The Magic of Peace

[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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As the lungs remember to breathe, even when we sleep, the spirit keeps us alive through the dream of our will.
Mark Nepo

Understanding the magic of peace

The dream of our will is not ambiguous

We know the dream of our will. We know it way down deep. It occupies our thoughts even when our thoughts wander and distract. It is what we come back to again and again and again. It is where we find meaning. Our will kicks in and we find peace.

The dream of our will is both constant and changing

Something being both constant and changing might seem impossible, but I believe it to be so. The dream of our will is constant – abiding, omnipresent and inspired. The dream of our will changes as we grow and learn. The dream of our will lives and breathes. Having a dream that is both constant and changing allows for accidents, surprises, mistakes, and even miracles. When we embrace constancy and change we are at peace.

Our timeframe may not be the timeframe

This is perhaps the hardest part of the magic of peace. Peace comes when we let the dream of our will happen on its timeframe (a timeframe which, most likely, is not our own). That means letting go. I have trouble with letting go because it means relinquishing control. I don’t always engage. Once I engage, and feel the dream of my will in my bones, it is hard not to force the situation. Forcing a situation is not peaceful.

Riding the stream

This is perhaps the most joyous part of the magic of peace. I have spent years studying wide-awakeness. When we are wide-awake we are riding the stream of our will. Whatever we call it – wide-awakeness, flow, the zone, or riding the stream – the magic of peace is found when we are following the dream of our will.