Hope — Wolnosia

Every Wolnosia talisman of hope is warmed in gold — the colour of first light.

Consider Poland’s white eagle. For centuries it wore a golden crown, the emblem of a free and sovereign people. Then came the long grey decades of Soviet-imposed rule, and the crown was stripped from its head — the eagle left bare, a nation’s sovereignty denied.

But hope is not so easily taken. Through every year of occupation, Poles held fast to the hope of freedom — and when communism fell in 1989, the golden crown was restored to the eagle. It returned because hope had never let it go.

Polish coat of arms with the golden crown, before the communist era — The crown, removed under communist rule and restored in 1989. Coat of arms of Poland · Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Polish eagle stripped of its crown under communist rule — The crown, removed under communist rule and restored in 1989. Coat of arms of Poland · Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Our own crest is a crowned eagle, and hope is the gold we set upon it — the colour of dawn.

A reminder that what is taken can be reclaimed, and that the crown always finds its way back to those who keep hoping.