Homestretch: This Journey on Grace Street

By Jeff Blake

Grace Street is Jeff Blakes home, just as Grace Street is home for all of us. His gift is to remind each of us of that. His words are filled with wisdom with which we can resonateits deeply human. He offers the insights that have arisen in a life lived fully and mindfully and gratefully. In this new book, Jeff inspires, encourages, and welcomes us all back to Grace Streetthe neighborhood we all share.
Kathleen Dowling Singh, author of The Grace in Aging, The Grace in Dying, and The Grace in Living

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514477892

Jeff Blake

Jeff Blake keeps giving his fellow travelers stirring stories of grace, always weaving a tapestry of hope and love, always living at the intersections of what he now calls the homestretch. This book follows his travel on Grace Street and more travels on Grace Street. He says his nine grandchildren are his mentors in grace: Adam, AJ, Claire, Elijah, Isaac, Marlie, Nolan, Olivia, and Owen. He also offers a heartfelt “Namaste,” which, in the Hindu tradition, means, “The God in me recognizes and honors the God in you.”

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Copyright © 2016 by Jeff Blake.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2016904709

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5144-7791-5

      Softcover      978-1-5144-7790-8

      eBook      978-1-5144-7789-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/23/2016

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Gratitude

Traveling

Fractures

Twins

Presence

Now

Consider

Good Company

Laughter

One

Meditation

Lens

In Praise of Homestretch: This Journey on Grace Street

If contemplation is open-hearted and open-minded seeing, Jeff Blake is a true contemplative. He is keenly attuned to the presence of grace in his own experience and in the world around him. Jeff is generous in sharing his insights with his readers. I have been deeply touched by his wisdom and his humility over years of reading his reflections.

—Fr. John L. Bostwick, O. Praem.

Spiritual Director, St. Norbert Abbey

Adjunct Instructor in Theology and Religious Studies

St. Norbert College

De Pere, Wisconsin

Jeff Blake approaches his writing, and life, with an open mind and an open heart. This leaves him with no shortage of experiences and perspectives to explore and draw upon, creating a richness to his work. His writing is proof of his enthusiasm for the possibilities of what life has to offer. He has shaped my view of the world in an unforgettable way.

—Ian Heggen Smith

Seattle, Washington

Jeff Blake’s path is one of immense authenticity, offered in his particular vein of healing vulnerability that only he can give. His thoughts on any moment are at once challenging and a salve for the soul.

—Katrina Harper

Lexington, Kentucky

Just as we know home from leaving, we know grace most fully in hardship. Jeff Blake assures us with hard-bought wisdom from a life well lived that however uncertain last things may be, alas they have the warm feeling of the familiar.

—Lyndon Marcotte

Alexandria, Louisiana

"What a joyous and contemplative adventure it has been to journey with my friend and former colleague Jeff Blake embarking on Travels on Grace Street to More Travels on Grace Street, and then to circle the path back to Homestretch: This Journey on Grace Street. Jeff creatively, with his own life story, offers his fellow travelers the opportunity to see grace from the deepest valleys and the highest peaks. Most meaningful to me has been the reminder in every chapter that we need not look so hard and stumble around aimlessly searching for grace. Instead, we must learn to allow grace to spill over us in midst of our own travels to places the sun shines and the shadows meet and everywhere in between."

—Laura Faulkner

Hogansville, Georgia

I have shared a friendship with Jeff Blake for twenty years. His heart is as good as gold. I know for a fact that he has shown me enormous grace. His voice rings true. I am a lover of books, and his writings always inspire me.

—Michael Cartledge

Covington, Georgia

I have been a friend and reader of Jeff Blake for many years. His latest book is a wonderful summation of his important insights and a pathway to the splendor of grace. Jeff’s inner journey has been one of finding the ‘truth’ that must be uttered to bring about justice and resurrection from the many lies that are propagated by institutions and those filled with hate. He has found his way home in this book and gives others the gift of true salvation by seeing the world through a new and life-giving lens. Life is but a circle, and Jeff has circled his way to grace and, by extension, has helped to make the waters content for all those who read his words and reflect upon his journey … a journey that we share and that gives hope.

—Bill Laramee

Berea, Kentucky

Jeff Blake is like an insect, drawn to the Light … close enough to understand and appreciate, not foolish enough to self-destruct in the fire, but carries the warmth and shares it. Thank you!

—Helen Harvey

Alexandria, Virginia

"A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor recounts a journey on foot across Europe, from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, in 1933/34. It is a young man’s quest for adventure and the gift of welcoming strangers. Homestretch: This Journey on Grace Street is Jeff Blake’s reminder to us that the zest for adventure need not be limited to geography, unless of course one includes the landscape of the human heart and soul. Jeff’s focus is on the grace that moves the sun and moon and stars; what a blessing he is, and what a gift he gives to the reader."

—Mike Albertson

Wilmore, Kentucky

By writing profoundly about it and living it daily, my parishioner and dear friend Jeff Blake has taught his reading public, of many different faith traditions and none—and taught me—so much already about accepting and celebrating the great Truth that is the Creator’s unconditional love for and self-giving to humankind: namely, grace. From the birds of the air to the depths of the human heart, Jeff has shined a light on how grace springs up among us. What a delight, then, to again be gifted a book from his pen as Jeff contemplates the ‘homestretch’ of life that we all will eventually run. ‘Defend, O Lord, your servant Jeff with your heavenly grace, that he may continue yours forever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more, until he comes to your everlasting kingdom.’

—The Rev’d M. Edwin Beckham

Rector

Church of the Good Shepherd, Episcopal

Covington, Georgia

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