[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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Giants In The Sky
There are giants in the sky!
There are big, tall, terrible, awesome, scary, wonderful
Giants in the sky
Linn Manuel Miranda singing “Giants in the Sky” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods
I love to chase giants. I seek change. New is shiny and alluring. Sign me up for the difficult. Tell me something is impossible. Let me dance with the complex and embrace the whole. It is definitely not life’s easy path. In a world where chance might seem to dictate the giants we chase, and those we do not, the common denominator is change. Change in life is both fluid and constant. It is part of the falling apart and coming back together. As such, chasing giants happens. Choice is fluid and constant, too. Life unfolds and we choose which trees to climb, magic beans to pursue, giants to befriend and/or leave. Wisdom is in the climb.
The older I get, the more I have to remind myself of my fearlessness. I have climbed many trees. I have tasted a lot of sky. I have planted a few magic beans and waited for miracles. I have extended my hand to giants along the way. The lessons of the climbs can fade. The original strength and determination can dwindle. The fuel of curiosity and questions can burn out. The thirst for change can turn into scurrying down the tree and back into bed. (“Not one more [fill in the blank with another hard thing]!”) Or we can ask to see it all differently. We can ask who or whatever we need to ask. We can even ask ourselves. We can ask whenever, and as many times as we need to, too. We can ask for help, forgiveness, and love.
That’s where grace comes in. Grace happens at the exhale. Grace happens at the question. Grace happens at the softness. When we are climbing, fighting, dancing, throwing, crying, and singing. When we are fiercely malleable and forging ahead. When dreaming and trying and vulnerability and curiosity and courage are our mother tongue. That’s the truth. With and through grace freely given and received, we can welcome and maybe even celebrate the big tall terrible giants on our path.
About Katie
Born in 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.
