Week 13: Life is the Sum of All Your Choices

 

At my stopping point on Day One of the Walk, I saw a sign that read, “Life is the sum of all your choices.” At the time, I thought it was about the fruits of staying the course in the face of adversity or the consequences of giving up. Nonetheless, its deeper meaning breezed by my conscious awareness and understanding undetected. The fate of the Walk a Week in Your Shoes campaign, as well as the trajectory of my personal life, both hinge upon the choice that I have finally made.

 

The dramatic events over the past three months unfolded in a manner far different from the original vision I received. God knew that hitting the open road and walking around the country with nothing but a backpack and a prayer appealed to my strong sense of individualism and adventure. Ergo, that’s the vision He presented to me. And I jumped at it full force as He knew I would. Just as quickly however, He injected family elements that only a cold-hearted, uncaring person could ignore. Although my mom’s health crisis turned the situation into a drama fit for one of today’s reality shows, God knew that it would take something that dramatic to slice through my strong-willed—almost defiant—personality. God knew that only something that dramatic would push me to view my life, my motivations, and my choices in a different light. Finally, everything is illuminated.

 

This campaign aims to celebrate the principles, beliefs, and choices that individuals integrate into their everyday lives to build up their families. Yes, personally walking the roads of our nation to discover and promote these practices certainly demonstrated my commitment to the cause. However, I did not realize that as the leader of this effort, I, too, had to embody the spirit of the Walk in my personal life. Postponing that feeling of wind-blowing-through-the-hair freedom to make sure my mother was okay ignited a sense of duty to my family that I had only vaguely felt and fleetingly considered before that moment.

 

To successfully lead the Coalition and this campaign, my perceptions and individualistic thinking needed to be transformed into family-oriented thinking. How can I really understand the challenges that families face and how they overcome them when a decade has passed since I had really participated in one? I cannot promote something that I don’t practice. I saw the extreme worry and fear my mom carried around just before the Walk started until I suspended it. I am certainly not one for allowing someone else’s fear to hinder my actions or decisions. However, this was different. Her physical health was being affected by the idea that her baby would be out there all alone. Although I would gladly give my life for the cause, clearly it’s not about me anymore.

 

Ergo, with peace in my heart, I have decided to permanently cancel the actual walking aspect of the campaign. I still believe it is a superb idea. I just cannot be the one to carry out. Instead, the Coalition will continue a “virtual” walk along the planned route using community and family gatherings to collect stories and feature families in those cities and towns. This was actually an additional part of the original campaign strategy but will now be the primary mode of operation.

 

An Opportunity to Celebrate

This is actually good news! By not spending precious hours walking down stretches of U.S. highways surrounded only by cows, I am free to participate in other much needed areas to spread the campaign internationally as well as on the home front. After all, we are the International Freedom Coalition! In all honestly, I was never really at peace with us just covering the U.S.

 

Share Your Story

I invite you to share your experiences with making choices that honored your family’s needs. What were the results? How did you maintain a sense of independence or individualism while being a responsible team player in the family?

 

Please share your story as a comment to this post on our official Sights ‘n Sounds Blog to provide helpful guidance to others trying to find their way.

 

Life is the sum of all your choices. Choose consciously to create the life you desire.