It is the sun that is the heart of the sky: Its light sets the whole world dancing.
I was reminded of this truth again this morning.
I’m usually up hours before the dawn, but multiple travel days this week, along with a great many other tasks and pressures, left me sufficiently exhausted that I only awakened fully after the sun had begun its ascent into the sky. Because we live at the very feet of the peaks, what passes for full sunrise elsewhere is only a lightening of the sky for us; the sun cannot be said fully to be “up” here until it has crested the higher horizon of the ridgeline.
On a day such as this, that means that the sky has already kaleidoscoped through multiple shades and hues. At the time of my rising, the east and southeastern skies were shades of coral and gold and silver in a perfectly blended spectrum of light, while north and west, lightening more gradually, ranged from ice blue to turquoise to blue violet. Even now, the colors are not much different, only paler; clouds have moved in overhead from the west, muting the heavens even before any trace of promised snow arrives.
At night, of course, it’s different: Then, it’s the moon, and last night, it was every bit as coral-colored as the rising and setting sun. But we tend to reckon our world by the daylight hours, by those moments when we are abroad and at work, moving freely in the light, and that places the sun squarely at the center. It’s fitting, of courses, given that, in our solar system, the sun is quite literally the center — the veery heart — of our corner of the cosmos.
And while today’s featured work was created with an eye toward seasonal celebrations of love and romance, it was designed, too, with our natural world firmly in mind. From its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Love Dancing Earrings
The spirits go love dancing in the light of a Pueblo sky. Wings summons their form and shape in these new earrings, coppery-red hearts wrapped in turquoise robes. Head and torso are formed of a matched pair of hearts as full and red as the iconic love they represent: red agate cabochons in the color of the metallic micaceous earth indigenous to this land, yet translucent as the glow of a Pueblo sunrise. Each is set into a scalloped hand-made bezel, with an organic tab extended at the top to hold delicate silver wires, and a jump ring attached at the lower point. Via a second set of jump rings, the lower body hangs suspended from the hearts: brilliant sky-blue triangular turquoise cabochons aswirl with coppery matrix as red as the hearts, each set into its own scalloped bezel and set adance in the light. Earrings hang 2.25″ in overall length (excluding wires); red agate heart cabochons are 5/8″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point; turquoise cabochons are 1″ long by 9/16″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; red agate; natural blue turquoise (probably Royston)
$825 + shipping, handling, and insurance
They are, of course, free spirits, dancing in the light of love itself. But in our way, no spirit is divorced from the world that surrounds us, and these are no exception: heads and literal hearts in the color of the very sun itself, robes flaring out in the shades of the desert sky.
And while they remind us that the sun is the heart of the sky, they remind us of another lesson, too.
It is love that is — and must always be — the heart of our world, the heart of our life itself.
~ 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.
