Weekly Wide-Awake #36

[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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Joy. Plants. Ghost Writing.

Living the Comma #8

Joy. Oneness. Survival.

Dear Writer Friends,

I am thinking about joy this week.

I watched an Ode to Joy flash mob video as part of a class, Write into Light, led by Martha Beck a few years ago. It was an exercise guiding us to practice oneness. Initially, while I watched it, I repeated the mantra, “We are one. We are one. We are one.” until I became so swept away that the mantra faded into something else. The song’s familiarity immediately made me feel comfortable like I was being hugged by all that is. (The sound of the cello has always been a go-to mind clearer, noise quieter, and breath calmer for me.)

Joy is a subversive act.

There was something beautifully subversive about that moment. When the musicians came together, one by one, and people stopped and listened, one by one, children climbed trees, one by one, the chorus filled the space with beautiful harmony, one by one, and the conductor choreographed the moment in perfect symmetry, one by one. Reality was something else. Reality was connection, not isolation and division. Reality was the in and of and the not yet and the as if and the why not. Reality was peace not chaos. Reality was joy, not paranoia and fear. Reality was the gift of paying attention. Reality was love.

I wept as I watched the video, moved by the present moment and memories of past oneness experiences. Oneness is precious. I count oneness blessings. I am reminded that I am blessed beyond measure. I am reminded that there are no strangers. I am reminded that our thirst for oneness is as elemental as our need for water and air. (I saw it in the eyes of the people listening to the music and know it in the parts of my mind and heart that know deep truths.) I am reminded that oneness is beautifully simple and powerful in the way that scar tissue and star dust are simple and powerful.

Our next face-to-face writing session is Sunday, January 4th. To virtually connect with the group, use this link — https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85095318186.

This week, let’s find a writing prompt in Austin Kleon’s “100 quotes that helped me write.” Learn the writing wisdom of Stephen King’s “Everything You Need To Know About Writing Successfully — In Ten Minutes” published by the Aerogramme Writers’ Studio. Listen to a podcast with Ross Gay, Delight & Joy Are Survival Mechanisms & Acts of Resistance .

From the heart of the comma,

Katie

Read entire post here.

MONDAYS ARE FREE EXERCISES 141—145

EXERCISE 141: TAP IN

plant wonders

Write a poem in which some kind of plant wonders about you.

The Lotus

My heart breaks when I see her. She carries too much. It is all heavy. Her mind is noisy and unkempt. Resistant to structure and form and unable to find flow. Her feet are tired because she doesn’t begin because she is tired. A cycle of tiredness. Her beauty is buried beneath hunger. The kind of hunger that is never satiated. The kind of hunger that burns beneath the surface of her days. The kind of hunger that rails against what is. It is hard not to rail against what is when so much of what is must not be.

I float at the beginning, middle, and end. I swim in the mud, water, and sand. I drink the sunshine, rain, and wind. I symbolize spiritual awakening. Sometimes that feels like a lot. I see one thousand Katies. I invite them to breathe. I invite them to lay it all down. I invite them to surrender. Ultimately, I invite them to bloom. They will know it when they are ready to bloom.

Read entire post here.

Spit and Spaghetti #5

Pitches from Wind and Wall

Ghost Writing a Memoir

Thank you for the opportunity to explore this project.

Having independently published a memoir a few years ago, I understand the risk and reward of the process. From this side of the journey, and having blogged and slogged through a writer’s life for many years, writing the memoir was (along with my doctoral dissertation which was a qualitative exploration of wide-awakeness in a high school Theatre classroom) a profoundly valuable experience. I currently author a newsletter — the Wide-Awakeness — https://substack.com/@katiesteedlycurling — which chronicles my efforts to (as Mary Oliver instructs) pay attention, be amazed, and tell about it.

I believe stories heal, empathy is a superpower, and love wins.

Read entire post here.

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