Tag: Walking

A follow-up to my post on healing: sometimes it means admitting you’re wrong (aka “It’s the shoes, stupid!”)

Published on by susanwbailey2 Comments

In a previous post about healing, I wrote that it takes a partnership between ourselves and God to experience healing.

It also requires admitting when you’re wrong.

mercycrocs2Case in point: my longstanding battle with sore feet, aching legs and a consistent backache. I started walking at lunchtime a couple of years ago, just after I discovered my “dream shoes,” the Mercy Croc (see previous post). My feet bounced in them, they were nice and cool in the summer, cozy and waterproof in the winter.

Walking was fun and I loved writing about what I saw on my walks.

Then, all of a sudden, walking became a real drag.

My legs felt like lead again, just like before (I have a chronic foot condition that causes this). Not only that, they hurt. And so did my back. Walking turned from something refreshing and fun to something akin to dragging a ball and chain behind me.

Eventually I stopped walking and felt very discouraged. For all the steps forward I had taken with walking for my health, I felt like I took twice as many backwards.

What went wrong?

I started praying for a healing. This was back in January of 2012.

The answer came a year later but it surely wasn’t God’s fault.

Recently I saw my doctor on an unrelated matter and when I mentioned about my difficulty with walking, he suggested that my shoes were the problem.

mercycrocs1“No!” I said. Not my dream shoes, the ones I am totally in love with. The shoes that nurses wear, claiming they can stand in ten to fourteen hours a day in them.

Yes, those shoes!

nike sneakers2When a second person mentioned the same thing, I knew I had to explore the option. I dug up my Nikes: the shoes that squish my toes.

Yeah, those shoes.

I’ve since walked twice in them. And today I admitted that my doctor and my friends were right.  The added bounce in my step and the lack of pain in my back more than made up for my having to kill my pride in admitting I was wrong.

This led to some other discoveries. Suddenly I remembered that if I stretched everyday for 5 minutes like my foot doctor has told me (over and over again), I would experience less pain. Guess what? He was right!

I then remembered to add glucosamine to my daily vitamin ritual. I dug those out of the kitchen cabinet and miraculously, that worked too.

Why am I so slow to get it?

nike sneakers1Who knows? Is it because it was easier to wallow in my misery than to take action to take care of it? I can’t imagine why I would think wallowing would be easier or more desirable, but it is sometimes.

Pride, self-pity and the fancy to play the invalid have no place in the world of healing. Lord, heal me of these things and the stupidity that accompanies them!

Click to Tweet & Share: To be healed, sometimes you have to admit you’re wrong (aka “It’s the shoes, stupid!”) http://ctt.ec/jZ0F9+

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Step by Step

Published on by susanwbailey4 Comments

The temperature outside was 10 degrees with a wind chill of -11. And I still went out for  my lunch time walk. When I returned, the office manager and real estate agent on duty applauded.

I felt like applauding myself. Never in a million years did I think I would ever find myself walking in such cold weather.

Now I feel like I can do anything!

And it taught me the lesson of Step by Step. Working at something each day. Experiencing success on an incremental level. Sometimes the successes are so small, they go unnoticed. Until one day when you walk in bone-chilling weather and you enjoy it!

Walking has been an odyssey.

Walking has been a teacher.

Walking has introduced and reacquainted me with something and Someone that I love.

crocs383595_211479_lgcougar bootIt began with achy legs and bad feet being introduced to the perfect shoe, the
Mercy Croc.

It continues with the perfect boot, the Cougar Cheyenne Bootie.

It began with walking a few short feet and feeling like I was dragging a ball and chain behind me (not to mention the aching back). Now I walk over three miles and feel exhilarated.

It’s turned Spring, Summer and Fall into glorious excursions into beautiful places filled with hidden messages. It’s transformed Winter from a season I dreaded to a season I rejoice in.

Today I walked the familiar trail to Wellesley College and took pictures. I just loved comparing the seasons:

Fall and Winter trees at Wellesley College
Fall and Winter trees at Wellesley College
A ring of leaves is replaced with snow.
A ring of leaves is replaced with snow.
It's interesting what you see when the leaves are no longer there - Wellesley College tower.
It’s interesting what you see when the leaves are no longer there – Wellesley College tower.
Warm or cold, the ducks are still here.
Warm or cold, the ducks are still here.

And of course, the “Be As One” bridge:

The stone bridge, still just as pretty in winter.
The stone bridge, still just as pretty in winter.

I feel so grateful today.

Grateful for my accomplishments. Grateful for insights. Grateful for my Companion, always there, granting me blessings (often without my asking for them, as in the Mercy Crocs and boots), providing the “eyes” to see, and now, the feet to walk. Empowering me so I can be the way He meant me to be.

Step by Step works for walking. I’m learning how to apply it to writing. I’d say as a writer, I can walk a mile. I’m looking forward to the day when I can walk several, when I can write lots of words and assemble them into a book.

I’d better keep walking.

Click to Tweet & Share: Step by Step: learning to walk in the cold, learning to achieve, learning to be thankful http://wp.me/p2D9hg-mB

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