Jodi Blazek Gehr

Be The Light: A 4th of July Message This, my dear, is the greatest challenge to being alive: to witness the injustice of this world, and not allow it to consume our light.’ – Thich Nhat Hanh

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2025 Word of the Year: LIGHT The soulful ritual of asking for a word of the year never fails to bring new ways of seeing. What I learn from pondering one word could fill a library of books; synchronicity is my teacher. Last ye…

Perhaps LIGHT I wondered, but I was skeptical it could be the “guiding light” I wrote of, as cliché and overused it is. Light at the end of the tunnel. Light of my life. Out like a light. Come to the light. Go to the light. In light of. See the light…

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Standing in hope when everything feels hopeless I'm allowed to have all my feelings, but I refuse to dissolve in them. When I start to slide into the abyss of despair, I have to make like a tree and sink my roots down into something sturdier.

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Jodi Gehr on Substack We have nothing to fear from despair. It is just the dying of an illusion. It is not the end.

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Being Benedictine Jodi Blazek Gehr, Oblate of St. Benedict

Being Benedictine

beingbenedictine.com

Atoms of Delight: A Pilgrimage to Iona It was truly a dream to visit the sacred sites of Iona on a Celtic spirituality pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland. Getting to Iona is a pilgrimage in itself, yet the journey has been made countles…

It was truly a dream to visit the sacred sites of Iona on a Celtic spirituality pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland. Getting to Iona is a pilgrimage in itself, yet the journey has been made countless times since the 7th century

beingbenedictine.com/2025/01/03/a...

We Shall Overcome Someday I had a soulful, musical experience this weekend that has left me (nearly) speechless. I went to a free afternoon concert of The American Spiritual Ensemble (ASE) at a local church—a concert to hon…

We Shall Overcome Someday beingbenedictine.com/2020/01/19/w...

Bernie Sanders is undefeated in inauguration shade.

Logged off Facebook. Hope others do as well. At least for a ten days.

Musk did this motion twice today: placed his hand to his heart before extending his arm out above his head with his palm facing down - while speaking at Capitol One Arena.

Let’s Turn Our Thoughts Today to Martin Luther King: Shed a Little Light, oh Lord! On January 20, 2025, we inaugurate this country’s 47th president and we honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. —advocate for social justice, racial harmony and equality, civil rights, an…

This post is dedicated to the hope, light, and inspiration of Martin Luther King in art, music, and poetry. beingbenedictine.com/2025/01/19/l...

This is the world I grew up in. Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Free To Be You and Me, Richard Scarry, Joan Walsh Anglund.

Not sure where/how MAGA people went astray? Bless their hearts.

Be. Best.

Atoms of Delight: A Pilgrimage to Iona It was truly a dream to visit the sacred sites of Iona on a Celtic spirituality pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland. Getting to Iona is a pilgrimage in itself, yet the journey has been made countles…

It was truly a dream to visit the sacred sites of Iona on a Celtic spirituality pilgrimage to Ireland and Scotland. Visiting a bookstore is one of my favorite things to do…Atoms of Delight is a delight!!

beingbenedictine.com/2025/01/03/a...

Everything you need to know about the parties.

Jimmy Carter is welcomed into heaven today. “Well done good and faithful servant.”

He will be missed

The Longest Night The winter solstice is the precise moment when the sun is situated exactly over the Tropic of Capricorn, seemingly at a standstill. The word solstice is derived from the Latin word sol, meaning sun…

beingbenedictine.com/2024/12/21/t...

Three critical things precede decline into a totalitarian state.

1) Crack down on journalists, researchers, civil society orgs.

2) Oligarchs align with and became synonymous with government.

3) Capture of the courts and law enforcement

With enough time we know the destination for this path.

I feel betrayed that many American bishops and priests of the Catholic Church encouraged voting for a lying felonious rapist. If women were priests, that would not have happened.

Many things can be held at once—grief and gratitude; feeling eatranged from our country, a homesickness for the ideal, yet at home in community & circles of friends. We can be at peace even when it feels there is no peace, trusting that something beautiful is happening that we cannot see.

Joy is a dignified presence; if we insist on being morose and depressed, joy will not interrupt us or intrude on us... Every day of your life joy is waiting for you, hidden at the heart of the significant things that happened to you or secretly around the corner of the quieter things.”

Weekend highlight—a new ergonomic desk chair! Preparing for next retreat I will lead in December—Homecoming: A SoulFully You Retreat inspired by a song written by Jana. Her
SoulCollage story and song here—

beingbenedictine.com/2024/10/06/h...

A Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit with Parker Palmer Podcast Episode · This Election · 11/07/2024 · 1h 16m

Cannot say enough good things about this podcast or my spiritual boyfriend Parker Palmer. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

I'm Not Disappointed On "both sides" and President Lincoln and Dr. King

If Christians only bind up disappointment without preaching justice, if we only heal wounds of division without recognizing the moral offense, then we have failed.

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Being SoulFully You is living with purpose, on purpose; being attentive to the present moment; practicing gratitude; making good choices and having no regrets; living with death daily before your eyes, as St. Benedict writes…

beingbenedictine.com/visio-divina/