The Courage to Join

[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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The real story comes from a love-source that cannot be understood with intellect, but known only as a person is known. – Coleman Barks

A love letter to the house in which I grew up.

Dear House,

You have been a part of my family for 40 years. I sleep in my childhood room when I visit. I plant flowers for Mother’s Day in your soil. Trees that stood when we arrived still stand watch. You know us. You know me. You know my secrets and love me anyway. You have been a shelter during storms, host to celebrations, and observer of milestones.

On the occasion of our family flowing in to the next stage of life, I am finding the courage to say good-bye.

I have always known the day would come when our family would move. I have moved quite a bit as an adult, so I know moving happens. I have experienced the shifts and changes of home with the transitions of previous generations. Your loss stings the part of me that remembers people and times enjoyed in your walls. I take some solace in knowing you will care for the next family that calls you home.

Places and things are temporal, just as life itself is temporal. You have been a love-source. You have seen the seasons of my life. You have kept my family safe. You have been home: a concept that carries with it all the power and meaning that memories and emotions hold. You have been constant in a world of change: constancy is important. You taught me what it means to have a place in this world: place is so important. You taught me how to care for and tend.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

https://kitt.global/april-25-the-courage-to-join-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/