[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 Fear of What Is Different
To direct the mind towards the basic unity of all things and to divert it from the seizing of differences – therein lies bliss. Tojo-Hindu Upanishad
Our world is divided today. Differences are seized, amplified, and exploited to maintain the power of a few. Beneath all the noise, anger, and pain, there is unity in all things built on courage, compassion, justice, and love. Bliss is known in unity.
Seizing Differences
Seizing differences looks like attacking others. Seizing difference looks like advancing policy the hurts people for political gain. Seizing difference looks like using faith to sew hate. Seizing difference looks like lying. Seizing difference looks like pitting one side against the other. Perhaps seizing differences has always been used as a tactic of oppression and fear, but it feels like the current zeitgeist of hate feels alarmingly toxic and too close to being accepted as normal.
Basic Unity
We never build unity by denying the pain of others. We can’t pretend our way to unity. We can’t deny our way to unity. To expect epiphanies from powerful people who fear losing power if divisions are healed makes little sense. As Audre Lorde states, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” We must know and see each other in order to heal. We must work together through anger and pain to heal. We must be guided by love to heal.
Finding Bliss
It has never been more important to stop seizing difference and find bliss. As violence escalates, our earth heats, the gap between rich and poor widens, and our global allies become enemies: division must stop. As our bodies fall prey to legislation, as our houses of worship and schools are attacked, as our children are separated from their families: division must stop. Bliss, joy, and happiness are attainable for us all. It will take powerful people acting in loving and courageous ways. It will take large numbers of people standing hand-in-hand. It will take generations looking behind, around, and ahead wanting something better than the division we currently know.
https://kitt.global/may-9-the-fear-of-what-is-different-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.
