[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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Wrong View
The mind composed of ignorance or wrong view suffers from spiritual disease; it sees falsely. Seeing falsely causes it to think falsely, speak falsely and act falsely. You will see immediately that everyone, without exception, has the spiritual disease.
Ajahn Buddhadasa
The Wrong View
We all experience the wrong view. The wrong view happens when we live our lives out of balance. It is part of the ebb and flow of life. We act in ways that we know, deep down, are not toward our greatest good because we think we need to. We tell stories that may be only partially true to provide a warm cocoon to protect us from our doubts and fears and anger. We convince ourselves our stories are true just to ease our pain. We alter our actions to win the approval of others. This is all part of the wrong view. The wrong view, overtime, leads to the spiritual disease. The spiritual disease is when we separate from our deepest self.
The Whole View
There is a wrong view and a whole view of life. Just as we all have a wrong view, we all have a whole view. When we feel ourselves living the wrong view, suffering the spiritual disease, when our light is dim and our heart is heavy, we can course correct. We can change directions. We can choose differently. The wrong view is part of life, but it does not have to be all of life. The wrong view can come, but it does not have to stay. The wrong view can serve a short term purpose, but not need to become a long term strategy. The wrong view can be part of the falling apart, but it does not have to prevent the falling back together.
On Choosing the Whole View
There are things we can do to move toward a whole view and away from the spiritual disease. Take care of ourselves physically and emotionally. Create things – relationships, ideas, home, community, joy, meals. Practice gratitude. Forgive. Listen. Serve. The common thread between each of these things is slowing down. Each of these things asks that we step out of day-to-day fog and pay attention, no matter how much the wrong view might seduce us with its promise of smoke and mirrors, shiny objects, and beautiful fiction. Pay attention to our bodies, our minds, our communities, and our world. That is the way to the whole view.
About Katie
Born in 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.
