A Vista man has crafted a thousand Origami cranes to help make a thousand wishes come true. The anonymous “Origami Guy” has erected the “Merry Tree of Wishes” inside the Lush Tea & Coffee Lounge in Vista for the fourth year in a row.
Visitors to the coffee shop grab an Origami crane, write a wish on an attached tag, and hang the crane on the tree.
“It’s the universal symbol for love, hope, peace, and joy,” said the Origami Guy, who wants to remain anonymous.
He got the idea a few years ago from a similar tree and asked the Lush Lounge for space for a tree. He hopes to get a thousand cranes with wishes on the tree to make the wishes come true. He said it’s a Japanese tradition.
The Origami Guy’s mission started a few years ago.
“My daughter had some health issues and we were going back and forth with doctors and they weren’t able to put their fingers on anything,” he said.
He and his wife started making the cranes to cope with the stress and hope their wish for a healthy child would be granted.
“When you have doctors that tell you that we’ve run every test. We can’t find anything that’s wrong and meanwhile your daughter’s bent over in excruciating pain,” he said.
Doctors eventually discovered she had severe food allergies and needed a special diet.
Since their wish was granted, the Origami Guy started a new tradition of trying to get a thousand wishes every Christmas. The tree in the Lush Lounge has hundreds of Origami cranes with wishes attached to them. The wishes range from a wish for a “beer with a straw in it” to a cure for cancer.
The “Merry Tree of Wishes” will stand through the end of the month. Then the Origami Guy plans to take all of the wishes to create a new art project.
