The Moon and the Dewdrop

[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 Moon and the Dewdrop

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in a dewdrop on a blade of grass. The moon does not get wet, nor is the drop of water broken. And the whole moon and entire sky are reflected in even one drop of water. – Dogen

Holding Nana’s Hands

I was holding my Nana’s hands when she left this life. It was the middle of the night when my parents called to say I should come to her. She waited to pass until I was with her. I was her only granddaughter. Her namesake. When I think about a moment that I was touched by a life other than my own that was it. I held her hands and I told her I loved her. She was at peace. I was overcome with love. At once, we took a breath together and I understood our love.

Perfect Love

Moments like birth and death are examples of perfect love – when we are touched by lives that are not our own. When life is stripped of its noise and fury and back and forth. When the water is clear and the sky is blue. When we don’t question meaning or ask why. When simple knowing sits beside doubt and gently strokes her hair. When we see things fully and completely.

The Gift of Perfect Love

It can be hard to notice and celebrate perfect love in our lives. It can seem like it never happens. I want to suggest perfect love happens every day. In big and small ways we can find it. In moments and interactions and connections we can feel it. That is the gift of perfect love. Perfect love is the gift of the moon reflected in a dew drop on a blade of glass in that there is something miraculous there. If we are open to seeing it and feeling it.

https://kitt.global/july-11-the-moon-and-the-dewdrop-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/