The Heart's Blossom - 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

The Heart’s Blossom

Courage is the heart’s blossom. – Mark Nepo

What does courage look like?

Courage looks like starting.

Starting takes courage. Committing is courageous. Quieting the noise of doubt and fear is courageous. Training and preparation is courageous. When we start, we try. We swing the bat. We engage. We acknowledge the potential to fail and do it anyway. Not that there is a competition between the value of starting and the value of finishing, they are both courageous in their own way, but finishing is not possible if we never start.

Courage looks like blooming.

A flower does not ask permission to bloom. It simply blooms. Blooming day-to-day looks like spending our hours meaningfully. Blooming day-to-day looks like choosing happiness and joy. Blooming day-to-day means leaning toward the sunshine. Blooming day-to-day means celebrating who we are, all our colors and shine and story. Blooming day-to-day is courageous.

Courage looks like forgiveness.

Forgiveness is tough. That is why it takes courage. Forgiveness when the easy step is to build a wall, or run, or hide, or implode is courageous. Forgiveness when it means we have to hold up a mirror to our own mess is courageous. Forgiveness when it means we have to get over something that we have become very comfortable being angry about is courageous. Forgiveness when it means we have to forgive again, again, and again is courageous.

Courage looks like honesty.

Just what is honesty? Where does a white lie, a sin of omission, a gray area, or a slanted truth end and real honesty begin? Different people have different opinions about what honesty is and when we need to be honest. I suggest we know what honesty is, and that honesty is courageous. We learn about honesty as children and grow up seeing examples of honesty and dishonesty, and living in honest and dishonest ways. Through it all, we learn about honesty. That does not make it easy. That is why it is courageous. Apologies are inherently honest and courageous. Making amends in honest and courageous. Humility is honest and courageous.

Courage looks like healing.

Healing is the point of it all and we heal when we are courageous. We heal when we start, bloom, forgive and act honestly. Healing happens when we look within and act upon what we know for sure. Blooming happens when we heal.

https://kitt.global/july-1-the-hearts-blossom-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/