I have been seeing more magic lately. The kind of magic that feels good. The kind of magic that reinforces my gut instinct and intuition. The kind of magic that feels like stillness and knowing. The kind of magic that marks my steps. The kind of magic that holds my hand in the face of fear and doubt. My wild new world centers on living wide-awakeness. This course has reinforced and reminded what I have known for sure for some time. Let me explain. The conceptual frame for my dissertation, some 19 years ago, was wide-awakeness. I drew heavily from the writings of Maxine Greene, a prominent scholar and philosopher who wrote about wide-awakeness, in my work. After I completed my dissertation, I sent her a copy of the text with an accompanying note of thanks. At the tender and powerful age of 95, she responded.

Dear Dr. Steedly, Belatedly, I thank you for your generous letter, and, more than that, for the opportunity to read your beautiful, scholarly dissertation. It is not only the overlap of our commitments. 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. I hope you publish it as a whole or in sections. The best of luck, and thanks again. Sincerely, Maxine Greene

Receiving this note was magic. Reading it again, at this time, was magic, too. And the magic does not stop there. My dissertation chair is a colleague and friend of a prominent Greene scholar. That individual is an editor of a book series at a publisher that fits what I have written at one of the primary publishers of Greene’s work. The academic world is small and my fear to even approach a publisher with my dissertation has been huge. Even after Greene’s best wishes, I have not taken steps to put the work out into the world. All this is to say, my wild new world will include a book proposal specifically focused on my dissertation. Pulling it together feels joyful. The timing feels perfect. My connection to the outcome feels inspirational.