Benefits of a Paper Rose

1. It will never die.

Origami is back-breaking work. You pour not only time and effort into this project, but you pour your very soul into the curls and folds of fragile pieces of paper. From the well-measured cuts to the messy glue work, you can rest assured that your hard work will take much longer to decompose than a regular rose would.

2. It is more meaningful.

This is not some mere organism to be picked from a rodent infested garden.

No.

This is a work of art which will allow you to explore the realms of your creative mind. The paper you use screams for your personalization. You can doodle on the paper, write on it, or use different colored pieces of paper to create the effect that you want. A favorite practice of mine is covering the pages in lines and lines of poetry.

3. It calls on your right-brained creativity.

Origami takes practice, patience, and perseverance. Careful consideration throughout each step of the process is essential to ensure that your final product matches your vision, or even better, surpasses it.

Meticulous commitment will always result in success with origami. The smaller the pieces of paper, the more careful you will have to be. However, like many other things in life, the harder you work at it the more satisfied you will be when you have completed your project. Not only that, you will certainly be proud of yourself for pulling through.

4. The sheer delight at seeing it come together.

Take this origami rose, for example. Origami does not always include multiple elements, but this project involved an hour of writing elegant cursive poetry, cutting four very precise 10.5cm square pieces of paper, folding and curling intricate petals, and eventually gluing it all together. It may take some real effort for you to get accustomed to the practice of curling paper, but it is through those little details that your art will flourish.

It is truly wonderful when you begin to see it all come together. Cutting the paper is not always the most glamorous step, but it’s the basis...the catalyst for the beauty that is to come. It is also where you need to be the most precise, because if you do not have even pieces of paper the folds will not work, the curls will not work, and the petals will not work.

Do not underestimate your scissors, for they hold much power.

5. Your finished work of art.

This is a feeling unmatched by many things in life. It is that moment when you have real, physical, and immediate fulfillment by your very own determination.

In life, we are not always guaranteed success from hard work. A sad reality it is, but a reality nonetheless. There are plenty of people who give their everything to a dream, but don't quite make it. We simply do not know where life will take us.

Origami is not like that.

Where there are supplies, time, and strength of will...there will be victory. Moments of despair may come. You may be well into step 8 of your flower and realize that you cut your paper wrong, or maybe you folded it the opposite way that you should have.

Origami teaches you resilience. It teaches you that if you fail, you just need to pick yourself back up and start again. It teaches you that practice makes improvement. And improvement makes something far better than perfection. Perfection is a clearly laid out standard. But origami does not want you to follow any standard. It wants you to create your own.

Eventually, you will end up with something utterly beautiful. Something you will love so much more than any other flower. It is a thoughtful gift, a great way to spend your time and a fun way to hone in on some skills that you never even know you had. 🌸