Nature's Sway - Katie Steedly

[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

Enter your email here to receive Weekly Wide-Awake

back

Nature’s Sway

When the wind stops,

the trees still move,

the way my heart creaks,

long after it bends.

-Mark Nepo

I saw a bumper sticker that read, “If you are not pissed off, you are not paying attention.”

There are many things to be angry about right now. I believe inaction and silence, to a certain degree, are part of our problems. The tension between paying attention and knowing peace can be heartbreaking. I can ignore, delay, or deny nature’s sway – being grounded in whats real, what matters, and my truth – until it I can’t sleep and my stomach is tied in a knot the size of Texas. I also can tend to jump and shout about everything. Everything, that is, but what is really pissing me off. Often accessing the real source of the anger is like flying too close to the sun. It burns. It is painful. It can even mean dying. And, jumping about everything can create a Chicken Little scenario in which the sky is always falling and I am not really ever sure why.

When I dodge or deflect or deny anger, I often don’t know I am dodging or deflecting.

It takes time for me to get to the source of my anger. I strengthen my get-to-the-source skills by investing in relationships with people who are also investors. Selfish and self centered people make it difficult and/or impossible to invest in a healthy way. I strengthen my get-to-the-source skills by taking the time and having the courage to be gentle with myself and others – that includes humility and forgiveness (words that are hard to write much less live.) I strengthen my get-to-the-source skills by connecting with what is real for me – nature, yoga, writing, theatre, sports, and live music.

This begs the question, do I dodge or deflect or deny connecting with profound love in the same way?

Nepo suggests that nature’s sway impacts an entire emotional continuum. In as much as we are wired to live at warp speed, not paying attention to anything in the midst of schedules and tasks and expectations, we dodge, deflect, and deny moments of profound love, too. Nature’s sway allows us to feel love deeply, our world makes feeling love deeply difficult. It doesn’t make sense to turn away from love, but think about it in the context of daily life. How much time do we spend showing the people we love we love them? In general, can we do more things we love not less? Do we fill our precious hours with as much love as possible? I think it goes back to strengthening our get-to-the-source skills – be an investor who invests in investors, be gentle with yourself and others, and connect with what is real.

https://kitt.global/march-16-natures-sway-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/