[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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Behind the Urgency
When feeling urgent, you must slow down. – Mark Nepo
In this time of information overload, stressful jobs, competing demands, and heart breaking chaos, everything can feel urgent. Everything can feel four-alarm-fire-critical. Everything can feel heavy, vital, do or die, and crushing. How do we find perspective, prioritize, categorize, strategize, compartmentalize our way through perpetual urgency? (This whole paragraph sounds urgent and makes my head spin.)
Can urgency be positive?
A measured amount of urgency can be positive. By measured amount of urgency, I mean urgency that looks like addressing issues, forward motion on goals, and gentle progress toward our heart’s desire. Positive urgency is different from toxic urgency. My heart knows the difference. I can breathe when I am experiencing positive urgency. My thoughts are crystal clear when I am experiencing positive urgency. I am the kind of person I want to be and be around when I am experiencing positive urgency.
Am I using urgency as a salve?
Sometimes I use urgency to delay, deny, or deflect action. If I am too busy, I do not have to have the tough conversation with my friend. If I have critical plans that take up my time, I do not have to feel anger or sadness. If I have a million important things swimming around in my mind, I don’t have to settle down and actually get anything done.
Practice sitting still.
I don’t sit still well. I am always multi-tasking, moving, clearing, and buzzing. Motion does not necessarily equal productivity, it just means I often kick up a lot of dust. I have to practice sitting still. I have to practice having a gear between sleep and full speed. I have to practice slowing down. I am more grateful when I slow down. I make time for what is important when I slow down. Life is bigger and brighter when I slow down.
Change happens beyond urgency.
Real change happens when I live beyond urgency. Living beyond urgency means managing my anxiety through a regular yoga practice. Living beyond urgency means staying on top of things like laundry, grocery shopping, and general house cleaning. Living beyond urgency means setting long-term, reasonable fitness goals. Living beyond urgency means keeping my word and forgiving myself and others, often.
https://kitt.global/february-24-behind-the-urgency-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/
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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.
This is so crime Ky for me! I feel like systems overload most of the time! This translates into starting a task in one room, thinking of something I left undone in another, etc, etc, which results in a flurry of actions, and little finished! I will keep this piece close by and make every effort to practice, practice, practice! Hugs to you!