[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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Weekly Wide-Awake: Poppy Growing In Pavers
This has been a tough week amongst a string of tough weeks. I feel like a poppy fighting to grow through the cracks between pavers. Choosing to bloom in isolation. Finding hope in soil and sustenance. Finding air to breathe in concrete. Finding strength in muscle memory. Finding peace in struggle.
I have focused my reading and writing this week on the earth. I have thought about the pace of real. I have thought about living with my hands. I have thought about the connection between blogging and my wellness journey, which if you look at it sideways, is me living with my hands. I have thought about roots and stems and our capacity/responsibility to bloom. I have thought about the abundance of late May and the miracles that happen all around us.
Sending the 6th volume of my gratitude conversation into the world is, without question, my biggest accomplishment of the week. This volume was focused on friendship, and contained conversations with members of my D.C. writing group – Words of the Spirit – a group of the most inspiring, smart, funny, compassionate women I have been blessed to call friends since 2004. Their words have been an antidote to pandemic despair. My gratitude project, started in 2017, was on the shelf for most of 2019. The spring invited me to transcribe, edit, share their beautiful words, and remind the world of the power of friendship, especially right now.
What I am taking from this week is this: return to the earth. Live with your hands. Feed your body and soul. Be grateful for abundance and create abundance for all. There is a saying about good people being the salt of the earth. Surround yourself with the salt of the earth.
This has been a tough week amongst a string of tough weeks. I feel like a poppy fighting to grow through the cracks between pavers. Choosing to bloom, even in isolation. Finding soil and sustenance and hope from somewhere. Finding air to breathe through concrete. Finding strength while breaking open. Finding peace in struggle, or perhaps letting peace come through struggle altogether.
I have focused my reading and writing this week on the earth. I have thought about the pace of real. I have thought about living with my hands. I have thought about the connection between blogging and my wellness journey, which if you look at it sideways, is me living with my hands. I have thought about roots and stems and our capacity/responsibility to bloom. I have thought about the abundance of late May and the miracles that happen all around us.
Sending the 6th volume of my gratitude conversation into the world is, without question, my biggest accomplishment of the week. This volume was focused on friendship, and contained conversations with members of my D.C. writing group – Words of the Spirit – a group of the most inspiring, smart, funny, compassionate women I have been blessed to call friends since 2004. Their words have been an antidote to pandemic despair. My gratitude project was on the shelf for most of 2019. The spring invited me to transcribe, edit, share their beautiful words, and remind the world of the power of friendship, especially right now.
What I am taking from this week is this: return to the earth. Live with your hands. Feed your body and soul. Be grateful for abundance and create abundance for all. There is a saying about good people being the salt of the earth. Surround yourself with the salt of the earth.
This has been a tough week amongst a string of tough weeks. I feel like a poppy fighting to grow through the cracks between pavers. Choosing to bloom, even in isolation. Finding soil and sustenance and optimism from somewhere. Finding air to breathe through concrete. Finding strength and forward motion. Finding beauty in struggle, or perhaps letting beauty ease the struggle altogether.
I have focused my reading and writing this week on the earth. I have thought about the pace of real. I have thought about living with my hands. I have thought about the connection between blogging and my wellness journey, which if you look at it sideways, is me living with my hands. I have thought about roots and stems and our capacity/responsibility to bloom. I have thought about the abundance of late May and the miracles that happen all around us.
Sending the 6th volume of my gratitude conversation into the world is, without question, my biggest accomplishment of the week. This volume was focused on friendship, and contained conversations with members of my D.C. writing group – Words of the Spirit – a group of the most inspiring, smart, funny, compassionate women I have been blessed to call friends since 2004. Their words have been an antidote to pandemic despair. My gratitude project, started in 2017, was on the shelf for most of 2019. The spring invited me to transcribe, edit, share their beautiful words, and remind the world of the power of friendship, especially right now.
What am I taking from this week? Return to the earth. Live with your hands. Feed your body and soul. Be grateful for abundance and create abundance for all. Expect and create miracles. There is a saying about good people being the salt of the earth. Surround yourself with the salt of the earth.
About Katie
Born in 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.
