On an ordinary day, I write these posts early in the morning, dawn or shortly thereafter.
This is not an ordinary day.
It is, of course, an anniversary for much of the country, myself included: a marker of great tragedy rooted in causes too old and numerous to name. I had just moved from one of the affected cities to the other, and I had people in both places on that day. At least one rushed forward, into the flames and rubble, in hopes of providing aid.
He did not come out.
For us, this day has layers: the awareness of the communal sense of grief and loss, now attenuated by a full decade and a half, and for me, by the distance of miles as much as time. But it happens to be the date of a much closer event for us, a very personal one that occurred a year ago today, one that could have taken our lives but instead set us on a new road, one we are still traveling together every day.
Emily Dickinson said that hope is the thing with feathers.
Feathers are necessary, but not sufficient. For hope to have any possibility, it requires that those feathers be aggregated into full and actual wings. Without wings, nothing can fly. It is true that the song is essential, but why does the bird sing, if not for love of the freedom of flight?
And so while I had already intended to highlight this particular work on this day, simply because of its ability complement the set that constituted Wednesday’s and yesterday’s featured items, there is a part of me just superstitious enough to believe that there was no real choice involved — that there was only one possibility for today. The truth lies in the name, and in the form and shape, of one of the simplest pairs of earrings Wings had ever created. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
In Flight Earrings
Bold wings of sterling silver unite in the center, then gather and stretch to their full length in flight. Each triangle, hand-cut of exceptionally fine-gauge sterling silver, is smoothly shaped to create elegant rounded edges and buffed to a mirror finish. The gentle flanges are conjoined by means of a sterling silver hinge at the center, allowing the wings to dance in unison as they dangle softly from the ear. Each simple spirit, whose shape evokes the stylized outline of a dancer in flight, is held fast to wires by means of slender silver jump rings. Each earring hangs 2.25 inches long (excluding wires) by .75 inch across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$250 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Fifteen years ago, hope seemed lost to thousands of people. I have no doubt that for some, it still seems that way. On this day last year, hope was not lost to us, but rather, the recognition of having been without it for so long on one particular front was finally brought home to us — home! such an ironic phrase — in the starkest possible terms.
In the ensuing year, we have been blessed with hope, overflowing and abundant, although as is always the case, tempered by the vagaries of the human condition that keep us grounded. Still, the feathers that carry our prayers to Spirit each dawn also carry something else: a song of hope, a song that accompanies our own lightly feathered efforts at flight.
For everyone touched in some way by this date, we wish you songs, we wish you flight, we wish you hope.
~ Aji
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