The Heart's Pleasure - 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

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The Heart’s Pleasure

My voice quivers when I speak my truth.

I can’t raise my eyes. My breath quickens. My palms sweat. Time stands still and passes instantly. It’s not that I am afraid. It’s that I am vulnerable. Vulnerability requires courage. It takes a second. I can’t hear, though I know what I am saying. Perhaps, “I love you.” Perhaps, “I am sorry.” Perhaps, “This is what I need.” Perhaps, “You have hurt me.” Perhaps, “I know I have hurt you.” Perhaps, “No.” Perhaps, “Yes.”

My heart is outside my body as I invite another in.

That is the only place for it as it grows with breath and life. Years of walls, excuses, speed, turns, half-truths, and dodges fall away. Moments of lived and imagined pleasure take hold. There is no knot. There is only silk. There is no fist. There is only embrace. There is no block. There is only flow. There are no walls. There are windows. That is the way we invite another in. That is the sweetness of intimacy.

The fearless know the heart’s pleasure.

I stand with the fearless. Those who know pleasure deeply. Those who drink from the cup. Those who celebrate desire. Those maintain hope during crisis. Those who hold and cherish. Those who bleed and heal. Those who aspire and fail. Those who know ecstasy and reverence. Those who know center and still bend. Those who climb and hold. Those who care for living things knowing all life ends.

A promise to my heart’s pleasure.

I promise to love with my entire heart. I promise to seek with my whole self. I promise to listen with the rhythm that knows all the words. I promise to taste with a bee’s joy in a flower’s bloom. I promise to create and grow. I promise to be generous and kind. I promise to see shapes in clouds and beauty in strangers. I promise to leap and dance. I promise to purr and shine.