The Life of Experience

[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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Even if one glimpses God, there are still cuts and splinters and burns along the way. – Mark Nepo

In what ways Are life’s cuts and splinters and burns a path to Life’s sweetness?

Cuts and splinters and burns are a path to life’s sweetness in that they present us with a clear choice. If we find peace in the midst of challenge and trail, then we can find peace in the best of times, too. Cuts and splinters and burns allow us to choose love (no matter what). Cuts and splinters and burns forge our metal. Cuts and splinters and burns lead to growth and wisdom. Cuts and splinters and burns teach us how universal experiences of failure, disappointment, and falling short are.

Is there value in unanswered prayers?

Cuts and splinters and burns can be seen as unanswered prayers. I have been fascinated by the idea of unanswered prayers for a long time. I am not sure unanswered prayers exist. If prayers are simply a conversation with God or Spirit or the Spark of the Devine that lives in each of us (and I believe they are), then expectations and judgements, right and wrong, granted or denied is not really the point. The value of unanswered prayers can be found in the conversation itself, in the connection with something bigger than ourselves, in the reminder to be still and know. The glimpse of God found in the conversation is more than enough.

How do we excavate pain to find peace and love after heart break?

Heartbreak is a very specific kind of cut, splinter, or burn. It is perhaps the most painful. The process of excavating pain can include grief, forgiveness, sadness, doubt, anger, and fear. The process of excavating pain leaves us lighter, kinder, wiser, and more loving.