you find happiness and prosperity once more.