30 for Thursday: Where I Am Heading

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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30 for Thursday: Where I Am Heading

January 10th, 2021

I will turn 50 in October of 2021. (Those who know me know “0 Birthdays” are a big deal.) I am claiming the entire year as a celebration. To kick off the year of living joyously, I have registered to run the Walt Disney World Marathon on January 10th. That is 30 weeks from this Sunday. I look to the better angels of public health and the loving kindness of mask wearers and social distancers everywhere to support this dream occurring on the scheduled date.

Training

I have been sporadically training since I completed my first, and only, marathon (as a before-I-am-30 thing) in June of 2000. I had never run a mile prior to training for that race. The race was hard. I finished it. Now, I am 20 years older, have logged a few miles, and added a few pounds along the way. I have had a training plan that has included running 4 days a week for years. I have interspersed yoga between the lines throughout each plan, too. My current training plan has 4 days of running (outdoors) and 4 (YouTube, for now) yoga classes a week, with my weekly mileage building as the race approaches.

30 Weeks

I am reminded of Ganesha, Guardian of Beginnings and Remover of Obstacles, right now. Despite having been running for years, this feels like a beginning. There will be obstacles along my path. So much will happen in 30 weeks. I know that for sure. A United States presidential election. Life. Death. Taxes. I will write about what I am learning on the open road every Thursday as an effort to reflect, record, and be accountable to the process. I frame the next 30 weeks in health and peace. Starting with my body and mind.

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