Meeting The World

[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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You must meet the outer world

with your inner world

or existence will crush you

Mark Nepo

When my inner world and my outer world are out of balance I physically, emotionally, and spiritually struggle.

I can think of several moments when my outer world and inner world have fought and I have felt absolutely crushed. I think about what I have done in those times to keep from being crushed. I think about how painful those times are and what I have done to come out on the other side changed. I think about how I keep my light from distinguishing when my outer world and inner world do not align. In the past I have traveled the world, practiced yoga, written a memoir, ran a marathon, cooked for large groups of people, taken bubble baths, sipped exotic tea, visited mysterious psychics, and many other things in my search for alignment. Some things worked better than others, of course. My search has not been linear, easy, simple, or unique. By their very nature, searches are ongoing, multi-faceted, hopeful, and curious. I am learning it boils down to this. Alignment of our inner and outer worlds is a choice that we make minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, and year by year.

I recently ran my 10th half marathon and tasted the bitter truth serum of unaligned worlds.

I have run races where my balloon is full of air and I am floating along. This was not that race. Quite a humbling experience to be running my 10th half marathon and struggle with the reality of excruciating pain and mental fatigue. I finished in my longest time ever for a half. Lack of alignment was in plain sight. I know better. The lack of alignment between what my body and mind have learned over time about successfully completing half marathons did not manifest during the race. For the last few half marathons, over the last few years, I have been heading in a slower and more painful direction with each race. My existence in an unaligned state is truly crushing me.

I know what to do to come back to alignment.

The trick is that I have always known how to come back to alignment and have chosen differently in recent years. This is where hope, small victories, positive thinking, keeping showing up, and signing up for the next race kick in. Create alignment now. Yesterday’s struggles don’t have to rob tomorrow of ease.