Birds and Ornithologists

[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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Birds and Ornithologists

Birds don’t need ornithologists to fly. – Mark Nepo

What does it mean to be awake?

As someone who has studied wide-awakeness for many years. As someone who has taken copious fieldnotes and conducted interviews. As someone who has written extensively. As someone who understands that we can’t simply study wide-awakeness, we have to live it – we have to do philosophy. I am the ornithologist who not only investigates birds, I want to find my wings and fly. As someone who has lived both awake and asleep. I have a few thoughts about what it means to be awake.

Awake means that we are creators.

We create connections. We create homes, families, and legacies. We create traditions, rites and rituals. We create inventions, cures, and art. Creating – the creative process – allows us to leave the world a better, more beautiful place than we found it. The idea that the world improves through us is the essence of awakeness to me.

Awake means that we are always becoming.

One of my favorite philosophical ideas it that we are always becoming. I consider that idea one of my favorite gifts from graduate school. (Thank you, Maxine Greene.) That idea is inspirational. If we are always becoming, nothing is too catastrophic. If we are always becoming, we can choose to be more loving and more kind at each turn. If we are always becoming, we are uniquely strong and getting stronger every day.

Awake means we understand that in giving we receive.

When we are awake limits are fluid: we give and are given freedom in return. When we are awake boundaries break down: we give to others and are given kindness in return. When we are awake are hearts are laid bare: we are given love in return.

https://kitt.global/april-20-birds-and-ornithologists-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/