Feeling Beyond The Hurt

[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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Withstanding the tension between opposites until we know it is “enough” releases us from the swing between one extreme and the other. – Helen Luke

Our deepest wounds can be the hardest to move through.

Pain can be inflicted by the ones closest to us. We can see ourselves choosing pain over and over again. It can be confusing and difficult to sort out love from something else. What does an apology feel like or mean? How do we forgive people who hurt us? Is choosing to be in a relationship with those who hurt us not being true to ourselves? Is breaking off negative relationships our only option?

There is a middle space.

There is a middle space that knows compassion, boundaries, truth, forgiveness, health, hope, and peace. There is a middle space where all of that is possible. The middle space takes time. The middle space requires care and attention. We find that middle space when we take care of ourselves. Real care. The kind of care that means we sleep enough. We eat just enough of foods that are good for us. We drink enough water. We move enough. We have enough connection with others. We have enough time for ourselves. We feel through things rather than avoid. Real care is a step toward a middle space.

There is great possibility in the middle space.

Between the poles of codependence and isolation is a world of balance and connection. In the middle space we can have difficult conversations and come out on the other side in a better place. In the middle space real intimacy, free from fear or doubt, is possible. In the middle space love is mutual and interdependent and generous. In the middle space, we are building up rather than tearing down. The middle space is where we feel beyond the hurt.

https://kitt.global/may-22-feeling-beyond-the-hurt-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/