Tiny Beautiful Things

[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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Dear Sugar,
I read your column religiously. I’m twenty-two. From what I can tell by your writing, you’re in your early forties. My question is short and sweet: What would you tell your twentysomething self if you cold talk to her now?
Love,
Seeking Wisdom

The final letter in Cheryl Strayed’s tiny, beautiful, things: advice on love and life from Dear Sugar, the letter for which the book is named, asks Strayed to give advice to her twenty something self. Strayed’s response is, of course, poetic, authentic, and wise.

That letter got me thinking. I turn 50 on October 1st. Here are a few thoughts I would like to share with my twentysomething self.

Dear Twentysomething Katie,

You are enough. You are enough. You are enough.

Curiosity is a gift. Compassion is a superpower. Kindness in all things. Create more. Trees are gifts. A purring cat makes everything better. Always create home. Make friends with fear. Find sweetness in both the start and the finish.

Forgive yourself and others as many times as it takes. That, even and especially, includes jobs you will lose, contracts that will fall through, and relationships that will fall apart. You will even live through setting the stage on fire. You will move a lot. You will run a lot. You will write a lot.

Love completely and fiercely and gently.

You are whole. You are whole. You are whole.

Take more pictures. Sing in more choirs. Read more poetry. See Cirque Du Soleil O as many times as possible. Start flossing sooner. Put away your hairbands. (A cat will eat them.)

Ride the Stray bus in New Zealand. Bathe in Tirta Empul. Listen when the Balinese healer tells you, “You don’t have to carry that pain.” Dance salsa at a tequila tasting on a Mexican beach. Eat around the world at Epcot Food and Wine.

Ambivalence, headaches, and sick feelings are always red flags. Chocolate, cheese, bread, wine, and travel are never wrong.

Love,

Katie at 50