Weekly Wide-Awake #26

[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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Memory. Kindness. Gratitude. Jane Goodall.

MONDAYS ARE FREE 091 — 095

EXERCISE 092: WRITE TO SOMEONE YOU MISS

or some place

Write a letter to someone or some place you left a long time ago.

I recently visited Austin, Texas. I had not returned to Austin since I graduated in 2003. Austin has definitely changed, but the heart of the city remains. Live music. Hill Country. Barbecue and breakfast tacos. Hike and bike trails and football. More than all that, Austin reminds me of my power. Austin reminds me that I finish what I start. Austin reminds me of the importance of community. Austin reminds me to pay attention.

I lived in Austin on September 11, 2001. It was the week of my final written exams for my doctorate. I was writing about Piaget’s theory of disequilibrium at a moment of profound disequilibrium. I was writing about education as a path toward wide-awakeness at a moment when wide-awakeness meant navigating the pain of our world. I was writing about educational philosophy and history at a time when the philosophical and historical foundations of our nation and our world provided context for the political upheaval in which we were living. Austin reminds me of that time, too.

I miss the optimism I felt at that time. I miss back against the wall determination. I miss faithfulness and fearlessness. I miss the belief in the goodness of my country and the people in it (while acknowledging the privilege of holding that belief). I miss the innocence and wide-eyed hope of a world before empathy was ridiculed, people were torn from our streets, and the constitution were attacked with an abject force meant to crush dissent.

My recent visit rekindled something in my soul. The spark of belief in something bigger than my own fear. The strength of the shoulders on which I stand. The breath that connects truth and action. The fire the fuels my dreams.

Read entire post here.

When The Impossible Has a Price

8-Track Knowing

The Remembered Object

I remember my bright yellow 8-track tape player. It was a favorite thing, right up there with my poetry folder and bike and tap shoes. I would “borrow” 8-track tapes — like Joni Mitchell, Blue and Carol King, Tapestry, and The Eagles, The Eagles — from my parent’s music collection and sit for hours listening to music. How it worked: Find batteries. Turn the player on. Place an 8-track tape in it’s side. Select a track. Push the top handle. Find the right song. Listen for hours.

Read entire post here.

Taking A Walk #29

Taking A Walk with Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, was a remarkable example of courage and conviction, working tirelessly throughout her life to raise awareness about threats to wildlife, promote conservation, and inspire a more harmonious, sustainable relationship between people, animals and the natural world. She passed away in her sleep. — Jane Goodall Institute

Read entire post here.

Gratitude Conversations #3

Paula Salerno Herbert. Rachel Roberts. Felicia Wilson Young.

Why Gratitude?

In 2017, heartbroken and eyeballs deep in despair, I started searching for things for which to be grateful. I asked myself the question asked by poet Katie Farris

Why write love poetry in a burning world? To train myself, in the midst of a burning world, to offer poems of love to a burning world. – Katie Farris

I reached out to people who — in the way in which they live — write love poems to our burning world. I cast my net far and wide amongst my heroes — those I knew personally and those who teach us all by their example. I invited artists, philosophers, psychologists, politicians, professors, yogis, writers, clergy, and others into a dialogue about gratitude. I am deeply grateful to those who said yes. Read more about my gratitude project methodology here.

Read entire post here.