The snow is still minimal in accumulation, a light dusting upon the exposed patches of the darkened earth. It seems deceptively light, the tiniest of crystals fused together like mist.
They predict one to three inches this morning.
As unfortunate as the timing is on this day, we cannot help but regard the snow as a gift, nonetheless. In this place, we have always been well aware of the risks and effects of drought, but recent changes have brought those lessons home in ways that only hard experience can do. Our winters have rapidly diminished; until this season, we had not had a “normal,” long-lasting snow of several feet for some four or five years. Last year was the worst, with only two or three dustings followed by almost no rain in the monsoon season.
Much of the county was unable to irrigate last year, once-fallow fields browned and burning in the sun. Ours were no exception.
This year, though, thanks to the accumulating snowpack, we expect to be able to plant again: a garden at the very least (or three; we usually plant more than one, raising the herbs and medicinal plants separately from the fruits and vegetables). We may even be able to revive the fields where we once grew our own hay, top-quality grass and alfalfa. If so, that will also lessen our expenses considerably.
For now, though, we must navigate winter — coping with the snow and the ice and the bitter cold that attend it. It’s easy to forget the importance — indeed, the absolute necessity — of them all, not merely to maintaining our way of life, but to basic survival. It’s easy to forget, too, the abundance of winter on its own terms in a place such as this where, whatever the circumstances of other seasons, we are granted the gift of the earth, illuminated and evergreen.
It’s a good time to reflect upon our good fortune. Today’s featured work helps — a piece that holds the wearer securely in the embrace of the spirits of earth, illumination, and an evergreen world. From its description in the relevant section of the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
A Prospering World Cuff Bracelet
The spirits honor hard work and a life well lived in the old way by answering prayers for a prospering world. Wings evokes one of these spirits of prosperity in silver and stone by way of his own signature style: a hand-split cuff in the cold shape of Serpent, he who bears good fortune. This version of the snake is the same one who lends his talents to Medicine, a rattler bearing jewels of the earth in rich fertile colors. The band is formed of a single piece of sterling silver, hand-split so that head and tail extend in opposite directions to coil around the wrist. Small hand-stamped points form his eyes; tiny hoops, his snout and heavily layered rattle; lodge symbols adorn the two intermediate ends of the uniquely-styled band. He is that fierce member of his clan, the diamondback, with tiny hand-stamped versions of the pattern alternating between the gemstones he bears along his back, ten small round bezel-set cabochons of jade and tiger’s eye. Band is 6″ long by 7/16″ across; cabochons are 5/16″ across (dimensions approximate); the band has significant flexibility, but is designed for a smaller wrist (6.5″ or less). Other views shown above and below.
Sterling silver; jade; tiger’s eye
$1,025 + shipping, handling, and insurance
In Wings’s way, snakes are not omens of evil or ill fortune; just the opposite, in fact. Their appearance betokens prosperity, a link, perhaps, to the old stories and still older spirit of the Water Serpent, a creature whose natural habitat is, in a place such as this, abundance in its greatest form. Long before it became fashionable in popular culture, the people of this place have known that water is life. Water is breath; water is the first medicine; water is what makes the evergreens evergreen and the earth able to welcome the illuminating light.
It is dark out still, no hint of dawn in any direction. When the sun rises, it will show us no golden glow, only a lightening of the pewter skies behind a veil of snow. The earth will already be clad wholly in white once again, but the evergreens will still show themselves through the crystal garlands. And while it is far too cold for Serpent to join us yet, his spirit inhabits the gifts of the weather.
Now that we know just how desperate the world can be without the water, we would do well to appreciate it when it comes to us as snow.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
