ZENBAZURU / SMALL ACTS
By Megan Shoemaker
Act without doing;
Work without effort
Think of the small as large
And the few as many
Confront the difficult
While it is still easy
Work without effort
Think of the small as large
And the few as many
Confront the difficult
While it is still easy
Accomplish the great task
By a series of small acts.
-Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, ch. 63, trans. Mitchell
Senbazuru is the Japanese tradition of folding 1,000 paper cranes, symbolizing longevity and good fortune. Each crane represents one year of the bird’s life.
What began as a small, repetitive act became a ritual over 7 years. Folding the cranes served as a grounding practice during periods when my creativity felt stalled or silenced. In a culture that values constant productivity and spectacle, this slow, quiet process became an act of resistance in which I practiced care, repetition, and patience over urgency.
Each crane was folded using prints by the Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849), a master who dedicated his life to his art. Though some days produced only a single crane and there would be long periods without creating any, every fold mattered in working towards Senbazuru. The cranes represent time, continuity, and connection and each crane is dependent on the last and essential to the whole. Together, they form a larger work shaped by small acts.
