day 46 - compassion

"One love, one heart" 

- Bob Marley

Those words feel like the perfect companion for this folded heart today.

Visually, this heart is two halves not quite meeting in the middle, holding tenderness even when things are cracked or split.

Compassion is like that. Not shiny or perfect, but steady, warm, and willing to frame what’s fragile. It is the quiet work of helping the two halves of the heart — or two people — find their way a little closer together.

My blog name, One Love Origami, was inspired by this song. At the time it simply felt good and sounded beautiful to me.

Over the years I’ve come to see not only how creative expression can help mend a broken heart, but also how beautifully folding paper brings people together across languages, cultures, and differences. It generously and inclusively extends an invitation, much like the song: “Let’s get together and feel alright.”

Today I'm practicing compassion by meeting my own missteps with kindness — noticing my inner critic and softening its tendency toward prosecution, practicing a little non-violence toward myself so that I can also meet the world with more love.

Heart designed by Fumiaki Shingu
Frame designed by Kamikey

April 27 at Strathcona County Library

Origami Circle: 

Craft, Connect, Create

There are only two spots left for this special event at Strathcona County Library on April 27 from 6:30 - 8:30 pm.

We’ll spend the evening folding simple forms together and adding them to a collaborative community garland while reflecting on the power of creativity and connection.

No experience needed, just curiosity and a willingness to slow down for a couple of hours.

Register at sclibrary.ca

I’m really looking forward to seeing what we create together!

day 45 - mastery

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." 

- Michelangelo

Mastery isn't a leap; it's a scaffold - built layer by layer, block by block, through practice, repetition, mistakes, and refinements that stack up over time. 

Like these cubes, progress isn't always linear. Sometimes it's offset, or looks awkward mid-build. But slowly, the structure begins to support itself. What was once uncertain becomes stable, experiment becomes evidence, effort becomes fluency.

There's a lesson in perspective here, too: the same structure can look different depending on how you're viewing it. 

Mastery isn't just about adding more techniques. It's about learning to see possibilites, constraints, and patterns in new ways. 

It's about building something that can keep growing.

Today I'm practicing mastery by remembering that every single step counts.

Necker/Illusion Cubes designed by David Mitchell, featured in his book, Sticky Note Origami

day 44 - cooperation

"The powerful have their power. But we have something too - the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together."  

- Mark Carney

Cooperation requires shared effort. My hands are guided by the paper's limits, and the paper responds to my hands.

This particular form cannot exist without collaboration between parts. 

• No single unit is the centre. 
• No piece is "in charge". 
• Each module holds, and is held. 

Like this modular ring, peace cannot be imposed. It must be assembled.

Today I'm practicing cooperation by remembering that the strength of the whole depends on the care of, and from, each part.

day 43 - uniqueness

"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!" 

- Dr Seuss

No two origami models are ever exactly the same. No two lives are either. Uniqueness is something we don't have to earn — we already are it.

In real life, elephants are known to have individual memories, character, and presence; each one is recognized and remembered by their herd.

In the context of nonviolence, uniqueness invites us to honor the irreproducible nature of each being — each story, each history, each environment, and each situation.

This little elephant reminds me that being different is not a flaw; it's the whole art.

Today I'm practicing uniqueness by celebrating all handmade objects as delightfully one-of-a-kind.

Elephant by Jo Nakashima

day 42 - accountability

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” 

- John Muir

I think of accountability as a practice.

My choices don’t live in isolation — they live within relationships, systems, ecosystems, communities, continents, the world.

I feel like a better global citizen and steward of my environment when I choose reclaimed paper for folding.

These stacked masu boxes also nest, interconnected — each one precious and unique, despite being made from atlas paper that was discarded, unwanted, obsolete — the collection forming something greater than the sum of it's parts.

Today I’m practicing accountability by owning what I bring to the work.

day 41 - openness

"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." 

- Leonard Cohen

Openness isn't the absence of boundaries; it's the presence of room to breathe. 

This structure literally holds its shape by leaving space. 

Folded by my origami teacher more than 25 years ago, this woven cube is still letting light in - on the benefits of cultural exchange, learning through experience, the joy of folding, and expanding attitudes and possibilities.

Today I'm practicing openness by remembering that a strong form can still be open.