Monday Photo Meditation: Strong Limbs and Stronger Roots

Photo copyright Wings, 2018; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a photo meditation for a day when being earthbound does not equal being grounded, for an unsettled season when the world and our footing upon it both seem unsure. It's a contemplation of what the trees can teach us: how to be flexible and aspirational, to have strong limbs and stronger roots.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. As always, his photos are available for purchase in any of the usual three formats; simply inquire via the site's Contact form. Also as always, sales are very much needed (especially now, with vultures on my back and more tests looming large and fast), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

More on best-laid plans. Almost halfway to goal on Patreon! Pledges, sales, and shares needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

More best-laid plans and all that.

It's been one of those weird weekends where nothing you had scheduled gets done because new and bizarre things keep cropping up and sticking themselves in your path. I had planned to spend the weekend uploading a bunch of new content to my Patreon, but all sorts of other things have intruded and demanded that I address them first. It's going to be a crazybusy couple of weeks anyway: We have clients coming in tomorrow; a dear friend coming in Friday; and clients again next week. And the usual stuff has to get done, despite my extreme slowness, so everything else will be slow, too. For the Patreon content, I'm still planning on trying late tonight, though, provided I can stay awake.

Speaking of the new Patreon, it's here. I still don't even have the words to express my gratitude to my first patrons/subscribers, all nine of you: In three days, y'all have put me almost half the way to my initial goal, and I couldn't be more grateful to you. It's not just the progress toward the goal, either; it's the fact that, on the very first day I launched the page, you folks stepped up and let me know you believed in me. That's more valuable than any amount of money (but the pledges are what will pay the medical bills). So thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. But speaking of being almost half-way to goal: All it would take is a little more than $100 in new pledges/patrons (I know it looks like it should be $94, but Patreon takes their cut off the top, and what you see on the ticker is that number, not the gross pledge amount; this means it will probably take about $120 to get me to the 50% mark). So. I'd be grateful is folks continued to share that link around, and if you've been contemplating subscribing, now would be a good time (you're not billed until May 1st). Thanks, everyone.

And speaking of the medical bills those funds will be used to pay, I've got $3,500 breathing down my neck right now. I've got another $20-some thousand after that, but the $3,500 represents the ones dunning me most intensely right now. Forget about the next round of upcoming tests; I have no clue how much and can't worry about it now. So here are all the links; please share them:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds);
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount; another almost $400 for Wings this week);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of supplies for She-Wolf;
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. There are some things left on both registries that I thought by now I might be able just to buy outright, but medical bills (mine and She-Wolf's both) have to come first.

As I said earlier, I may yet have something new posted over there tonight; it all depends on how efficient I am at getting everything done tonight. I've been having a huge amount of chest pain and difficulty breathing all day today, which makes me very slow at getting stuff done, so I may not make it yet tonight, but I'll try. Much gratitude to all of you, and please continue to share the links.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

The Power of Illumination

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work that was part of a series in miniature dedicated to the spirit of the light. It was also a tribute to the power of illumination, a reminder to seek it, hold it, share it even in the darkest of storms.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. And, as always, sales are very much needed (especially now, with the next round of tests the next barrier to diagnosis and treatment), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Seven years, and Dom still owns our hearts.

Photo copyright Wings, 2018; all rights reserved.

Seven years.

It doesn't seem possible.

I couldn't find either of the photos I wanted to use of her: In one, she's wrapped up in one of my old fleece shirts, warm on the floor of Wings's studio; in the other, she's sitting at the edge of the deck just before the old house got pulled out of here, exploiting that lame paw as she always did when she didn't want to do something. It was permanently damaged it, probably during the period she was used as a bait dog, and then further exacerbated by a rescue entity's failure to care for it properly. Once I got the infection gone, it never stopped her.

She only had a half-mask, but it gave her her name, for domino: Domina, in her case, a nod to the feminine and also to the other Latin translation in which it's used as the female analogue to "Master." Because she was the boss, in so many ways — not of her pack, true, but she ran her humans ragged as her personal servant. Of course, it was too heavy a name for a little tomboy who loved to fake being the fragile flower, so it got shortened immediately to Dommy, Dom, Dommers, DomDom. Also Grubster Girl, since she never met something disgusting to roll in that she didn't like, and Little Monster, because she was completely bullheaded.

She owned Wings, and she sealed that deal when I was up in Washington, hopping up onto the back of the ATV and riding with him. What we didn't know then was that she was already not only sick, but irrevocably so; in fact, she had only weeks to live. I returned at the very end of March; by 10:42 PM on the night of April 14, 2011, she was gone. Roughly 11.5, 12 years old, and at the vet, they thought she was pregnant; that's how drastically the tumor(s) had expanded her midsection. All in the space of a couple of weeks. We had no warning, and no time.

