What We Are All More or Less Lacking

[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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What We Are All More or Less Lacking

What we are all more or less lacking at this moment is a new definition of holiness.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

I want to write a new definition of holy. We live differently when we see ourselves, others, and our earth as holy. Where to start? A new definition of holy would have to dance between being so tiny that we have to squint to see it but big enough that we can’t miss, ignore, or dismiss it. A new definition of holy would have to be accessible in the way that we all know someone who embodies it. A new definition of holy would have our stories at their core — stories connect us, and connection is holy. A new definition of holy would lift justice as the only way to peace. Justice is holy. Imagination is holy. Joy is holy. Awe is holy. A new definition of holy would include children laughing, whales breaching, dogs smiling, smelling my grandmother’s peonies, and sharing secrets with my best friend. In this new definition, the earth, our young, and our earth would all be holy and loved.

It’s time for a new definition of holy. Look around. Pay attention. Listen to our world. Hear with your heart. I believe we find what we seek.