Christmas Day.
We had a brief period in which the da felt a bit like Christmas, early clouds hanging low and dark, flurries at long last driving in nearly horizontally on a chill wind. That’s gone now, mostly blue skies visible and abundant sun, neither of which is my idea of this holiday, or of winter generally.
That said, there are still bands of clouds all around the horizon, with some fierce-looking dark walls to the west/northwest, and the radar map still shows a decent chance of something yet this afternoon. It won’t result in any accumulation, but these days, we’ll take what we can get and be grateful for it.
And yet, as I write, the clouds are reforming, becoming something more powerful once again, and the snow has returned, too — not as flakes, but as graupel, but it’s coming hard and fast, and this is accumulating now.
It’s not what we think of as snow here, but it’s still a bit of. white Christmas, at least for the moment.
The last few moments, I find, have improved my mood immensely, and that, too, is a great gift. We were both raised with Christmas as children, but we’re don’t go all-out in celebrating it, nor in any of the customary observances of the colonial world. But this year, when that world has been so very terrible indeed, the lack of anything resembling real Christmas is something we have both felt remarkably acutely now. Seeing the cleansing blanket of white spreading over the ground is going perhaps a longer way than usual to lifting the metaphorical cloud that has hovered over everything this year.
That is, of course, one of the functions of winter in climates such as these [or historically it was, anyway]: a cleansing of an earth covered in the dust and detritus of another year, a cleansing that prepares our small world for much-needed rest. There’s precious little rest, or even respite, available in the world as currently constituted, but for those of us who remain as close as possible to the environment that sustains us, restoring balance is winter’s blessing of the earth.
Spirit knows these lands need a restoration of their proper balance now. This drought has deprived of us of too many trees, too many plant spirits, even those indigenous to these lands. whole stands of red willow, who share their name with people and place, are gone; whole stands, too, of the deciduous aspens and oak on the slopes, and of the evergreens that once so thoroughly blanketed mountainsides and peaks alike. It’s imperative that we remember them, that we never become inured to their disappearing or their absence.
Our work is the work of their restoration, too.
Today’s featured works, perfectly apt for this particular holiday, also serve as reminders of this obligation to remember, and to do the work of restoration, rehabilitation, reclamation, renewal now. Both are the most recent iterations of one of Wings’s longest-running signature series, a collection of whimsical little holiday evergreen pins worthy of any Christmastown song [or storm]. Both are found in the Pins Gallery here on the site. We begin with the one adorned in the colors of day and season, shades of the resin, berry, bough of the tree itself. From its description:
Resin, Berry, Bough Winter Holiday Tree Pin
The most beautiful holiday tree is an evergreen covered with snow and spangled with light, the sun intensifying the shades of resin, berry, bough. With this newest entry in his longstanding signature series of tree pins, Wings evokes the natural beauty of juniper and fir, spruce and pine, and adds his own special tribute to the power of snow and light. The tree is saw-cut freehand in a whimsical shape that implies motion in a wintry wind, each point and edge filed smooth. Freehand stampwork in the shape of five-pointed stars serve as ornaments, radiant sunrise motifs inverted form garlands, and at the top, an old-style six-pointed star draws the eye to its peak. More “ornaments,” like tiny lights, are arrayed in small round saw-toothed bezels down its length: amber resin, carnelian berry, jade bough, all glowing in the alpine winter light. Tree stands 1-5/8″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; amber; carnelian; jade
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
I love this little pin, the brilliant holiday colors of its ornaments, all three of which, under the proper light, glow like a strand of tree lights themselves. The stampwork is at once festive and positively celestial, garlands of inverted sunrise motifs, ornaments of stars, a treetop star that seems to flower, like the explosion of a nebula in the dark.
In truth, I always think that this one is my favorite . . . and then I look at the other one, and I think that perhaps it is, instead. In truth, they’re as evenly matched on that score as its possible to be; I don’t think I could choose between them if I tried. They are, as one might expect, very similar — and yet, like their real-life counterparts of cedar and pine and spruce and fir, each is animated by its own distinctive, unique spirit.
This second work is also spangled with the colors of the season, but not in quite the same way. These are the hues of an evergreen twilight in an alpine world [or at least they should be; aside from a few early flurries, the only snow here today was that on the highest peaks until moments ago, when a fall of graupel spread a threadbare white blanket over the earth here]. From its description:
Evergreen Twilight Winter Holiday Tree Pin
A winter’s dawn and dusk are moments of an evergreen twilight here, when black night skies marbled with red fire and white starlight cast their colors upon the trees that blanket the peaks. With this miniature holiday tree pin and just a touch of whimsy, Wings honors the shades of the sky and the stands of giant conifers that are elemental parts of the cold season. The latest in Wings’s long-running signature series of winter trees with ornamented boughs, the pin itself is saw-cut freehand, branches seeming to dance in air and light. A classic five-pointed star adorns the top, more of its kind scattered throughout the boughs,, with flowing-water motifs forming natural garlands alongside eight-spoked snowflakes. Three cabochons are arrayed down its surface: black onyx, the color of night; fiery garnet, of rising and setting suns; and icy white moonstone, channeling the light of first sun, of rising moon, and of all the stars in the sky. Pin stands 1-5/8″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point; cabochons are 3/16″ across (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; onyx; garnet; moonstone
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
This little tree wears the snow like sequins, stars and snowflakes stamped freehand, a bit of sunset fire between the ice in air and one the earth and the glossy black of impending night. If the first is earthy in its shades, the colors of the evergreen itself, this second one is all about air and sky. It’s ethereal, like the fragile chill air of a Christmas night, and it reminds us that the beauty and blessings that the outside world attribute to this day are in fact the province of an entire season.
This year, it is a season badly out of balance, in keeping with the state of disharmony that plagues the entire planet now. All the material gifts in the world, all the rich food and the lights and the decorations and the festivities, all are utterly meaningless in the face of a world that cannot sustain existence.
And that is, in fact, where we find ourselves now: climatically, politically, in every conceivable way. No one can fix it but us.
So let this Christmas Day be not one lost to fleeting moments of frivolity, but rather, an opportunity seized to recommit ourselves to the work of saving all of us.
Restoring balance is winter’s blessing fo the earth, with cleansing, with respite, with rest, with ceremony. This is our chance to do the same, so that all of us survive and thrive.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2024; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
