Weekly Wide Awake: What Kind of Woman

[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: What Kind of Woman

This is not a dress rehearsal before a better kind of life. Pick up your heavy burdens and leave them at the gate. I will hold the door for you.”
Kate Baer

I tell this story frequently, mostly as a reminder to myself. Many years ago a Balinese healer told me, “You don’t have to carry that pain.” He said this after about an hour of silently drawing charcoal figures across my body in a remote Balinese village. It felt as if he was praying over me. I wept at the thought life did not have to be heavy — that we could lay our burdens down. The idea that we have a choice to live a better kind of life — a lighter, joyous, soulful, meaningful kind of life — had never traveled to my brain and bones before. That day it did.

As a theatre person, I am familiar with dress rehearsals. I am familiar with the comfort and necessity of making sure everything is in place before inviting an audience in. But I also know the theatre depends on the curtain going up. The curtain rising is the point. Cast and crew and everyone involved are there to be present and perform.

Presence is the point. The things that prevent presence — fear, anxiety, isolation, grief, pain, anger, [insert whatever burden comes to mind] — keep us from a better life. Things that encourage presence — curiosity, gratitude, vulnerability, grace, patience — open the door to a better life. A better life begins with paying attention. A better life begins with asking for and offering help. A better life begins with opening the door.

Weekly Wide-Awake: What Kind of Woman

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