How does one describe a woman who has surrendered her identity in order to be remade? There is little that wants to be said about who she has been, as it is dissolving. That is the prayer at least...that any aspect of an outworn and ego-based identity dissolve.
Can words describe a spirit encased in body? and aren’t we fleeting enough in our improvisational lives that words may only serve to weight us and encase us in concretized realities that are not our own?
And yet...poetics seem to dance with us and invite in something we had not considered.
This is one of Jade's prayers:
Bakerwoman God
Bakerwoman God,
I am your living bread.
Strong, brown Bakerwoman God,
I am your low, soft,
and being-shaped loaf.
I am your rising bread,
well-kneaded by some divine
and knotty pair of knuckles,
by your warm earth hands.
I am bread well-kneaded.
Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,
put me in your own bright fire.
I am warm,
warm as you from fire.
I am white and gold, soft and hard,
brown and round.
I am so warm from fire.
Break me, Bakerwoman God.
I am broken under your caring Word.
Drop me in your special juice in pieces.
Drop me in your blood.
Drunken me in the great red flood.
Self-giving chalice swallow me.
My skin shines in the divine wine.
My face is cup-covered and I drown.
I fall up
in a red pool
in a gold world
where your warm sunskin hand
is there to
catch and hold me.
Bakerwoman God,
remake me.
~Alla Bozarth-Campbell
Can words describe a spirit encased in body? and aren’t we fleeting enough in our improvisational lives that words may only serve to weight us and encase us in concretized realities that are not our own?
And yet...poetics seem to dance with us and invite in something we had not considered.
This is one of Jade's prayers:
Bakerwoman God
Bakerwoman God,
I am your living bread.
Strong, brown Bakerwoman God,
I am your low, soft,
and being-shaped loaf.
I am your rising bread,
well-kneaded by some divine
and knotty pair of knuckles,
by your warm earth hands.
I am bread well-kneaded.
Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,
put me in your own bright fire.
I am warm,
warm as you from fire.
I am white and gold, soft and hard,
brown and round.
I am so warm from fire.
Break me, Bakerwoman God.
I am broken under your caring Word.
Drop me in your special juice in pieces.
Drop me in your blood.
Drunken me in the great red flood.
Self-giving chalice swallow me.
My skin shines in the divine wine.
My face is cup-covered and I drown.
I fall up
in a red pool
in a gold world
where your warm sunskin hand
is there to
catch and hold me.
Bakerwoman God,
remake me.
~Alla Bozarth-Campbell
and
In her Mother’s diaries from when Jade and her three older sisters were children, what was written over and over again was “Jan (her birth name) is a quiet girl, spending time alone or trying to keep up with her sisters”. In her continued solitude and ever present times of quiet reflection, what rings untainted in Jade’s heart is being a stand for love, bowing deeply to the unstoppable and always giving cycles of life and death, caring for the ineffable Heart of the world and ALL Her creatures…a kind of intimacy with All things, living in kind curiosity and gratitude, seeking to understand and to give her voice for the innocents whose voices are not heard or understood. Her soul longs for justice for all.
For most of her life she has been tied to and drawn into wild nature and to the heart of the more than human world. She has guided others in nature based soul work programs independently for twenty years and for more than 15 years with Animas Valley Insititue, holding the position of Senior Guide and trainer in her recent years. She has mentored hundreds and held the space of a soul consort to whoever knocks at her door.
True to her own guidance, she continues to ask “what now? How am I called to serve now? What great work is mine to do now?” And so she finds herself on a never before seen sabbatical, unlike the current version of sabbatical where one simply pauses in their work to replenish and often research. Jade has let it all go, trusting that what needs to remain will return and instead is adhering to the historical version of sabbatical…a time to rewild, let go, make room for re-creation, listen again and to renew her contract with the Holy of the World and within..
Whether it is to train her eye to aim more truly at her exact great work, or to tune her ears to what is evolving in her soul in communion with the world…she feels she MUST pause long enough to hear what is being asked of her now.
This is risky business…with no income or guarantee of work to return to, she has said yes and is being supported and awed by a kind of sacred economics among her community....depending on donations from others who support her and this idea. She has stepped into ….leaped off…taken a great fall into the unknown and is choosing to trust Great Mystery’s arms are there.
**There is a sub-page beneath the link for the About page that contains the letters written to Jade's community, in case you are interested...just hover on About with your cursor and you will see "Recent Herstory"
In her Mother’s diaries from when Jade and her three older sisters were children, what was written over and over again was “Jan (her birth name) is a quiet girl, spending time alone or trying to keep up with her sisters”. In her continued solitude and ever present times of quiet reflection, what rings untainted in Jade’s heart is being a stand for love, bowing deeply to the unstoppable and always giving cycles of life and death, caring for the ineffable Heart of the world and ALL Her creatures…a kind of intimacy with All things, living in kind curiosity and gratitude, seeking to understand and to give her voice for the innocents whose voices are not heard or understood. Her soul longs for justice for all.
For most of her life she has been tied to and drawn into wild nature and to the heart of the more than human world. She has guided others in nature based soul work programs independently for twenty years and for more than 15 years with Animas Valley Insititue, holding the position of Senior Guide and trainer in her recent years. She has mentored hundreds and held the space of a soul consort to whoever knocks at her door.
True to her own guidance, she continues to ask “what now? How am I called to serve now? What great work is mine to do now?” And so she finds herself on a never before seen sabbatical, unlike the current version of sabbatical where one simply pauses in their work to replenish and often research. Jade has let it all go, trusting that what needs to remain will return and instead is adhering to the historical version of sabbatical…a time to rewild, let go, make room for re-creation, listen again and to renew her contract with the Holy of the World and within..
Whether it is to train her eye to aim more truly at her exact great work, or to tune her ears to what is evolving in her soul in communion with the world…she feels she MUST pause long enough to hear what is being asked of her now.
This is risky business…with no income or guarantee of work to return to, she has said yes and is being supported and awed by a kind of sacred economics among her community....depending on donations from others who support her and this idea. She has stepped into ….leaped off…taken a great fall into the unknown and is choosing to trust Great Mystery’s arms are there.
**There is a sub-page beneath the link for the About page that contains the letters written to Jade's community, in case you are interested...just hover on About with your cursor and you will see "Recent Herstory"