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Dear collegues and friends! Happy March, April and May holidays from MELTA!
Let there always be sunshine in our hearts!
As a holdays gift from our storytellers enjoy this touching story, presented by Olga Storchyak about life, harmony, peace and hope.
Be happy!
SENBAZURU
Look at me! I’m standing in front of you with my heart in my hands! I want to tell you that making a thousand origami cranes would grant you a wish. Why cranes? Not owls, swans or eagles? Aren’t they beautiful too! You know, Japanese people believe that a crane lives a thousand years! Fold one paper crane for every year of the real crane’s life! Isn’t it really difficult? One thousand cranes! But it can’t be easy to make wishes come true! Do you agree with me?
There are wishes about life, wishes about peace and wishes about hope. And, of course, there are wishes about harmony in the world.
Look at this happy father. His daughter is a bride. He is giving her a thousand paper cranes. He is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the newlywed couple. The couple will keep the cranes to see the wish come true…
Look at this newborn baby. His family wishes the baby a long life and the string with the paper cranes is to be hung from the ceiling. The baby is smiling…
Look at this sick girl. She is a victim of ‘the A-bomb disease’ – leukemia. She is 12 years old. Her name is Sadako-san. Her eyes are shining and her hands are busy folding origami cranes. She is wishing for recovery. “My dear cranes, I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world. Fly, my cranes, fly!”
The A-disease claimed Sadako’s life. But Sadako’s story remains very much alive. After her death, Sadako’s schoolmates began to fold paper cranes, raise funds and build the Monument in Hiroshima. Look at the words on the monument: “This is our cry. This our prayer. Building peace in the world.”
Senbazuru… the wish of health on completion of one thousand cranes. The wish to live.
By Olga Storchyak, School 1738
