What Can Cranes Teach You?

“Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.”—Mary Oliver

Photo by Jeanne Dill.

The cranes’ visit.
Last week, on a side road off Nebraska Interstate 80, I heard them first, the “music of an angelic avian chorus” as naturalist Paul A. Johnsgard describes the strains of the sandhill cranes. For more than a thousand years, five hundred thousand cranes have come to Nebraska and refuel in the harvested cornfields along the Platte River Valley consuming corn and other grains.

The cranes’ thin, pointed black bills move up and down like pistons and, while their heads blink red, they pick clean the harvested fields. When you see them from a distance—all those legs and elbows—they look like the moving parts of a great overheated threshing machine.

What can cranes teach you?

Be astonished.
Then, above, a dark blanket of feathered creatures filled the sky making the airspace seem different, more like a dream space. It’s no longer blue, but swollen with a throbbing color of buckskin, kinetic energy and noise. Looking at the multitude in flight I stood still and saw the heavens were suddenly three dimensional, a sense of wonder washed over me.  I fixed my gaze, slowly releasing a deep breath, and my worries were put aside. An unanswerable joy filled me.

Lift someone’s spirits.
There’s a Japanese tradition that says if someone is suffering friends and family send a thousand paper cranes to lift her spirits. https://www.dailygood.org/2021/02/26/one-thousand-cranes/Reflecting on this beautiful Japanese story makes me think that, perhaps, there’s a special significance for the cranes’ return this year. Maybe in this great cosmos of ours a divine courier is sending them to extend wishes for our wellness and recovery. That the cranes, in spite of their own miseries—long distances they’ve travelled and fifty mile headwinds—are reminding us that we, too, have infinite potential and the ability to transform. What can  cranes teach you?

Art and friendship are healing.
In third grade, I broke my arm playing on a swing set trying to do a trick someone did during recess. I had to stay home a few days and Terry, a classmate of mine, brought me a gift, an origami paper crane…or was it an upside-down pirate’s hat?  Step-by-step, with paper and patience, he showed me how to make my own. The folding, the unfolding, all the creasing, and in the end, little by little, point by point, my paper found a new shape. It was beautiful. I felt better.

Sometimes we have to look at something sideways to know its worth. Keep reaching.  And you’ll find something that astonishes you. – Becky Breed

Writing/Creativity exercise:

1. Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States, says it’s the “moment of recognition” that gives a metaphor power. Consider Paul A. Johnsgard’s metaphor that describes the sound of cranes as “an angelic avian chorus.” Isn’t it perfect? Or, you could say the cranes’ honk and trumpeting is a brass band warming up? For this exercise, answer the question “What can cranes teach you?” Use a metaphor in your writing. Let yourself be astonished by your own creativity.

2. How about doing a sponge painting with a friend? For supplies, have a variety of sponges, all sizes and shapes, and tubes of acrylic paints available. Start by asking, “When have you been astonished?” And then enjoy taking turns painting your answers, see where the sponge smudges take you. Or, try writing a shared poem together. Use this as your first line: “Tomorrow I am going to stand still .. .” Then write alternatively, creating lines to your collaborative poem.

3. Paper folding can be whimsical, entertaining or healing. Think of a friend who would enjoy receiving a folded crane in the mail. Send two or three. Maybe hang one over your doorway for good luck. Give to a neighbor who needs to smile. Begin.

For more information about The Writing and Creative Life, see http://www.thewritingandcreativelife.com.