Today is the last day in an extraordinarily difficult week. Difficult for us for many reasons, not the least of which has been a cluster of anniversaries, markers of loss, and those are not over yet.
But loss is the more deeply felt for the presence of love.
Much has been difficult in this new year, not only for us but for the country and the world. We are, in some ways, entering a whole new way of existence, one in which the accepted rules and restrictions of governance no longer apply, and when leadership is not merely in short supply, but nonexistent. In already hard times, such uncertainty turns what might merely unsettling into a source of near-constant fear.
And yet, there is one option that we have always open to us, even if the form and shape it takes varies. The spirits teach us this lesson — indeed, our peoples know better than most that were it not for the love of the spirits, we would not be here still — and yet it is one that is so very, very easy to forget. My own people instill it as one of the seven gifts, the virtues by which we are to live, and thus live well, but it is not only a virtue, not merely a character trait but also practice, praxis, process, path.
It is the way of love.
It’s not an easy path, no. That is all the more true in times such as these, when our days are marked by worry, our connections marred by fear. It requires compromise, forgiveness, meeting another halfway and more. It requires doubling back instead of doubling down, retreat instead of attack. It requires work.
And it is worth it.
Today’s featured work is Wings’s latest, completed only this afternoon. It’s a pair of earrings, one whose motifs hint at such labor even as they manifest as love. From their description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
The Way of Love Earrings
The way of love is not a straight line, but a path around the hoop marked by sharp turns and detours and backtracks, by conscious efforts at conflict resolution and forgiveness, at peacemaking and the offering of an open heart. Wings honors the path, and the goal, with these new hoop earrings, bold crescents of slender but solid sterling silver triangle wire, formed into graceful curves reminiscent of the classic protective naja. Along the full length of the wire, each side of the apex is hand-stamped in chased patterns, a round full heart alternating with broken arrows signs of peacemaking and of new directions. Full length of triangle wire is 3″ long; earrings hang 1-3/8″ long, excluding posts (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
We would all do well to remember such lessons, to aspire to walk the way of love each day in our path around the hoop.
It is not an easy way, but in times such as these, it is, perhaps, the only way.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2017; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
