[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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To Rest Like a Tree

Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind. To be happy, rest like a great tree in the midst of them all.
– Buddha’s Little Instruction Book

I love trees. I have a list of my favorite trees from different places I have lived. The cherry tree in the front yard of my first childhood home. The willow trees next to the swings in my childhood neighborhood. The massive oak in the backyard of the house my parents owned for more than 30 years. The tree outside my house in Bellingham framed Mt. Baker. The trees in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. The trees in Friendship Park in Cincinnati. The Banyans in my neighborhood in Miami. The trees that line the Atlanta Beltline.

What I Learn From Trees

I learn about the ground.

Being outside and connected to the earth is a place where things make sense to me. Feeling the ground beneath my feet is something I have to remember to do. Living in a city and connecting to the earth requires some work. Finding ground is complicated by concrete and construction. Feeling the ground, really feeling the ground, is complicated by noise and heat. In the summer, I only have to stand for a minute on the sidewalk to feel the heat of the ground pulse through my shoes. In the winter, in cold places, the cold penetrates layers of protection. That is ground power.

I learn about roots.

There is also root power. Root power sustains and allows us to grow. Root power takes food and turns it into nourishment. Root power keeps us centered. Root power is the constancy of the seasons. Root power connects us to our soil—the earth beneath our feet. Root power is our family and friends. Root power is wisdom and understanding.

I learn about climbing.

As a child, I loved climbing trees. I loved the different perspectives the top of a tree allows. Heights have always scared me, but the middle of the trunk of our cherry tree was as safe as any place I knew. Things looked different from up there. I felt like I was in on a great secret—a secret about beauty and possibility, a secret revealing what I would become. There was safety and possibility there. What I knew up there, I seemed to forget everywhere else.

I learn about strength.

I experienced a hurricane a few years ago. I learned about the strength of trees during that storm. No matter how battered they were. No matter how much the water rose. The trees stood. The palms. The banyans. Stood. There is a lesson there. The strength of a tree withstands storms. The strength of a tree knows the power of rest. The strength of a tree comes from its roots. The strength of a tree connects, extends, and sustains.