More Power to You

[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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Originally, the word power meant able to be. In time, it was contracted to mean to be able. We suffer the difference. – Mark Nepo

I have never been comfortable with power. (And, it is not just because I have felt the sting of loss on many occasions.) I have never been comfortable with the simplicity of win or lose dichotomies – knowing that sometimes the most qualified, smartest, honest, hard working people I know do not always win. I have never been comfortable with the idea that there is not enough to go around and we have to win, and get more, at the expense of others. Also, I believe our world is fundamentally unjust for many on the base of race, gender, religion, ability, and sexual orientation, and I want power that seeks to understand my own position and privilege, rather than fight to gain and wield power for my own individual purpose. I want competition that encourages creativity, excellence, and lifting each other up. Standing on shoulders in gratitude and love, rather than kicking in shins on the way up and spitting in the eye when you get there.

Nepo discusses worldly power, “over things, people, and situations,” and inner power, “that comes from being a part of something larger – connective power.” That distinction is helpful. My heart definitely beats to the rhythm of inner power. I always want players on teams to thank their teams and coaches during their post-game victory interviews. I always cry when a cast of a musical bows together during a curtain call and gestures in thanks toward the orchestra. Thought leaders and influencers write books espousing the virtues of collaboration, teamwork, and soft power. This is inner power built on humility, grace, and love. That is what inner power means to me. It connects rather than separates. It makes difficult decisions based on honesty and goodness. It builds rather than destroys.

https://kitt.global/march-2-more-power-to-you-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/