In admiration of my friends
In my first conversation with Madison, I was intimidated. We were sitting in the kitchen of an AirBnB on the way to a vision fast, having met via email and agreeing to chip in on a space to start the 11 day wilderness journey with at least a night of comfortable sleep. She was talking about her relationship with her partner Jacob and their lives as community leaders, activists, and teachers at Northern Arizona University’s Sustainable Communities graduate program.
As she talked, I could feel her wovenness to her community and the realness of the way she lived her values. At that point in my life, I didn’t know if I could say the same and I wondered where her clarity, focus, and experience came from. As we walked out of the woods on the last day, Madison looked at me and said “we need to stay in touch. I’m not sure what it is, but I think we have work to do together.” She was right.
Now, years later, Madison and Jacob are my landmates and co-conspirators on this adventure of founding and growing Remembering Earth with our fourth team member, Phillip. I get to wake up each day and step into their field of care, to feel their relationship hold us to the vision that we tend; the vision of wellness for all beings, of deep listening to wilder streams of life, of a humble human presence worthy of earth’s beauty.
Each day, I am the beneficiary of their experience in showing up for the gritty and beautiful realities of building community in the face of systemic oppression and social and climate breakdown. I’ve learned so much from them about making my mystical experiences real and turning my own healings into service. If I had to distill their relationship to a single word, I would choose “purpose.”
Like many soul-centered wilderness guides, Madison and Jacob have always been at home with endings. I’ve witnessed them navigate some of the most challenging experiences humans can go through, losing multiple immediate family members in rapid succession, staying open hearted in the face of justified rage, trusting that their pain points to deeper threads of wisdom. I’ve watched Jacob apprentice himself to the compost bin and the hunt alike, studying with fascination the transmutation of life. Meanwhile, Madison hikes to the top of the mountain each night to accompany the sunset, to honor the end of another day and listen to what life is asking of her.
The love that Jacob and Madison share is mysteriously and undeniably wrapped in the cloak of the night. Emanating from their dreams over and over, it’s clear that they are here to hold a vision of meaning, purpose, and creation in the face of that central truth we all sense but rarely acknowledge: this ride ends. I’ve become considerably more awake in my life because of my proximity to them, encouraged by their courage in facing what life delivers. They’ve been aware of climate collapse and seen through the lies of culture since their teens and shaped their lives with beauty and joy in response. When I was a teenager, all I thought about was skiing and weed.
I’m writing this because I’m so excited for their upcoming offering, Living a Soulful Life: Meeting Death Alive from April 27 - 30. To me, it feels like an emanation of the soul of their relationship, an original song ten years and countless lifetimes in the making. While I won’t be attending, I’m excited for anyone who will be. There are still a couple spots left and if it feels like one of them may be yours, reach out to Madison at wild@remembering-earth.com.