Straying

[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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So hard to feel the stone and not the ripple.
Mark Nepo

I traveled around the South Island of New Zealand on the Stray bus. It was big and orange and filled with young people from all over the world “on holiday.” The word “stray” was painted brightly on the side. The bus traveled to significant towns and sites. You could get on and off at any of the stops on the route whenever the spirit moved you. You could also stay longer when you wanted and leave earlier if you so desired. I bought a two-week ticket.

That experience makes me think about the meaning of the word stray.

What does it mean to stray?

As a verb, to stray means to wander. As an adjective, it means being in the wrong place and separated from a group. There is freedom in wandering. There is wonder off the beaten path. There is comfort in being the other with other others. There is sweetness in meeting strangers with different stories. It is fun to dance and move in new ways. It is beautiful to tell jokes under a night sky.

I was a stray as I traveled around the other side of the world by myself.

Traveling alone, with my itinerary, budget, desires, and passions, is the best way to be a stray. Everyone on the bus was stray together, too. We were all just knee-deep in experience, a world away from what we knew, climbing glaciers, speeding around river turns in jet boats, and waiting for sheep to let our bus pass together.

What did I learn from straying?

After many years in the rearview mirror, reflecting on the lessons of straying is fun. There are the unintended gifts of being completely lost and somehow found. There are the blessings of strangers you meet, share a moment with, and are forever changed. The miraculous, cellular-level realizations happen on the other side of the world – like snow on a glacier is the truest blue imaginable, penguins are excellent swimmers, and still water looks like glass.