She left this world from my lap, on the floor of that damned RV, freezing cold and rattling in the wind. I kept her warm and safe, and held while her first her motor control failed, then her vision, and last of all, her breath. I baptized her spirit with my tears; they fell unceasing and unchecked the whole time. It took about forty minutes overall.

She was the first to rest in the plot where the her siblings now are. We couldn't bury her until the next day; it was too dark, too cold, the ground too hard. Every once in a while, she comes back to see me in a dream, and I know she's happy. She's still fierce, but she's always happy, that little doggy grin on her face.

Later on, when the wind dies down, I'll go outside and take her some cedar, and some tobacco, and some water. And I'll remind her that, like her siblings, she's never out of our hearts.

We love you, little DomDom girl.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

An Elemental Spectrum

Photo copyright Wings, 2018; all rights reserved.

Now posted at The NDN Silver Blog, it's a work manifest as the elements themselves, those spirits who haunt this unsettled season we call spring. It's a talismanic band of day and night, warmth and cold, fire and ice, a reminder that we can navigate even the hardest of paths beneath an elemental spectrum of power and light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. And, as always, sales are very much needed (especially now, with more tests and attendant bills looming), so shares of the site links are much appreciated. 



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

Friday Feature: All the Colors of the Light

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

It's our Friday Feature at The NDN Silver Blog, with a work by a Pueblo master that both embodies and is adorned with a spectrum of symbols of indigenous unity. It's a drum accented with the image of the Sacred White Buffalo, a genetic variant of great spiritual power that, like the sunbow, manifests, in its way, in all the colors of the light.

The post is here. Wings's main page is here. Inquiries via the site's Contact form. And, as always, sales are very much needed (especially now; awaiting new scheduling of more expensive tests), so shares of the site links are much appreciated.



All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.

A dirty sky (and dirty unbreathable air to go with it). Much gratitude to my first patrons. Patreon and other link shares and sales needed.

Photo copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved.

The sun was just a blank hole in a dirty sky. That was a couple of hours ago, after a day that turned gray, then yellow, then tan, and now is something along the lines of all three combined. It was educational for me, and not in a good way: I'm back on the O2 right now, trying to breathe, because the mix of dust from high winds with gusts exceeding 50 mph and the smoke from four fires on the west side of the state, one south of Albuquerque, and one in the the state's southwestern quadrant are all HERE, RIGHT HERE, and you can barely see the mountains, much less breathe the air. I thought it was bad the last couple of years; now that my breathing is so compromised, I'm going to need to stay indoors as much as possible during wildfire season.

We got one really big thing accomplished today — only an initial step, but nothing else happens without that, and it was driving me crazy, and now it's handled. About three big things yesterday, and a lot more over the next week or so. It did not, unfortunately, leave me time for writing, so at the moment, I have nothing new uploaded, but that will change tomorrow.

For now, the big thing is the new Patreon, which is here. I don't even have the words to express my gratitude to my first six patrons/subscribers: In less than one day, y'all have put me one-quarter of the way to my initial goal, and I couldn't be more grateful to you. It's not just the progress toward the goal, either; it's the fact that, on the very first day I launched the page, you folks stepped up and let me know you believed in me. That's more valuable than any amount of money (but the pledges are what will pay the medical bills). So thank you, thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. 

Speaking of medical bills, I've got $3,500 breathing down my neck right now. I've got another $20-some thousand after that, but the $3,500 represents the ones dunning me most intensely right now. Forget about the next round of upcoming tests; I have no clue how much and can't worry about it now. So here are all the links; please share them:

• My new Patreon, The Interstices (Writing Between Worlds);
• Wings's site, for sales;
• Wings's direct PayPal link;
• A way to buy me coffee (which actually goes to all of our medical bills, which continue to mount; another almost $400 for Wings this week);
• Amazon wishlist, which mostly consists of supplies for She-Wolf;
• Partial registry #1, from Bed, Bath and Beyond. There are new kitchen-y things on it now, stuff that I didn't realize we'd need to replace (either because the RV ruined it or because we gave it away when we had to downsize).
• Partial registry #2, from Wayfair. There are some things left on both registries that I thought by now I might be able just to buy outright, but medical bills (mine and She-Wolf's both) have to come first.

I may yet have something new posted over there tonight; it all depends on how efficient I am at getting everything done tonight (and how well I manage on the three hours' sleep I got between three-thirty and six-thirty this morning). A lot of chest pain and difficulty breathing tonight, which makes me very slow at getting stuff done, so the Patreon may not be updated until tomorrow, but I'll try. Much gratitude to all of you, and please continue to share the links.

All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2018; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.