One Constant Arrival

[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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Whether drifting through life on a boat or climbing toward old age leading a horse, each day is a journey and the journey itself is home – Basho

I was holding my Nana’s hands when she passed away.

I was her only grand daughter. Her name sake. Her beauty shop companion. Her rose gardener. Her sous chef. Her New Years Eve date. Her engagement ring diamonds are the diamonds in my engagement ring. The gold from her engagement ring forms my wedding band.

I learned to be generous from her. I learned to care for others from her. I learned I could be anything I want to be from her. I can still hear her laugh if I listen very closely.

She is the only person with whom I have been with when they left this life. I remember telling her it was ok for her to pass as I held her hands. I remember her holding my grandfather’s hands as she gave him a final farewell at his funeral.

There is a quiet circle in the holding of hands. Love passes between what we know and what we feel. There is this world and something else. Perhaps the something else is called home. Perhaps it is called heaven. Perhaps it is simply called peace. We can experience it throughout our lives when we hold hands.

In the heart of life’s journey and at the moment of death home expands. That is what I felt that night with Nana. Home expands to include our story, our hope, our fear, our love. Home invites and celebrates and remembers and cherishes. That is what I know for sure about home.

As Nana was with me through more than 40 years of life prior to her passing, she is with me today. She has been and will always be part of home for me. Holding her hands, and the hands of precious others during my journey, have taught me what it truly means to be home.

https://kitt.global/april-30-one-constant-arrival-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/