I took the walk and got burned on my left foot, a blister that tore open and I left a blood trail for about a block. I made it almost half a mile of a one mile walk and had to stop and go back the way I came from and go to a hospital about 10 minutes away.
My wounds were treated and I was sent on my way with medicine to care for it.
I took the walk to help people less fortunate than myself. I took it and got hurt, but I had help within minutes… that help was near and available for me to go to. The people I walked for don’t have that they can’t go back to their car and drive 10 minutes and get medical attention.
My feed back over the last couple of days have been mixed. The people at the Louisville hospital seemed to all say about the same thing. “Least it was for a good cause.” “sorry you got hurt trying to help others”
Then I have people asking me….
“why would you do that?”
“why would you walk in such heat!”
“people running the walk should have called it off.”
“people in Africa walk on dirty roads not concrete”
“bet you never do one of those walks again”
A few say “bless your heart” None have said… “Least you tried, least it was for a good cause”.
So I sit and listen to people in the office have a good time and go on about their day. I think of my day in the sun, with the hot ground below me. I think of everyone else there that blistered and hurt their feet, the ones that have done it before me, the ones that will do it after me and the 3 guys that have done 150 plus walks so far and will do them every city they go to.
I think of how it felt to start the walk and the heat under my feet and thinking, it’s not that bad I can do this. How it felt to be a part of something, taking action and joining a cause.
How the people around me only want to treat me like I should have known better, or that it wasn’t smart of me to do.
They don’t acknowledge what it was that I was doing, they have no idea what it’s like to end up with such a wound from doing something I WANTED to do. I hear their petty talk and think, these people wouldn’t do anything like that even if they were paid to do it.To act for someone else besides themselves would be unheard of.
In that moment all I want is to help with this cause, and causes like it even more. My eyes were opened when my foot started bleeding, sure I was mad that it happened and I had a full day planned ahead of me but when I think back to it, and what it all means… this is nothing compared to what other suffer with. So I burnt my foot, I can’t walk that well right now… but it is healing and I am alive, I have a story to tell and now a reason to help in anyway I can. Cause I can help, I live in a country that is well off. I work and have insurance and can be taken care of…. so I can help, someone who doesn’t have those luxuries.
Yep, I took the walk and got hurt… more importantly I actually got up and took the walk.
www.takethewalk.net