Jim and I were out running errands recently and he wanted to stop and get a haircut. I went in with him – though that ship has sailed for me – and sat off to the side out of the way.
I had paper with me, of course, and started to fold a few shapes. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to what I was doing and just let the muscle memory take over to pass the time. I realized that there was a guy sitting across the waiting area that was watching me, so I got out some green paper and folded a small dragon. I looked over, made eye contact and watched his face light up as I walked over and handed him the small dragon.
“So cool,” he told me and thanked me – as though I had handed him a fabled treasure. “It’s even cooler because of this,” he said and pulled the neck of his shirt to the side to show a dragon tattoo on his upper chest and shoulder.
“Nice!” I responded and he took out his phone to take a picture of the dragon sitting in his hand.
He tucked the dragon into the pocket of his shirt with just the head peeking out – as though it was looking at his phone with him.
Jim’s haircut was done soon after that and as we left the guy thanked me again and wished me a good day.
But, it already was. The best part about folding paper is giving it away and sharing with people.
I was thinking just the other day how lucky I am that this is the hobby that stuck with me. I’m not good at drawing or painting and I’m not going to win any prizes for writing or photography. But I can take a simple square of paper and do magic. And I can give it away freely or just leave it behind where-ever I go with no consequence.
I made a paper dragon, made a new friend, and shared a little wonder.