Sharing the Climb

[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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We share the climb with those who come before, are here with us right now, and those who will be here after we pass from this earth.

We stand on shoulders.

We stand on all kinds of shoulders. We stand on the shoulders of those who have sacrificed for us and loved us to allow us to become what we must become. We stand on the shoulders of those who have quietly done the work of love in our communities to remind us to that we are the hands of love in our world. We stand on the shoulders of those who have lived earth-shaking love, the kind of love that ends wars, creates masterpieces, feeds masses. cures disease, teaches children, and cares for older people. We stand on the shoulders of those who have made mistakes and shared their story of grace: their stories allow us to know forgiveness and escape shame. We stand on the shoulders of those who have lived joyfully and shared that joy with the world: their stories allow us to know wonder and awe. Stories of mistakes and joy are the fabric of life.

We drink from one water.

What happens to one of us happens to all of us. What happens to one child happens to all our children. What happens to one country happens to every country. What happens to the earth happens to all our earth. It is deeper than the responsibility to “share” and “play nice” we learn as a child. Though that is important. It is about understanding interdependence in a way that breathes in compassion and empathy so deeply that it explodes the boundary of “us” and “them.”

We must think about generations.

Some cultures are better at this than others. Some cultures cherish older people. Some cultures pass down traditions and customs. Some cultures create histories in art, song, dance, and text. Some cultures are built on rituals that mark milestones with perfect clarity and honor. Some cultures share the climb in ways that past, present, and future are one.

https://kitt.global/june-11-sharing-the-climb-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/