The day has dawned mostly overcast, Father Sun darting in and out among the clouds as he begins his journey across the sky.
It’s cool and slightly windy this morning, the air holding the promise of rain that the official forecast, changing as it does every hour, has just as officially revoked.
I’m more inclined to believe the feel of the air than pixels on a screen.
These early rains have left the land lush, a deep and fertile green that is rare this early in the warm months. Even the neighboring fields, those that have long consisted of dry scrub punctuated by chamisa and scattered bits of sage are now almost verdant.
And at long last, the mountain meadows have returned.
This, you understand, is not a given. Oh, if you hike up in the open areas of the peaks in the summertime, you will certainly come across spaces whose green has nothing to do with piñon needles and aspen leaves. But these mountains still have wide open spaces in some areas, untouched by either development or overgrowth, and in the good years, the slopes turn into bright rolling meadows that can be seen with the naked eye down here, ten thousand feet below.
Those meadows have returned this year, their color arriving early, their flourishing growth rich and deep.
They draw my eye, and my spirit, reminding me as they do of the thick velvety carpet of grass of the summers of my childhood home.
It is these spaces, open-air rooms in the home of the mountains, resting comfortably and comfortingly beneath the vaulted ceiling of the sky, that I have always seen in today’s featured piece. As soon as Wings set the stone, there was never a question as to its identity. From its description in the Rings Gallery:
Mother Earth Ring
Like a parent, she nourishes and nurtures us, setting us the path of our daily lives, providing for our needs. Here, our Mother Earth is embodied in a rich green turquoise cabochon, sky and plant spirits melded together, mapped by her own paths of rich brown soil. Directional arrows alternating with symbols of love trace either side of the scored band. Cabochon is 5/8″ square (dimensions approximate); band is sizeable. Other views shown at the link.
Sterling silver; natural Royston turquoise
$350 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In the photo, the matrix looks black. It is, a bit; it’s chert. But it’s a brown-black, the color of a raw umber Crayola crayon, the same color as the rich dark earth up the mountain slopes, particularly this time of year, when it’s soaked by the spring run-off from winter’s snows.
And the green of the turquoise itself . . . it’s the same shade as the rich summer grass. I look at the stone, lightly domed like its own mountain peak in miniature, and I see the same slopes at whose feet we live and sleep and work as we go about our days.
Like Mother Earth herself, the mountains here are sacred to the people to whom they belong, to whom they were given a thousand years ago and more. They hold the spirits of the earth and of the waters that collect between and flow upon them; they commune with those of the sky their summits touch.
Sometimes, soil and stone themselves yield up a map by which we can chart our course, navigating an existence that protects the Earth and all the spirits she encompasses in her embrace.
And sometimes, they birth and foster an unexpected gift, a bed for the spirit: a rolling meadow whose beauty blesses us from a distance, even when it rests upon the side of a cloud-veiled peak just out of human reach.
It’s comforting to have that feeling at hand.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
