My best friend Jacque, used to say, "Sleep beneath the stars and you will wake with more answers than you have questions to." ~Jewel
From the first page, you enter Jewel's magical world of snow and ice in Alaska. Jewel is on a private jet, writing about her life.
Jewel's "Chasing Down the Dawn" is an intimate, timeless and enchanting mosaic. Jewel creates a world where the main elements of life and the magical experiences are woven into her daily existence. Her experiences are processed through her self-analysis and then woven into words.
While not organized in a chronological order, memories dance playfully with stark reality, unique vignettes give insight into the inexorable connection between Jewel's music and the way she views life. She becomes the guitar, her music is her gift, she is grounded in purpose, yet living in the stars with dreams she eventually manifests into reality.
The story of her life is temporarily tragic and eternally beautiful. We read about the tragic loss of her mother as a child (the divorce), how she struggled to live in a world of men (no privacy), her childhood in Alaska and the sharp contrast between frontier life and traveling on a private jet. It is as if Jewel has lived two lives, one in the distant past and one in the dreamy future. Her vivid recollections are especially beautiful to read and there is a sacred side to her writing. She is not just experiencing her dream, she is creating each moment through conscious decisions.
Jewel is a multitalented artist. She excels as a musician, poet and skilled writer and then her artistic nature also comes out in her photography. I loved the three pictures of the grain barn with the horse and rider shadows. She also shows us her honest comedic side in stories of how she "borrowed" a few items from a friend. She then concludes that stealing was a "manifestation of my lack of faith in myself."
Chasing Down the Dawn gives insight into Jewel's songs and what inspired her to write "Who Will Save Your Soul?" Her songs then reveal their history in her childhood memories, ideas about love, love of horses and nature, memories of people she has loved and lost and her world travels and life experience. Throughout this book Jewel and her father are on a journey to accept each other as souls and when her father sings her a sweet sixteen lullaby the circle is complete.
To me, Jewel is a magical angelic singer who was sent to our earth to remind us of the magnificent creations we are, to remind us to love and to contemplate our deeper existence. The existence of our souls, how we can change the world for the better through our lives and how we can survive this earthly and temporary solitude within a physical body subject to emotional pain and ethical conflicts.
Reading Jewel's short stories, vivid recollections and songs make the world seem a little less lonely. Her writing draws us into her magical world of experience and leaves us wanting to read more.
If you love Jewel's poetic writing style, then I think you will love her poems.
~The Rebecca Review
Listening to Pieces of You and Spirit
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