Ahh, Moms

I love my mom.  I've been falling a bit behind on wedding planning, with the impending holidays, visitors, cleaning, and other general distractions.  But when my mom came to visit, she came with new excitement towards my wedding, and her energy gave me new energy towards my wedding.

For anybody reading this planning their own weddings, if you're trying to save money, you might consider asking for wedding-crafting supplies for Christmas or Birthdays.  Even without asking for it, though, my mom came laden down with a pair of toasting glasses, a wedding photo album, a simple white bouquet, and a spool of orange ribbon.  Of these things, I probably only would've bought the ribbon for myself, but I'm glad to have all of them.

Suddenly, Cranes! Thousands of them!

1000 paper cranes.  Based on an ancient Japanese legend, any person who can fold 1000 of them will be granted a wish by a crane.  There's also a more contemporary story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who tried to fold 1000 cranes to fight her leukemia as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima.  Whether she was actually able to finish is up to speculation, but either way, her efforts are remembered by many.

I don't know if I really believe that I'll have a wish granted if I fold 1000 of them.  But I do believe that the level of dedication, perseverance, and joyful effort required in folding them all will be helpful to a marriage, as well.  On top of that, the strings of cranes are beautiful, and a single folded crane looks an awful lot like a flower.