Red Willow Spirit: Limbed, Limned, and Shadowed

Photo copyright Wings, 2022; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's an edition of Red Willow Spirit for a season of cold newly arrived amid an ever-shortening path of the light. It's a contemplation, too, of the particular gifts of this season, of the medicine of Father Sun who still makes his jounrey daily to deliver to us an earth limbed, limned, and shadowed in his glowing embrace.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. We urgently need to make consistent sales to make it through the rest of this third year of pandemic and loss, and the holiday sales season is now officially under way, so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2022; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.    

The Confidence to Fall

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

He needed no other movement, no momentum — only the confidence to fall onto thin air, knowing he would soar.

I wanted that feeling.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Here to Stay

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

He is here now.

I think he is here to stay. 




All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Red Birds

Photo copyright Aji, 2016;
all rights reserved.

Their spirit wings wear harvest cloaks, but they paint themselves in the red that links them to us.

Like them, we are red birds, too.




All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Wings Up

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

This tiny bird, the one with the cobalt robes and anxious cries, with spirit wings ready to fly, is blue and fierce in archetypal form.

Head forward. Brow set. Legs taut.

Wings up.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Death Eaters and Daddy Lessons

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

I have learned my daddy lessons better than he ever taught, and I will gladly give them over to the death eaters.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

All Of These

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Is he all of these, and are they he?

I suspect so.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Purpose

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

She knows who she is, and why she is here, and where she is bound, even if her destination is only to the next fencepost.

From that flows purpose, like the elegant drape of her spirit wings.

I understand. Sometimes my destination is only to the next fencepost, too. But it is mine.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

The Edge of Memory

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Perhaps she is not a spirit of mourning, but of healing, one who takes the mind’s eye’s images of loss and carries them with her as she flies, bearing them on soft silent spirit wings to the edge of memory.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Ruffled

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Why she chose this day to return, entirely out of season, I have no idea.

But if experience is any guide, it is a sign, and a good one. Even at her most ruffled, she is still one of our most powerful spirits. She wanted my attention this morning.

She’s got it now.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Joy

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

She is a messenger, this tiny creature with the ability to fly in all directions.

No wonder the chance to feed is for her a moment of pure and unbridled joy. She hovers, then perches, then drinks . . . and when she drinks, her small spirit wings beat an involuntary tattoo upon the evening air.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Encouragement

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

It is the people who make me feel like the small animal, spirit ripped from flesh, bone from soul.

The ravens give me encouragement. In spite of it all, they make me feel like i might be able to fly.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Return

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

He is back, this small fierce grandfather spirit, returned to me in defiance of all logic. 

I had not thought to see him again.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

This Has Never Happened

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

The air is quiet, no chatter, no mocking laughter. The spirits of this place are missing, and with them the spirit of this place itself.

This has never happened.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Embrace the Air

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Sometimes, all you can do is embrace the air.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Summer

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

He has flown backward near half a century to a summer long gone, and flown forward to bring a piece of it to me here.

Like memory, he, too, is magic. 

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Home

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

They have never been here in such numbers.

They have never been so close, nor so comfortable.

I said they were home, but perhaps it is more than that: Perhaps they have been waiting for a home.

Kindred spirits in cobalt cloaks, arrived via the southerly skies on azure spirit wings . . . in search of home. 





All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Soaring

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

Sometimes the only thing holding you aloft is the current.

And now, we are soaring, and hoping to survive it.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Reach

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

And so we have decided: made our choice, taken our leap, decided, some way, somehow, to find faith and hang onto it for dear life when the ground falls away beneath our feet.

And the ground has fallen away.

Other things are rising in its place.

But this was neither swan dive nor cannonball: This was a tentative and terrified teetering at the edge, breath held and eyes shut; this was a stretch to the furthest tips of our fingers and then beyond; this was a reach that not only exceeds our grasp but fills our hands with nothing but air.

We’re flying now.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Diamonds

Photo copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved.

It was pure joy to watch these two, a pair who seemed convinced that they had found a prize. For such small spirits, their wings could shrug off copious amounts of water, spangling the air with tiny wet crystal jewels.

And for tonight, the image of their spirit wings plunged into the water to fling it across the world, robes newly bejeweled with diamonds tossed into the air, is the one thing that makes me feel human.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2016; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.