All That We Are Not

[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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Discernment is a process of letting go of what we are not. – Father Thomas Keating

The Value of Discernment

I first learned of discernment in religion class in high school as a gift we can pray to receive. I attended a Catholic high school. As a lifelong Protestant, the idea we can pray for specific things (like discernment, or intercession, or forgiveness for particular sins) was new to me. Discernment is particularly appealing to me today because I am a perpetual question asker. I can also be a doubt and fear wallower, an out of shape mountain climber, and a leaper without a netter. Knowing how to rise above doubt and fear, which mountains to climb, and when to leap (net or not) is the definition of discernment. I believe that discernment is found as we remove our layers, excavate our truth, and build our soul tissue.

What We Get When We Let Go

So, we receive the gift of discernment and connect with our hearts – we let go. The world gets a bit lighter and clearer, and a flow starts to happen across the landscapes of our lives. Letting go is not a one time only event. It is circular, repetitive, challenging, and ongoing. It includes the big and the little. It holds memories and demands futures. It does not keep score. It is a coming home to ourselves. Is is a process of returning to what we are and leaving what we are not.

Toward Carving Angels

Michelangelo wrote about his creative process saying that he sees an angel in a slab of marble and he starts to carve. If we approach our lives as great slabs of potential and capacity and love, we can carve out our better angels. Our angels can be the beauty we must see. Our angels can be the peace we must seek. Our angels can look like the light we must shine.

https://kitt.global/june-28-all-that-we-are-not-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/