"It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving."
- Mother Teresa
Giving is about what leaves my hands. It's also about the attention I bring to the offering.
This pretty box was folded for a celebration and will hold something small but meaningful. It has been lovingly shaped to honor both what's inside, and my esteem for the receiver.
Today I'm practicing giving by reflecting on what it means to wrap something — an object, a moment, or even a feeling — with care.
“The way you do anything is the way you do everything.”- Thich Nhat Hanh
Honor in origami is how I treat what’s been entrusted to me.
Every choice — the paper, the pattern, the folds, the time — matters.
Each square, each hand that will receive it, each minute spent folding is part of the offering.
Today, I’m practicing honor by giving this practice—and the sharing of it—the care, gratitude, and attention it deserves.
"Praise, my dear one. Let us disappear into praising. Nothing belongs to us."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Praising is a way of speaking from the heart — of noticing what quietly sustains us and naming it with gratitude.
Specifically today, I offer my sincere praise to the Mahatma Gandhi Canadian Foundation for World Peace for creating and sharing the 64 reflection prompts and support materials for the Season for Nonviolence.
I would not have ventured into sharing this creative meditation without the container they have offered. These daily reflections are deepening my understanding of nonviolence — or, in Sanskrit, ahimsa — revealing it not only as restraint from harm, but as a daily active practice of care.
Sunflowers symbolize loyalty, devotion, resilience, and hope. Turning continually toward the sun, they remind me to orient myself toward warmth, generosity, and joy.
Today, I offer this folded sunflower in gratitude — praise for those who create and hold spaces where peace can be practiced together.
- Steve Maraboli
Forgiveness doesn’t erase what happened —
it allows something new to emerge.
Once paper is folded, the mark remains, a memory held in form.
But sometimes a mistake becomes the opportunity for new growth, expansive and unanticipated.
Today I’m practicing forgiveness, not by undoing the past, but by allowing it to unfold differently.
Heart Pendant, Fumiaki Shingu
Double Leaves, Nana Takahashi
"Humility is openness to new learning combined with a balanced and accurate assessment of our contributions, including our strengths, imperfections, and opportunities for growth."
- Brene Brown
Humility reminds me that my work belongs within a larger conversation.
This elegant pleated form has been folded by many hands before mine, and it will surely be folded many times again.
Today I'm practicing humility by seeing myself as a link in the chain - neither first nor last; present, learning, and connecting.
"It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose so important."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
Caring shows up in how I handle things, not only how I feel about them. This crisp origami paper from Japan holds and shows every crease I make, carefully or carelessly.
Today I'm practicing caring by cherishing and being gentle with what's in my hands.
Full disclosure - Chat GPT helped me with this "product photo". In real life, the frame is flatter but the roses really are that dimensional and pretty!
