Long walking eats up...

hours, feet, builds bodies, eats up hours (worthy of a second mention), and is a must if I'm going to succeed in walking my 2nd Breast Cancer 3-Day this August 8 - 10, in Chicago.

Personally, in order to get long miles in, I've sometimes had to break it up in the day:  9 miles am, 8 pm or 12 am & 4 pm...  this season is difficult for sure, but when looking at my new friend, Patty B.'s life, right now, it puts my "stuff" into perspective...

A week ago, yesterday (Monday) Patty's port-a-cath insertion punctured her lung, didn't know it until she was beginning round 2 of chemo & couldn't breathe..xray then showed what had happened.. numerous times hospitalized in the last week & a day ...the hole kept getting bigger - lung collapsed late last week - she's home now - weak - FIGHTING FOR HER LIFE.... literally.

Patty was told, at the diagnosis of breast cancer, that the type she has is Sarcoma.  And the type she has has less than 1% survival rate.

Less than 1% survival.

Lesser people would give in. Patty's choosing to fight...  Her survival rate has now been elevated to over  40%... She's choosing LIFE! or is trying to...

...and I'm moaning about how hard walking is - not so much the walking,
but making the TIME to do so...practicing for 60 miles in three days
is a huge undertaking - even BEFORE attempting  to WALK
60 miles in 3 Days...

I keep thinking "what's the big deal about walking 60?  we've made the money (or committed to it) in order to walk, they can take the $$'s and send it researcher's way..."

...then I think about those whose lives we represent:
the ones we are walking for  because they are no longer here...
the ones we are walking for because they're here, but too sick and can't
the ones we watched suffer - the ones we love still- and long to DO SOMETHING to make it better...

and then I remember "WHY" we walk.

We walk because, as the 5 or 6 of us training and fund raising in the community as Warriors in Pink  have seen - PEOPLE NOTICE, it RAISES AWARENESS, and builds solidarity - visibility in events, and walking en mass creates a POWERFUL STATEMENT of "issue, concern, passion, and longing to make a better world"...

We walk - because we can.

Then we make plans for childcare and struggle to make the miles / hours...

We spend too much money on gear that will help us endure, protect our feet & hopefully keep West Nile Virus bugs off of our hopefully non-chafed , oft achy, weary, bodies -

Then, once back home, we try making up for the time spent away from our families, by overdoing attention and affection when we really want to just 'BE" or zone out - just REST...

...and we look toward a near future, when all this really culminates - when it matters... when the walk is in progress and we're caught up in the tide of humanity - in the swell of emotion and passion and purpose...

...and we look farther down the road, to a day, a time, a world where our children only hear those words that strike fear into the hearts of even the strongest of people (_________  cancer)  - the day- yes THE DAY , when they only READ THOSE WORDS in a classroom in a school (or home!) from a HISTORY BOOK ...

...and we will look back and know that we were part of something far bigger than ourselves, and our own agendas and lives... we invested our blood, sweat and tears into a legacy of health for our children and their children's children...

...and it will have all been because we laced up our shoes and took the first step...

...that is a legacy worth walking for.