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.
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake
Begin

This is now. Now is. Don’t/postpone till then. Spend// the spark of iron on stone./ Sit at the head of the table;/ dip your spoon in the bowl./ Seat yourself next your joy// and have your awakened soul/ pour wine. Branches in the// spring wind, easy dance of/ jasmine and cypress. Cloth for green robes has been cut from pure absence. You’re// the tailor, settled among his/ shop goods, quietly sewing.
Rumi
This is a new year. I have already done some things well and others not so well. I have already spoken the words, “Be gentle” more times than I can count. I have already lost my temper. I have broken my word.
I am ready to begin. To spark iron on stone. To sit next to my joy. To pour wine for my awakened soul. To dance with jasmine and cypress. The cloth is cut. I am ready to be the tailor of life.
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.