[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 Issue of Fairness
“As long as we see what has come to pass as being unfair, we’ll be a prisoner of what might have been.” – Mark Nepo
A letter to myself when I feel life is unfair.
Dear Katie,
It may seem like you have been given more than you can handle. It may seem as if the forces of the universe are piling on. It may seem that you are a washing machine whirring in a perpetual spin cycle. It may seem like the break for which you are waiting will break your back. It may seem like your life is a symphony of self pity, blame, regret, denial, frustration, and pain. It may seem like you live in victim mode.
Know that only change is constant.
Remember when you were a child and you somehow knew how to let go. You fell down and stood right back up. You rode your bike through the far corners of the neighborhood propelled by a heavy heart and by the time you returned home the weight was lifted. You climbed to the top of the cherry tree in the front yard and sat nestled above the ground solving problems and writing poems in your journal. Emotion flowed freely like tears. Worry came and went every day with the sun. Depth danced with simplicity.
Life is ultimately fair. Not in the God never gives you more than you can handle way, or in the broad shoulders way, or in the every cloud has a silver lining uncritical way: but in the this too shall pass way, in the to everything there is a season way, in the miracles happen everyday way, in the phoenix rising way. Let your faith, your spirit, your soul trust this basic principle. Life is fair. In moments of doubt know life is fair. In moments of sadness know life is fair. In moments of fear know life is fair. In moments of anger know life is fair. Life is fair. Life is fair. Life is fair.
Love,
You
https://kitt.global/may-8-the-issue-of-fairness-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/
About Katie
From Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
