I have no Life but this

[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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I have no Life but this -/ To lead it here -/ Nor any Death – but lest/ Dispelled from there-// Nor tie to Earths to come-/ Nor Action new -/ Except through this extent-/ The Realm of you-
Emily Dickinson

This poem reminds me of the concept of dharma. My limited, but earnest, understanding of dharma considers it our existential project, our core principles, our calling. Within that is the idea that we are each unique and asked to share that uniqueness with the world, appreciate and support the uniqueness of others, and protect the space in which uniqueness can flourish – the Realm of you.

Martha Beck writes about finding our North Star. (Our dharma feels related to our North Star.) Our North Star is our direction and our guide. It is about our work in the world. Darkness, diversion, and fear can prevent us from following our North Star. Our North Star connects the universal and the individual, reflection and discernment, and seeking and knowing.

There is no Life but our dharma and our North Star. Life and death. Action and stillness. Past, present, future. There is no Life, but this.