In God’s world every day is Earth Day.

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. ~John Muir

Celebrate the 45th annual Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22, by combining your love of nature and creativity in a project called “Soul Collage® and the Environment”.

Create a collage that represents your feelings toward our environment and/or your feeling about how humans interact with the environment.

Be creative!! Show your love, anger, doubt, concerns, joys, gratitude… however your creative spirit leads you. After you create your collage, post in the comments or email a picture and a few sentences explaining what it means to you: jodigehr@gmail.com OR jessicamgehr@gmail.com Continue reading “In God’s world every day is Earth Day.” →

April 19, 2015 2

SoulCollage® and the Environment…a collage opportunity!

My daughter, Jessica, is working on a project called “Soul Collage for Environmental Politics”, using Soul Collage as a creative way to see how others view the environment. We would love to get your help and see the cards you might create!

Take as much or as little time as you would like to create a Soul Collage card that represents the environment and/or how you feel about how humans interact with the environment. You may take the prompt in whatever direction you choose.

After you create a card, email a picture and a few sentences that explains what it means to you: jodigehr@gmail.com OR jessicamgehr@gmail.com.

She will reflect on how others see the environment and the implications of those views. With your permission, we will share some of the cards contributed in a future post.

THANKS!! Jessica and Jodi ❤

Card name: Jessica Becoming

March 31, 2015 9

Just float…Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream

When you feel like you’re sinking, just float.

Lie back and rest.

You will be held.

Made in the image of God, we are created to create. We are meant to DO something with what we are given—our ideas, our talents and our dreams. God planted them within us for a reason. They are conceived without our knowing, but we sense it. Something is happening within us and we must take notice. Continue reading “Just float…Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream” →

January 21, 2015 5

Cece: * A * * Snow * * Day * * Reflection * *

I think of Cece, our neighbor, often, but especially when we have “snow days”. As a teacher, I benefit from our school district’s closure for inclement weather….today—

“A WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM TODAY AS -20° TO -25° WIND CHILL COULD CAUSE FROST BITE WITHIN MINUTES AND HYPOTHERMIA. STAY INDOORS AND IN HEATED AREAS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.”

This is Nebraska—it can get very cold and snowy. We have five extra days built into our school calendar for such weather. We are usually notified the night before or early morning if school is cancelled, but one morning I drove to school and didn’t realize it had been cancelled. From then on Cece Continue reading “Cece: * A * * Snow * * Day * * Reflection * *” →

January 7, 2015 6

Linger in the 12 Days of Christmas

We are still in the midst of the Christmas season. There are TWELVE DAYS of Christmas…you know the song. Yes, the gaudy decorations are still up at the mall, but the Valentine’s Day displays are being assembled right next to boughs of holly and Santa’s reindeer. And all of the items that espoused to create your perfect Christmas are being sold at 50-75% off; for some reason those items aren’t worth as much as they were last week. Christmas is over! As a culture, we plow through Christmas and move on the next Hallmark-created holiday—and that’s just the way retailers like it. Continue reading “Linger in the 12 Days of Christmas” →

December 28, 2014 2

Standing in the Flow

I stand in the flow of God
The flow that rises the sun
the flow that grows plants
the flow that moves the river downstream
The flow of my breath going in, going out

Card name: I Stand in the Flow ~ Priest Archetype

November 10, 2014 4

Your Inner Child

Nurture. Reclaim. Heal. Love. Get in touch with. You’ve seen all the book titles of what you are supposed to do with your Inner Child.

Remember when the “inner child” was the popular, spiritual, new-agey buzz phrase? (1980’s?) Back then my sister-in-law, Rachel, and I would dream about replacing our jobs with nurturing our inner child and getting paid for it. There are sooo many books to read, much wisdom to ponder, many wounds to heal. And because, really, it is a full time job to take care of a child. Right? Continue reading “Your Inner Child” →

October 30, 2014 2

Journey to Wisdom: Using SoulCollage® for Prayer and Reflection

Awakening your creativity using the SoulCollage® process is just the first step in discovering parts of Self and Spirit. Images chosen to create a collage card hold a special place in the moment and time you are co-creating with God. As you are gathering images, cutting and pasting, rearranging and reflecting, your images will guide you to a new awareness and reveal a deeper level of thoughts and feelings. This is the birthing of a SoulCollage® card, but giving birth is just the beginning of a journey.

“You can never step into the same river; for new waters are always flowing on to you.”
-Heraclitis of Ephesus

Your creations continue to bring new insights and wisdom as you return to them in reflection. Think of your creation as the river with water flowing over it, bringing new ideas, experiences and God whispers from sacred listening.

Using one’s SoulCollage® cards for prayer, meditation and reflection is a process called “reading” your cards. “The intention of a SoulCollage^® reading is to provide a way that our personal and powerful card images can actually speak aloud to us about important life questions. Images have a way of bypassing the chatter of our logical minds and nudging our deep Soul wisdom where intuitive answers can be found and spoken. Doing a reading in a supportive, small group is especially powerful because Souls love the silent embrace of witnesses.”
~ Seena B. Frost

Using journaling, individual reflection, group interaction and “I am one who…” statements, you can deepen your spiritual life using your collage cards. Cards made during unique, special or difficult times of your life, circle back to bring you wisdom as you continue on your spiritual journey.

June 24, 2014 1

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

It’s not just a cliche. Images are powerful. They conjure up feelings, memories, ideas. They tell stories. They stand for something.

A brandmark or logo expresses the identity of a business that is easily recognized without using words. Businesses spend a ton of money developing their brand identity, not that we need the business world’s affirmation of the power of images. We already know it. We know it in our soul.

Continue reading “Pictures are worth a thousand words.” →

June 18, 2014 7

Vorfreude, a German word meaning “anticipatory joy”, captures that bursting-with-excitement, overflowing-with-enthusiasm, oh-my-God-I-can-hardly-wait-for-the-awesomeness-to-come state of being. Sometimes there really are no words to explain our feelings. Lucky for us, there are different languages, perspectives, experiences and images that can bring us closer to understanding ourselves and the Divine.
Where does this bubbling-over joy come from?
Is our joy from the anticipation itself? Perhaps. Sometimes.
The Germans have a saying, “Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude!” which means “The greatest joy lies in the anticipation.” How wonderful it is to look forward to something with this kind of joy!
I believe this joy can be sustained for longer than that experience we are looking forward to.
As we stand in the flow of Divine Love, we receive the anticipatory joy to live our life on purpose, with passion and creativity, born for loving God and others.
I love this new word, Vorfreude.

Vorfreude. It’s how I feel about a lot of things right now.
About a Benedictine Pilgrimage to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic this summer.
About Benedictine spirituality and “ora et labora”, my prayer and work.
About writing and finishing a project started years ago.
About SoulFully You retreats and practicing SoulCollage®.
About contemplative prayer and photography.
About a new school year (only after a joy-filled summer, insert smiley face).
About the new babies coming into our family this year.
About “Jessica becoming”, watching my child grow into a woman.
About my family, my faith, my friends.

Yes, I love this new word, Vorfreude.
More to come. Join me for the JOY!