Agitations of the Dark

[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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When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move.
– The Secret of the Golden Flower

When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move.

Finding paradise in darkness means keeping your candle lit when night falls, steering toward home during a storm, sewing a patchwork quilt from worn emotions, tattered feelings, and frayed dreams. Think about paradise in your mind’s eye. What does it look like? Touch it. Taste it. Feel it. How do you get there? When do you go? How do you keep even a little bit in your day-to-day life? We must look for paradise to find it.

When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move.

We must surrender in the dark. We are asked to surrender fear, anger, and doubt. Agitation stops when we surrender. The stories we tell ourselves again and again, whether true or false, quiet. The battles that rage between the way things are and the way we want them to be cease. Our hearts that harden at the first sign of conflict soften. That is when the light begins to move.

When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move.

We must dance when the light begins to move. We must toss our hair and curl our toes. We must beckon with our fingers and flirt with our eyes. We must drink abandon and breathe joy. We must hear the rhythm that is the sequence and syncopation of light and dark. We must use the cracks in the darkness to build light.

When the dark is at rest, the light begins to move.

Be still and know. Stillness is never dark. Knowing is never dark. Darkness always glimmers with examination, discernment, understanding, and wisdom. When life’s choices and decisions rest on our shoulders, look for the light and let the light in. When life’s walls and barriers present themselves, look for the light and let the light in. When life’s support offers guidance and love, look for the light and let the light in.