600 now

Last night, I reached the 600 mark. I've folded 600 paper cranes, in 60 days!

This morning I taught meditation at the local UU church.

And my sinuses are at rest, for the first time in a long time.

Feeling peaceful.

Working on it

Here they are ... 150 origami cranes, made by my own hands. Progress toward the goal of senbazuru (1,000 cranes in 100 days).

Believe it or not, those 30 minutes spent folding colored squares of paper have become a favorite part of each day. It's calming, it's simple -- and I just plain like doing it. The rest of my life is so complex, so rushed and noisy and mindless. But at least for that half-hour, I know I will have some peace. And I look forward to it.

As for anger, this project has it very much on my mind these days. So I've become a tiny bit more observant, I think, of the arising of anger. This is a core practice of Buddhist meditation, watching the arising of phenomena -- whether emotions, mind states or bodily sensations. And of course, the better I become at noticing the arising of anger's white heat, the better chance I'll have (theoretically) at catching it before it overtakes me.

I'm working on it ... just as I'm working on the cranes.

A good day

We're past the 100 mark now. Amusing, the little swell of pride I felt as I wrote "100" on the underwing of a yellow paper crane. (I'm numbering each one, for posterity.) Yep, I've made 100 cranes and I'm 1/10th of the way to my goal of 1,000. It's been awhile since I have been this consistent with anything in my life, and I'm glad and relieved I still have it in me.

Today I also returned to teaching meditation. In the six years since my husband and I adopted three children, my meditation practice has been next to nonexistent. And that had begun to hurt, more and more. Something that had been central to my life was shoved into a dark corner, and I felt powerless to do anything about it. A few times, I tried to pull meditation back into my daily routine, but was always too exhausted or too dispirited to maintain the effort.

Even though it might seem crazy (isn't life already too hectic?), I agreed to start leading a meditation group at the local Unitarian-Universalist Church, which has been very welcoming to this Buddhist (thanks, UUFC!). This morning, a little group of us sat and walked for an hour and a half -- and by the end of it, I was remembering what equanimity feels like. The peace of that followed me through the day. I was extraordinarily cheerful and patient, and -- nice.

Tonight, I sat on the floor by my open bedroom window, a warm wind stirring the trees outside, and did my half-hour of crane folding meditation.

So, today encompassed two full hours of calm and quiet. Miraculous. I am grateful.