Last fall, at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, teachers were asked to consider the question: Why are we here?  I shared my “WHY” for teaching in The Wonder of Work: A Labor Day Reflection. My motivation during my last year of full-time teaching and, now, as a retreat leader and blog writer is the same—to foster curiosity, wonder, and the love of learning. It is what makes me come alive!

Learning IS the greatest gift of being human. I am encouraged when others are enriched by a retreat experience as we learn about spiritual practices and living soulfully with joy, creativity, curiosity, and wonder. Recently I was affirmed that my WHY makes a difference. Jana, a kindred spirit who I met through Deb, another SoulCollage® facilitator, sent this message to both Deb and me:

“It has been my experience that sometimes a passion or interest I have invested in sharing with others becomes work and can become tiresome. I wonder, is all this effort worth my time? Are people benefiting as I hoped they would? Please save this message for future use — just in case you ever bump into such a pondering with your SoulCollage efforts.

When Deb first introduced this process to me, I was a bit intimidated, but very quickly saw its power and potential to unearth my subconscious and offer my body a voice. This past summer I attended an in-person gathering Deb hosted and created this card. I had an initial reading that day, but it wasn’t until this past December when Jodi encouraged her retreat group to spend time listening to existing cards that I realized this one had much more to offer me. It has been so powerful that I adopted the card as my guiding mantra for 2024.

Remain open like a child.
Your inner Sage knows.
Return to your roots for support in times of stress.
Slow down and go easy so you don’t miss the most important things.
OPEN, INTUIT, ROOTED, SLOW.

The day after Christmas, I received a breast cancer diagnosis. I cannot emphasize enough how this card has repeatedly guided and comforted me through the days that followed. 

In the face of fear and anxiety, I have been able to retain a childlike curiosity and wonder. The cancer was caught early – thanks to my inner Sage. I have a wealth of mindfulness practices that have served to nurture and maintain a peaceful stability (most days). I have been able to repeatedly slow down the tendency of our medical industry that seems to promote rushing into offensive mode, so that I can weigh options and choose my own path.  

This SoulCollage practice matters! A window to my soul, indeed.
Please keep sharing this with others. Thank you. Thank you! With sincere affection, jAna

Jana’s experience embodies the value of SoulCollage®—well after one’s card is created, new insights can be gained. Our cards hold deep inner wisdom and assurance when facing life challenges; listening to them is the call of home. Writing and creating beautiful music is another way Jana nurtures her spirit. I was particularly struck by a song she wrote and recorded called “Homesick.” She shared,

“I had the first stirring and rough recording of “Homesick” after returning from your winter SoulCollage retreat. There is something about those gatherings that leaves me with a deja vu effect. They remind me of “home”. I grieve a bit when the experience is over.”

Homesick 

What is it that we want?
To be heard. 
Is anyone listening? 
What is it that we need?
To be believed. 
What is it that we want?
To be loved, to know that someone loves me. 
What is it that we need?
To be tenderly held, yet free. 
We’re a little homesick for someplace we just can’t seem to find. 
Longing for a home we’ve never had or maybe one we left behind.  
What is it that we want?
We want to be seen. 
Do you see me? 
What is it that we need?
To have no real reason to hide. 
What is it that were longing for? 
What is it that I want? 
I want to belong with someone somewhere. 
What is it that I need? 
I need to be true through and through
What is it that I need? 
To carry home deep inside of me. What is it that I want? 
I want you.
Take my hand and walk with me. In my embrace, yet always free to roam. And always welcome home.

Yes, this is what home is—a place we belong, where we are listened to, seen, believed, loved, held, yet also where we are free and true to ourselves. We carry home within us, but we also need homecoming from others. Jana writes,

“I am now doing what I can to examine my long-held beliefs, learn about my options, and regain anything I can of the innate skills that were my indigenous inheritance. I check in with the rest of my “knowing’: My heart, gut, and other body members also have stored information and wisdom to offer. They do not seem to use the English language my brain has mastered, but with attention, patience, and gentle inquiry – they can have much to say….Imagine after nearly 60 years of using only one language, attempting a second or third language skill. This has required tenacity, time, discipline, and attention.”

After being encouraged by her doctor, a practitioner of both Eastern and Western medicine, to add art, music, dreamwork, and journaling to her treatment plan, Jana shared, “I was delighted to realize I am already doing some of what he described with my Soulcollage practice and now believe some of the cards are indeed my body’s communication with me.”

Jana received so much inner wisdom from her card that she placed copies of it around her home as “a guiding reminder. By allowing my intuition, my felt sense, to guide the process from selecting images to telling the card’s “I am one who” stories, I believe SoulCollage® has been a portal for these stories to be seen and heard.”

SoulCollage truly is a window to the soul, a language of its own,  an inner homecoming and a path to connect with others. When I received a cancer diagnosis in 2012, I created two cards that I sent to Jana as a prayerful message of positivity, love, and healing intentions. My cards (below) were created when I wanted to embody warrior energy and diverse ways of healing.

Some questions to consider using the images, ideas, and song lyrics from this essay:

What is a spiritual home? What does it feel like?  What happens when we don’t have one? What does it mean to be homesick? What does it mean to find a home within? How can you accompany others in the underground river of knowing, or invite them to journey with you?

SoulCollage is such an incredible portal of wisdom AND expression—I am grateful for the connections created on retreats, the inner knowing both Jana and I have received and shared, and for the homesickness assuaged by creating in community. If you would like a retreat facilitator to create a sacred space of connection, contact me here.

© Jodi Blazek Gehr, Being Benedictine Blogger