[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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Weekly Wide-Awake #14

The Togetherness of Bees

Nature promotes mutualism. The flower nourishes the bee. The river waters quench the thirst of all living beings. And trees provide a welcoming home to so many birds and animals. There is a rhythm to this togetherness. — Ram Nath Kovind

I am thinking about the togetherness of bees. Let me explain. I believe in mutualism, oneness, and the wholeness of things. I find hope, faith, and optimism there. There is something deep down hopeful about a healthy hive that makes honey. Faith bursts from a flower’s blossom. That is the rhythm of beauty and optimism itself. Everything and everyone has a role to play. There is urgency. Paying attention ensures survival.

That makes sense to me in the way that even idle time is alive with the possibility’s buzz.

I draw lessons from the bees. Bees find and share life’s sweetness. Bees make the most of life’s brevity and purpose. Bees are builders and creators. Bees rely on one another.

I want to celebrate togetherness—togetherness that connects and creates, togetherness that nourishes and sustains, togetherness that invites and breathes and grows, togetherness as big as oceans and mountains and deserts, togetherness as strong as scar tissue and stars and love, togetherness that pollinates loving kindness.

MONDAYS ARE FREE 066 — 070

Monsters. Owls. Rest. Honor.

EXERCISE 066: MAKE A MONSTER

all the things the monster can do

Make a monster by taking a known animal or critter and multiplying one of its body parts (600-eyed horse; two-tongued pigeon; four-armpit uncle). Describe all the things the monster can do that it couldn’t do if it only had the conventional number of body parts.

A 1000-ear owl lives in a tree outside my house. I have always been fascinated by owls. Their wisdom and perception. Their serenity and beauty. Their stoicism and humor. Think about how an owl with 1000-ears could listen and hear. What if their majesty was matched by their ability to listen and hear? In a world where information comes at us every minute of the day, making the distinction between listening (giving our attention to a sound) and hearing (the faculty of perceiving sound) is important.

Read more here.

Taking A Walk #16

Taking a walk with Ada Limón

Instructions on Not Giving Up

Patient, plodding, a green skin/ growing over whatever winter did to us, a return/ to the strange idea of continuous living despite/ the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. From Ada Limon’s “Instructions on Not Giving Up“

I want to say a few words about continuous living amidst the mess, the hurt, the empty, the empty, the angry. the awful. Falling apart and back together is all about living in the mess. When the mess is too much, count the shades of green outside your door. Even right now. When the mess is too much, play with a puppy. When the mess is too much, find a fragrant tree and take 10 deep breaths. When the mess is too much, create something. When the mess is too much, stand in the sunshine and let warmth wash over you. When the mess is too much, give something away. When the mess is too much, watch bees dance with flowers. When the mess is too much, plant something. When the mess is too much, feel warm raindrops. When the mess is too much, try something new. There is beauty in making it through the mess all together.

Read more here.

What I Keep Learning

Blossoms

There are days we live/ as if death were nowhere/ in the background; from joy/ to joy to joy, from wing to wing,/ from blossom to blossom to/ impossible blossom, to sweet impossible/ blossom. — Li-Young Lee

I have a secret path in the park where I walk. On the way to the secret path (which is secret because I like to think it is hidden, not because no one knows about it), there is a small peach orchard.

Read more here.

The Bee Comes

The flower doesn’t dream of the bee. It blossoms and the bee comes. – Mark Nepo

I am fascinated by nature’s perfect timing. Flowers bloom. Tides roll. Rivers flow. The moon waxes and wanes. The sun shines. It all moves in divine rhythm. There is a natural order to our days when we pay attention. We run with open hearts and hands to what is ours. We sing our song. We thrive. We hold what matters close. We let go of what does not serve. Perfect time is beautifully simple and impossible to ignore. Like the rapid, we are told to let perfect time carry us to safety at the river’s edge, and we resist at our peril. It is better to make peace with perfect time and relax into the rhythm of the blossom and the bee.

Read more here.

Someone Forgot to Mention Your Death to the Bees

The last ghost leans with her ear against a dead wasp nest./ She closes her eyes and listens// To you, still singing/ Beyond the kingdom of the living. — Ansel Elkins

To be described as still singing. Despite it all. Because of it all. Before it all. During it all. After it all. Beyond it all. That is what I desire.

Read more here.