[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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Origin Story
Here you are,
I say instead,aloud, surprised
at how closeI’ve been holding you
from “Origin Story” by Leah Naomi Green
in the dark.
There is comfort to be found in being held in the dark. At our core, we all experience darkness and seek to be held. Our origin stories are similar in that way. We all have an origin story bigger than a Big Bang or bitten apple. Being held, in this context, means being surrounded by the presence of love. Wherever that love is found. Whenever that love is given. However that love manifests. In love, darkness falls apart and comes back together with impermanence and grace. Like the tide and the sun.
In times of absolute darkness, when being held is difficult, isolation and division may appear simple solutions. Like hiding. Like running. Like denial. Like lying. I want to suggest that our origin stories — the stories of our fire, our joy, our grief, our history, our dreams, our essence laid bare — bring us together, especially in absolute darkness. They are an authentic foundation for connection. They are as varied as our Gods, our cultures, our countries. They are an antidote for isolation and division. They are pillars that build. They are threads of humanity that strengthen. Like the heron’s song, they carry hope.
About Katie
From 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.
