[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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How It All Started: The Power of “Yes”
“After the final no there comes a yes. And on that yes the future world depends.”
Wallace Stevens
The fire to write about gratitude began to burn my soul in the middle of the night in July of 2017. The memory is as clear as the water off of Key West. I had spent the better part of 20 years studying wide-awakeness, particularly the relationship between wide-awakeness and the arts, and there was something profoundly consistent emerging between wide-awakeness and gratitude that I had to learn more about. The urgency, that had lit an empirical fire in graduate school, turned into something more that night. The world was starting to burn. I kept hearing the word gratitude – 100 times gratitude. I had flirted with gratitude for years – keeping lists, journaling, beginning yoga practices with a grateful intention, making a conscious effort to send thank you notes – because it feels good, but this felt deeper. It was the perfect storm of my heart’s desire meeting a world need, happening at 3:00 in the morning. If we are only bound by the world that has yet to be created, I was thinking about creating a more grateful, wide-awake, and loving world. It started with saying “Yes.”
Saying Yes
I said “yes” to gratitude. What did that look like? I invited artists, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, professors, yogis, writers, clergy, and others into a dialogue about gratitude. Many people said “No.” “No” sounded liked silence in response to my request. “No” sounded like people explaining they just did not feel grateful at all right now. “No” sounded like referrals to the books and articles they had written on gratitude. “No” sounded like people not having time and interest in the process. I decided early on I did not have time for “No.” I did not have time for ambivalence, cynicism, negativity, or silence. “No” would not feed my fire. A few willing souls said “yes” and the journey began. More than 3 years and 20 conversations – all structured using the same basic questions – a grounded theory of gratitude has started to emerge. This volume of gratitude conversations represents saying “yes” to the journey.
Gratitude and “Yes”
I would not have predicted that saying “yes” has anything to do with gratitude before I started. I have since learned gratitude is inherently about saying “yes.” It is about abundance. It is about creativity. It is about building – relationships, hope, opportunity. It is about being in the arena – present to success and failure, trail and error, risk and reward. Each in their unique way, the people with whom I have spoken over the years are people who say “yes” with full throats and open hearts in their daily lives. I am grateful for each of them. The conversations in this volume are perfect examples of “yes.”
Looking for “Yes”
When I looked for “yes” I found it. It took me a while to get that. It took me a while to focus on “yes” and keep moving. As the clock has ticked and I spent large chucks of time not moving the gratitude conversation project forward (perhaps focused on it in other ways by reading and teaching), I have had to return to “yes.” As “no” appears in rejection letters to book pitches and new invitations to talk about gratitude, I have had to return to “yes.” Returning to “yes” ultimately means hearing “no” and doing it anyway. In the midst of a lot of “no,” I am grateful for the wisdom and strength to look for and to return to “yes.”
“Yes” Right Now
“Yes” right now is extra tough. Gratitude right now is extra tough. That is why they are both so crucial. When fear and anger surround us, it is truly important to say “yes” to that which sustains and nurtures us. It is truly important to hold close all the things for which we are grateful – all the lessons learned and love given – that is what is important. Looking back at my first gratitude conversations – at this moment, right now – feels perfect. They are my first “yeses” – when I did not know what that really sounded like, yet. They represent lightening in a bottle to my process – starting it off with wisdom and clarity. They are examples of living life guided by gratitude, love, and “yes.”
Thank you Rachel, Roxanne, and Seth.
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.
