[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 Work of Happiness
I thought of happiness, how it is woven/ Out of the silence in the empty house each day/ And how it is not sudden and it is not given/ But is creation itself like the growth of a tree.
May Sarton, The Work of Happiness
I don’t know how to stand up right now. My feet hurt when they touch the ground. I feel woozy and a bit blurry. At this moment when I must find calm, generosity, kindness, and gratitude, I spin.
I suppose that is the work of happiness — to be a seeker even when seeking is complicated. To have balance even when we are upside down. To know abundance when everything around me shouts scarcity. To believe in miracles when cynicism and doubt and fear steal attention. To find the strawberry when being chased by tigers.
The work of happiness is like the rings of a tree trunk. Let me explain. Happiness unfolds breath by breath, decision by decision, minute by minute, day by day, and year by year. Growth happens. Change happens. Wisdom happens. Each breath, decision, minute, day, year is the work of happiness. I am talking about the kind of happiness that happens because of it all, not in spite of it all. I am talking about the kind of happiness that is vulnerable and forgiving and courageous. I am talking about the kind of happiness that overflows with love. I am talking about the deep and abiding and meaningful happiness that propels the not yet.
About Katie
From Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
