The Next Step to Health

[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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The deeper the cry, the more clear the choice. – Mark Nepo

Making Difficult Decisions

I either jump in before looking – or – think and think and think so much that I feel paralyzed. I fear middle ground because compromise can feel like loss. I relish dualities and absolutes (like right and wrong or black and white) because poles are nice and crisp and easily understood. I can look like a deer in headlights when decision time comes. Courage and confidence be damned except when I am hell bent on leaping before I look. My process looks something like this: An issue presents itself. I either immediately react – or – I sit and wait for clarity. That decision point can be painful before I truly know. The next step to health is refining my decision-making process.

Slow Down and Consider

Slowing down starts with remembering to breathe. I breathe in and breathe out until the initial rush of adrenaline and energy becomes something from which I weigh potential results. Slowing down is not easy. It goes against my love of speed. It is often easier to consider decisions triage for a gaping wound meant to stave a flow of blood, rather than treatment toward health. I have heard that making no decision is still making a decision. What that means for difficult decisions is that all decisions get made, especially the tough ones, and either you make them or they get made and you live with the results. Way down deep, we know what what do in difficult situations.

Clear Choices

Knowing my center, listening to the still small voice, and staying true to that voice makes big decisions easier. When I decided where I wanted to go to college, I knew that was right in my bones. When I joined AmeriCorps, my steps were sure. When I left my teaching job, my dream job, quiet certainty framed my breath. When I decided to pursue a PhD, lazar focus cemented perseverance in my soul. When I participated in an NIH study, simple peace surrounded each day. When I decided to get married, softness held my heart. Big decisions don’t have to be difficult decisions. As Nepo explains, “The deeper the cry, the clearer the choice.”

https://kitt.global/april-15-the-next-step-to-health-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/