‘T’is the season to give generously, or so we are told. For decades, the word “give” has been focused around a concept represented by a different word, “buy,” along with its partners in commerce, “consume,” “sell,” “capitalize,” “profit.”
But true giving requires no money.
Oh, it requires resources, true: time, knowledge, expertise, a talent or skill. But most of all, it requires an open heart and a generous spirit.
And one of the quickest ways to be reminded of one’s obligation to generosity is to recognize that which one is given — not by other persons, although there is that, too, but simply by the world and the spirits who inhabit and oversee it.
In a word, life.
There are times when it’s difficult to even to perceive these gifts, much less appreciate them. Anyone in straitened circumstances knows this battle. So, too, do those who daily fight to remain on the outside of the black hole that is ill health and depression. Indeed, there are times when the sheer beauty of the world, of life itself, seems little more than a cruel cosmic joke at one’s own expense.
But the beauty exists independently of our ability to perceive it, and so, too, does the gift that it represents. And on a day such as this, when much of the world is celebrating Christmas, tearing paper off presents and enjoying the symbols of abundance , it’s good to be reminded of the gifts that we take for granted.
Here in our small world, we awakened hours before dawn to powerful winds, sufficient to shake our living quarters, and icy sleet that fast turned to cold dry snow. By dawn, the temperature had dropped significantly, and not long after Father Sun put in his first appearance, the ground blizzard commenced. The wind has raged unceasing all day; it looks for all the world like a massive snowstorm, but the horizontal clouds of crystal are whipped up from the earth, rather than fallen from the skies. The air slices through winter clothing like a scalpel, and our footprints fill with drifts as fast as we leave them behind.
It is not merely the wind that is cold today. We also sit vigil from too great a distance for a much-loved friend. The day has a weighty feel about it, and a waiting one, too, as though all of life holds breath in abeyance for now.
And yet, the world spins on its axis, and we perforce continue our path around the hoop.
On days such as this, the world’s autonomic nervous system assumes control.
So, too, does the earth’s own heart.
If there is anything our own struggles have taught us, it is that our world loves us beyond all reason. Mother Earth, like any good parent, continues to give to us even as we take from her selfishly, then shamelessly turn our collective back on her needs. But whatever our traditions, whatever the science, there is a way in which we have all sprung directly from her womb, from the carboned earthiness of her body, the water of her seas, the blood of her deepest fires, the breath of her winds. We are born directly of her heart, and to it we return, and so her own orbit is in a very real sense our own sacred hoop.
Today’s featured work was already chosen, but in light of the day, I can’t help but reflect on its aptness. Formed in part of a symbol that links directly to the beliefs associated with this day in the dominant culture, it nonetheless is wholly indigenous, both Native and native to the Earth herself. And on a day when the world here is covered in white, the only green visible that of cedar and piñon and spruce, it is a reminder that our mother loves us enough to keep the promise of renewal, once winter has run its course. From the work’s description in the Necklaces Gallery here on the site:
From the Heart of the Earth Necklace
From the heart of the earth our whole world grows. Wings pays tribute to this evolutionary process with this necklace, a cross that is not a cross, but the embodiment of elemental forces and nurturing spirits. The pendant’s form is a very old design, one that circumvented colonial insistence on Christianity by appearing to adopt its four-spoked shape — and then adding an extra bar and a curving end to produce the form of a much older spirit: that of Dragonfly, a pollinator, a messenger, a symbol of romantic love and life’s abundance. Here, Wings has honored another old adaptation of the style, turning the curved tail at the base of the lowest spoke into a stylized heart. Above the heart, the pendant extends upward and outward to the Four Sacred Directions, each of the remaining five spokes stamped with a single thunderhead symbol pointing inward toward the center, a sign of the rain that keeps our Earth herself alive. Above the top spoke, the hand-made bail flowers into a lush green peridot; at the base in the center of the heart, the place of emergence, two tiny hand-stamped flowers are wedded into the form of a butterfly, a small spirit rising from its own place of emergence to continue the processes of pollination and prosperity. The cross is made of solid fourteen-gauge silver, and hangs 2-5/8″, the bail 3/4″ (the pendant is 3-3/8″ in total length; 1-1/8″ across at the widest point); the stone is 3/8″ long; the pendant hangs from an 18″ sterling silver snake chain (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; peridot
$1,150 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It’s a piece that embodies the concept of a gift: that which is freely given, with an open heart and a generous spirit, the promise of warmer winds even in the ice-cold light of deep winter.
The promise of life.
We have no say in its duration, not its length nor its essential luck, but it is a gift: to us, in the form of existence; to others, in what we convey along the way.
On this day the world calls Christmas, Wings and I wish you all, clients, friends, and family, a joyous holiday season and a blessed new year, filled with an abundance of gifts of an open heart and a generous spirit.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
