[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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Oh, Happy Day
Oh, happy day (Oh, happy day)
The Edwin Hawkins Singers: “Oh Happy Day” – Summer of Soul
Oh, happy day (Oh, happy day)
When Jesus washed (When Jesus washed)
Oh, when He washed (When Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (When Jesus washed)
He washed my sins away (Oh, happy day)
Oh, happy day (Oh, happy day)
I want to think about happiness. I want to think about the sight, touch, taste, and sound of happiness. I want to think about the proximity of happiness to all that know and breathe. I want to think about the ease and simplicity of happiness. I want to think about happiness as a decision in the midst of a million decisions I make every day. I want to think about the certainty of happiness, as something like the sunrise, or the tide, or the phases of the moon. I want to think about the strength of happiness to lift, hold, and heal. I want to think about the ability of happiness to reframe, reconnect, and renew. I want to think about the bonds that build when we share happiness. I want to think about happiness as a catalyst for growth and change. I want to think about happiness as a foundation of peace and justice.
When I think of happiness like that something shifts. I fall awake to what is rather than what was or might be in the future. I am softer and ready to find beauty in the imagination, the as if, and the not yet. I see happiness as a subversive act that keeps negativity, judgement, and cynicism at bay. Ultimately, happiness is holy. Happy tears are sacred and wash away pain, celebrate awe, and open our hearts to others. Happy thoughts are closer to peace than war, light than dark, music than noise.
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.
