[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 See with Love
Enlightenment is intimacy with all things.
– Jack Kornfield
When I Firs Got Glasses
I was in seventh grade when I first started wearing glasses. (I would not get contacts for several years, so glasses it was.) Glasses changed my life. I remember the miraculous feeling of being able to read street signs, the school chalkboard, words on the television screen, scores at athletic events, etc. The ways in which my life changed were immeasurable. Palpable even. Looking back, I was able to interact with the world in a new way. My connection to the world grew in that I was able to understand it more simply because I could see with more clarity than I had ever known. I still rely on my contacts (and glasses) to connect with the world. Every. Single. Day.
Taking It For Granted
About ten years ago I had my ears tested for the first time and I learned needed hearing aids. I was told by the doctor that I had lost 50 percent of my hearing in the pitch range of the human voice. I have so far refused to get hearing aids (relying on the coping mechanisms I have developed and probably frustrating those most close to me a bit). Knowing my experience with seeing, and the difference wearing glasses made in my life, I am a bit disappointed in myself that I have not pursued hearing aids yet. Perhaps its vanity. Perhaps just plain not knowing what I am missing (as the doctor suggested that day). Perhaps it is fear of acknowledging yet another way in which I am not normal or flawed. I am not sure why I have not gotten hearing aids? In thinking about connection and love, perhaps hearing aids are the next step on my journey.
To Be Seen On This Earth
I have long thought that to be seen is the greatest gift we can give others on this earth – to see one another and seek to understand. Maybe that grows from our desire to be seen ourselves. I agree with those that suggest being seen and seeing are the foundation of love. (This is difficult because being seen requires tremendous vulnerability and courage.) I also agree with those that suggest true love is seeing all things, not just other people, and being present to all things. This is difficult too because it requires slowing down, breathing, and taking things in a way they resonate in our bones and leave a mark on our heart.
https://kitt.global/january-21-to-see-with-love-mark-nepo-the-book-of-awakening/
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.
