Weekly Wide-Awake #41

[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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Ladybugs. Change. Curiosity. Age.

Living the Comma #13

Words. Change. MLK.

Dear Writer Friends,

A friend, and fellow Virginia Highland Church member, recently shared that something she wrote was widely read and halted funding for a harmful scientific study. Her experience reminds me of the power of our words. Our words can change the world. Her words will save lives. It is not lost on me that each of us — our writing — can change the world, too. One word. One interaction. One piece of writing. There is a ripple effect. Our words matter. Our actions matter. Our love matters.

Read Entire Post Here.

A Ladybug in the Cold

Small Stories and Big Fires

Come here, sweet Ladybug. It is January and it is cold and I thought ladybugs did not survive in the cold.

Ladybug crawled from the window of the car onto my finger. I looked at her and felt her tiny legs tickle my skin as she moved from the window to my finger and up my arm. She then gently flew to the side of my cheek. Each little move felt like hope whispering, secret sharing, reality imagining. Tomorrow’s warm kiss.

In the cold, ladybugs speak courage and beauty. A black and red speckled testament to a nature’s strength, life’s miracle, and capacity’s flex. I am not sure where I thought lady bugs lived in the cold. Did they fly south like birds? My ladybug friend reminded me to pay attention, persist in cold, and nod to gentle luck.

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 161—165

Cherish. Puzzle. Curiosity. Inquiry.

EXERCISE 161: BASK IN THE UNKNOWN

overtly cherish

Write a poem that overtly cherishes what you do not know and maybe never will.

I do not know the substance of faith.

Sometimes an iris in winter or a mustard seed. Sometimes my grandma’s nativity scene or the peaches in Piedmont Park before they are blossoms. Sometimes the sun in January or my niece days after she was born. Sometimes the full moon or a whale song. Sometimes glacial blue or sunflower yellow. Sometimes spring pink or rose red. Sometimes carrot orange or bean green. Sometimes night black or day white. Sometimes electric purple or earth brown. Sometimes bread starter or rice terrace. Sometimes fine wine or aged bourbon. Sometimes “I love you” or a steamboat calliope.

Read entire post here

Spit and Spaghetti #7

Pitches from Wind and Wall

Ageist

Please accept my application for Editorial Lead.

I am a 54-year-old woman living the 100th or so iteration of my dream. I have taught high school drama, completed a Ph.D. studying wide-awakeness, authored profiles and articles for universities and cultural institutions, and written years of pieces for clients across the universe of opportunities. All that living, paying attention, and writing informs my capacity to connect curiosity and wisdom, create and build, and fall apart and back together.

Speaking directly to the Editorial Lead role, I live fully ensconced in a 50+1 body/world that strives to be healthy, relevant, vital, wise, and soft. I build my newsletter, lead a writing group for folks 30-ish to 80-ish, and constantly explore what it means to “live the good life.” My questions get better every year and my commitment to “living the questions” grows moment-by-moment. I seek to understand the complexity and beauty and possibility of age.

Read the entire post here.

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