Living the Comma #23

[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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Walking Forward. Hosanna. Holy Week.

Dear Writer Friends,

I want to write about what it means to walk forward. During the final week of Lent, I want to walk forward. As spring begins, I want to walk forward. After marches with millions, I want to walk forward. As a researcher who studies wide-awakeness, I want to walk forward. As a writing group guide, I want to walk forward.

We walk forward when we join choirs and communities and congregations and writing groups whispering and shouting and singing and writing, “Hosanna! Save us! Save our world.” We walk forward when we listen to one another and seek to understand. We walk forward when we pay attention and tell about it. We walk forward when we take small, toddling steps and create. We walk forward when we imagine the world we want and work to make it so.

Happy Easter! Our next in person writing session will be April 13 at VHC after snack time.

We are scheduled to meet from 12:15 to 1:30 in May, too.

To virtually connect with the group during our meetings, use this link — https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85095318186.

This newsletter — Living the Comma — is delivered weekly to keep our community up-to-date and writing.

Join our weekly Writer’s Hour on Thursdays from 1-2. Join via this link. It is a chance to join and simply write. Please complete the poll below to make the Writer’s Hour more accessible and easy to attend.

For a writing exercise this week, Elizabeth Jameson offers practices focused on centering ourselves during Holy Week in her piece, Your Own Life is a Holy Week Love Takes A Body…Your Very Own.

Annie Dillard’s essay, “Write Till You Drop.”

An introduction to April — National Poetry Month — an On Being Conversation with Joy Harjo and Tracy K. Smith, “This world is full of everything good, everything beautiful.”

From the heart of the comma,

Katie

Thank you for Living the Comma with me. This community is truly love and light. Subscribe to the Wide-Awakeness Project and share your light. It has never been more important.

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