Journey to 1000 Paper Cranes

  My favorite pandemic birthday wish I like to send to a few of my favorites Day 33:  I never imagined that Friday in November that I would be this close to being done with folding 1000 paper cranes.  One thought was maybe I could be done by my birthday, January 12th.  I'll be done within the week, unless something major throws that off.  So excited to start the next part which will be stringing them with blue beads.  It was a long day at work, not a bad day just a long day and I had a couple errands after work so wasn't home until almost 7:30pm.  So appreciated my friend Kendra checking in on me, making sure I was doing okay regarding the grief of losing our dog Ming.  Several clients have been asking as well.  When I got home I had quite a bit of pain in my upper back, neck, shoulders, and that darn wrist so I decided an Epsom salt bath was overdue.  Felt really really good.  On this day I had folded some paper cranes in the early...

Day 3:  My final day of training is happening on this day.  I'm excited because I have the next two days off since I worked the entire weekend.  Really enjoyed getting to know my fellow therapists and my group leader.  At the end of class we each got to share what we took away from this weekend as well as what we'd like to leave behind.  What hit home for me is that all of these folks dedicated time and money towards this new therapy approach (EMDR) that is well known for helping people heal from trauma.  Knowing we are just a small portions of the many who already know this approach and the fact that we all are in the world aiming to support those suffering from the deep pains of their lives really stuck out in my mind.  This was quite comforting to think about, in contrast to the chaos that is this year including the COVID-19 pandemic, riots over police brutality, fires spreading through too much of our land, and a presidential election that mattered...

  Day Two: On my second to last day of training (EMDR, see previous entry) I decide to take my origami paper with me so I can fold during the lecture section.  Generally we had about three hours of lecture and then would break up in to smaller groups and then even smaller practice groups.  Lecture time seemed to be a great time to fold and on this day I didn't need to use the template, I had the folds memorized!  At some point early morning I had a thought that it would be fun to blog during this project, a way to stay present with what is going on around me.  It reminded me of a time I was taking one picture a day and posting it to a blog.  It had become a practice I had created while in a 9 month Women's Empowerment class.  I both love to write as well as take pictures.  This seemed like another great way to utilize those.  2020 has definitely been a year of doing things differently; some things as a result of things out of our control and ...