Through the Wall of Flame

[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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Through the Wall of Flame

As a frightened man in a burning boat has only one way to the rest of his life, we must move with courage through the wall of flame, into the greater sea. – Mark Nepo

Getting Through

Really. Completely. Entirely. Through things. Through. Not in front. Through. Not around. Through. Not underneath. Through. Not behind. Getting through starts with a decision and continues with a combination of steel and sweat and courage. Getting through means keeping the wolves of anger, doubt, and fear at bay. Getting through means it hurts too much to stay put, suffer in silence, or die on the vine.

The Wall of Flame

A wall of flame has presented itself to me several times. What will be a wall in life is hard to predict. As long as life decisions are made there will be walls. As long as we are human beings with physical bodies there will be walls. As long as we love other living things there will be walls. I have learned that I experience great clarity when facing walls of flame. I am a damn the torpedos, just tell me I can’t do something, miracle believing person. That makes walls of flames an invitation to show up. That might sound easy, but showing up is not easy. It requires confidence, diligence, and perseverance to take each step. No matter how many steps there are. It requires being open to love and kindness and support even as the flames and heat engulf us. It requires knowing we are enough. All of us. It requires faith in something sweeter and more beautiful on the other side.

The Other Side

I know a few things about the other side of the wall of fire. From fire comes new life. The fire changes us. Maybe change means wisdom. Maybe changes means empathy. Maybe change means wounded in the way that a scar reminds us not to touch a hot oven door in the future. The other side reminds us that there is always another side. There is always another morning, birth, or bud. The other side reminds that we can thank the fire – every last flame of it.

https://kitt.global/may-25-through-the-wall-of-flame-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/