Red Willow Spirit: A Darkening World, and a Precious Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for the weeks that lead us into winter. It's four images, the same subject shot from very slightly differing perspectives, linked by two works of wearable art, one shown in two forms — all of them capturing the balance and beauty and medicine of a darkening world, and a precious light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We still have to ensure that we break even on the year, and that begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

 

All that green.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

 

Look at all that green. It's more green than that field has seen in almost a decade.

In November.

Out of order tonight, because aside from this being my biggest writing workload of the work, it's also been a day buried under a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit beyond our control, and also the worst pain day I've had in literal years.

It's been getting progressively worse over the last several days, but I had hoped, apparently stupidly, that it might ease off a little with the clearing weather. NOPE. It's so much worse, there aren't words for it. I can't walk properly; I'm hunched like Quasimodo. The pain is so bad that I literally can't breathe. I can't function in even the most minimal ways. And if it's not going to improve, I honestly don't know how I can handle this. Also, if it doesn't improve? I'm going to need a wheelchair, and it will have to be the costly power kind, because my hands are as broken as my feet and hips and shoulders and everything else.

I'm so discouraged right now. 

And it all just makes me slower, and keeps putting me further and further behind every day. Clearly the rest of the year is going to be very hard. And I've still got to bring in a lot more sales through the end of the year. It's been hellishly expensive already, and we've also got some other big-ticket things to take care of between now and then, and that only happens if we make some sales now. And we can still use help with shares, testimonials, wishlist stuff, etc. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [Too many obligations, too many folks in need; I can't justify spending money on them right now, but I'd really love to be able to get the rest of the towels and liquid soaps];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, a year that, so far, has been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Actually cold.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

More rain today. And when the clouds finally lifted just the slightest bit, we could see snow two-thirds of the way down the slopes. Just a dusting, but that's more than we've had most of the time in recent years, and lower, too.

And it's cold. I mean, not cool, not chilly, but actually cold. Which means that everything will freeze tonight, and maybe I'll be free of the chamisa-pollen plague at long last. It would be really nice to lose at one source of inflammatory response, because for the second day in a row, I am in autoimmune hell. It's also chemo day, and last week was so fucking miserable that I had to lower my dose again. Nothing's working, and I'm at the end of my rope, because it just gets worse by the day. even my pain meds, the one and only kind that's ever worked for me, aren't touching it.

And it all just makes me slower, and keeps putting me further and further behind every day. Clearly the rest of the year is going to be very hard. And I've still got to bring in a lot more sales through the end of the year. It's been hellishly expensive already, and we've also got some other big-ticket things to take care of between now and then, and that only happens if we make some sales now. And we can still use help with shares, testimonials, wishlist stuff, etc. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [Too many obligations, too many folks in need; I can't justify spending money on them right now, but I'd really love to be able to get the rest of the towels and liquid soaps];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, a year that, so far, has been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Monday Photo Meditation: When Waterfall Becomes Firelight

Photo copyright Wings, 2026; all rights reserved. 

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a Monday Photo Meditation for the storms of what should be early winter, via an image of a time when such patterns still held. It's a photo that dates back a decade almost to the very day, when Wings captured that post-storm moment when waterfall becomes firelight.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We still have to ensure that we break even on the year, and that begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Just dark from the storm.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

 

That was about 4:30 this afternoon [actual 4:30, thank all that's holy, rather than that stupid DST abomination]; yes, it looks like night, but it was still broad daylight, just dark from the storm. Just after I took that shot, that storm finally began to open up overhead, and it's still pouring.

It's been a beautiful day in terms of the clouds and the skies, but the rain they said we'd get all day didn't begin until that point. It's also been an absolutely miserable day for me in terms of pain. I fell asleep and stayed that way until about 5 AM, when I awakened with one of the worst migraines I've had in recent memory [by which I mean the last year or two]. No rhyme or reason; it just decided that November first was the day, I guess. If it had been only that, that would've been bad enough, but no. Both hands and both are still wrecked; I have subluxes [partial joint dislocations] in both hands and wrists, both feet, both knees, my right elbow, and my left shoulder. It's been agony all day long.

And it all just makes me slower, and keeps putting me further and further behind every day. Clearly the rest of the year is going to be very hard. And I've still got to bring in a lot more sales through the end of the year. It's been hellishly expensive already, and we've also got some other big-ticket things to take care of between now and then, and that only happens if we make some sales now. And we can still use help with shares, testimonials, wishlist stuff, etc. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [Too many obligations, too many folks in need; I can't justify spending money on them right now, but I'd really love to be able to get the rest of the towels and liquid soaps];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, a year that, so far, has been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

The Storm Always Births the Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work for stormy days and longer nights, a reminder that an emergent sun is always just around the corner. It's a pair of unusual earrings, on posts and wrought of red brass in a distinctly Art Deco design around sodalite's deep blues, the whole reminding us that the storm always births the light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. We still have to ensure that we break even on the year, and that begins with a minimum of one sale a week, without fail.

 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Halloween may be tonight only, but Goth is year-round.

Photo copyright Aji, 2026; all rights reserved.

He'd intended to have these done in time to be available for Halloween wear, but no. This whole month has been a nightmare and a half on its own, in a horror show of a year, so . . . ::shrug::. Both of us can only do what we can do, and we're behind on lots of things.

Doesn't really matter, though. Halloween may be tonight only, but Goth is year-round. And that's who these are for, folks like me who live in black.  On the left, high grade Tibetan spiderweb turquoise, big cabs, but the black webbing of the matrix is so fantastic that they look Goth-y, too. the other two are Picasso jasper, the real, high-grade stuff, not the pale spiderweb jasper that so many pretend is the real thing. I might have to swipe one of those pairs for myself, because they have that whole "haunted storm" thing going on there.

At least it's some distraction from what's been a brutal day. And it's not just because of our friend who's been hospitalized; I'm on no sleep, and my pain levels are off the charts. I finally fell asleep a little before 6:30 this morning . . . and of course woke up ten minute later. I'm wiped. Feet and hands, mostly unuseable. Pain untouchable. I don't know what to do at this point.

And it all just makes me slower, and keeps putting me further and further behind every day. Clearly the rest of the year is going to be very hard. And I've still got to bring in a lot more sales through the end of the year. It's been hellishly expensive already, and we've also got some other big-ticket things to take care of between now and then, and that only happens if we make some sales now. And we can still use help with shares, testimonials, wishlist stuff, etc. To that end, links are here:

• Sales here; 
• Testimonials here; 
• Amazon wishlist here [Too many obligations, too many folks in need; I can't justify spending money on them right now, but I'd really love to be able to get the rest of the towels and liquid soaps];
• Patreon here;
• Ko-fi here.

And we do still need to make those regular weekly sales, so please share all of the links. We really do need to get this year onto a better footing than the last two, a year that, so far, has been very grim.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2026; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.