Living the Comma #25

[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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Diving. Love Letters. Today.

I came to explore the wreck./ The words are purposes./ The words are maps./ I came to see the damage that was done/ and the treasures that prevail.

From “Diving into the Wreck” — Adrienne Rich

Dear Writer Friends,

Writing as diving. Writing as moving in and through water into the thick of memory, the murky weeds of certainty, the darkness of depth, the strangeness of impermanence, the pain of breath, the stillness of story.

We paddle down, circling fact, sifting opinion, building belief, absorbing context, assuaging fear, celebrating joy, swaddling shadow, and cradling anger. We see—perhaps for the first time. Having the courage to dive, we see. We are wordless, and we see. We see. We write. We change.

That’s the thing about diving into wrecks. Sometimes, miracles happen around wrecks. Whole ecosystems evolve and metal becomes reef. The wreck breathes new life into a broken world. New life emerges from the wreckage. Strength breaks through what’s left. Mercy swims like fish and beauty. Hope seeps around dark steel corners. Down deep. We wake up.

Our final in person writing session before we take a summer break is Sunday, May 3 at VHC after snack time from 12:15 to 1:30.

Our weekly Writer’s Hour meets on Wednesdays from 3-4. It is a chance to join the call and simply write for an hour in the afternoon. Join via these links — 3:00 to 400

Our prompt this week in our face-to-face gathering was taken from Liz Gilbert’s “Letters from Love” community. In her essay in the Book of Alchemy, Gilbert explains Letters from Love saying,

Write a letter from love. Begin your letter with this question: “Dear Love. What would you have me know today?”/ And then let love itself write a letter to you. Trust that you are worthy of this compassion and affection. And trust — please trust, my friend— that every word of your letter is true.

Here is the response I wrote during our gathering.

My Precious Flower, I want you to know you are profoundly loved. Every burst of your heart plants a seed. Noticing the star’s shine, the blossom’s perfume, the baby’s cry, the bee’s buzz, the peaches bud’s fuzz, the cat’s purr is your gift. You are seen in the same way. Perfectly made. Whole. Beautiful.

You know that creativity is a superpower not unique to you. It is possessed by all. You have known this your entire life. When the root is the root and the bud is the bud. You have known this before before. You have known this as your breath was breath and your steps were steps and your words were words. Creativity is your I amand not yet.

In high school religion class you learned heaven is living in my presence. Let that seep into your bones. Let that be your song as you breathe in peace and breathe out love. Create from there. Write from there. Live from there.

In the spirit of National Poetry Month, I want to share a few favorite poems and thoughts.

Billy Collins, “Today” — The poem and my thoughts.

Naomi Shihab Nye, “Kindness” — The poem and my thoughts.

Natasha Trethewey, “Theories of Time and Space” — The poem and my thoughts.

Let’s keep diving in wrecks and writing love letters. Let’s keep creating and building. Let’s keep navigating time and space with kindness all our today’s.

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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