Reflections of Life produces gorgeous short films that uplift the personal stories of ordinary people, with the goal of sharing ideas and inspiring change. We feel hugely blessed to feature video-stories that filmmakers Michael and Justine capture with exquisite expertise, and which so beautifully illustrate grateful living principles and practices. In this short film we hear from Kyoko.
Learn more about Reflections of Life (formerly Green Renaissance) through our Grateful Changemaker feature.
Questions for Reflection
- What part of Kyoko’s story resonated with you most deeply?
- What “lines” in the “paper” of your life have transformed you?
We invite you to share your reflections below the video transcript that follows.
Video Transcript
Just a piece of paper in front of me. My fingers, each my eyes dance slowly, point to point, line to line. Folding, unfolding, opening, closing, sliding, turning, and creasing. Each decision made with tips of my fingers, pleasing to my eyes, encouraging to my heart. Two dimension to three dimension. This to life vision realized.
We have a tradition in Japan. When somebody is sick, we make 1000 cranes to wish him or her well. So, as a human being, most of us want to be valuable, useful. We want to contribute to a better society.
I’m using origami to interact with the children. They come from very difficult backgrounds. I had also, um, painful memory as a child. My father was quite strict with money. So I was always wearing, um, like hand me down. I felt like everybody knew what I was wearing and I was very embarrassed. I felt like I was the only poor child. And I used to get called ‘beggar,’ so those memories are very hurtful.
I can’t change the past, but because of that painful memory, I can relate to children who are sad. I’m able to use that painful memory for something better.
Teaching origami, what I want to create is that awareness that our situation can transform just like paper. When you have a sad memory, it’s a scar that remains in your heart, and it’s the same as paper… once you crease it, it remains, it never goes away. But you can use that line to make another shape. So in a way, it’s necessary to have that line.
The paper is a metaphor for life. You only have one piece of paper, like you only have one life. So you make use of what lines and points there are. And we can create something out of what you’ve got.
We all have infinite potential. Hopefully children will also be inspired that, okay, this old person, (laughs) not very good housewife, but she can still do something. I want them to have the sense of hope. They are part of something good, something better, something valuable.
When I do origami like 1000 cranes, what I’ve learned is that we do a bit by bit. If everybody does little bit, we can make a difference. Not one person doing 1000 cranes, but if 100 people is only 10 each, so then we can make the world better. If 1000 people, one crane and 1000 cranes. So that’s a collective effort. And I think, I believe in that. Every day, little by little.
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The story about 1000 cranes was lovely. During COVID my community was so locked up. We were unable to be together or help each other. I remembered the healing concept of 1000 cranes and made paper and instructions available. Over a few months our community made over 1000 cranes that we hung in strings of 15 in store windows. With each crane we also raised money for the local food bank. We raised about $ 1,700.
I love this…the lines cannot be undone but they can lead to something beautiful and healing. It reminds me of a line from Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”. “There is a crack in everything…that’s how the light gets in”. And I would add “and how it gets out”.
These videos never fail to touch me deeply and have enriched my journey immeasurably. Thank you Green Renaissance for this gift. I am happy to support you in some small way.