Sangha of Auspicious Companions

A Childhood Bike Crash Led to a Stranger’s Gift, and a Hidden Message

Ten years after a childhood bike crash, Rika Matsuda unfolded an origami crane a stranger who witnessed the crash had given her and found a message written inside — a Japanese expression meaning “cherish the moment,” or more fully, that we should treasure each encounter because it may never come again. The man had slipped the words in quietly, without drawing attention to them, letting them wait until she was ready. What the story reveals is something almost too simple to name: that a caring stranger’s gentleness, offered in a few unhurried minutes at a water fountain, can fold itself into a life and stay there. “He didn’t say anything,” Matsuda recalled. “He just smiled and handed me the origami crane.”

Be The Change

Today, allow yourself to notice the preciousness of a particular moment. Cherish crossing paths with another person or the energy that another form of life brings into your day. Notice if this particular practice of attention affects your mood, day, or way of seeing or being.