Please help me welcome Cathy Miller to the blog today. She explains here a little about how and why she started participating in the 3-Day Walk For the Cure, and more importantly why she’s still involved.
Last week I reviewed her book, Perfectly Imperfect, which is a memoir of her experiences in the years she’s been participating in this fund-raiser dedicated to raising funds for research for a cure while also promoting an increased awareness of breast cancer. This is a terrific book that celebrates the many people who participate in this worthy event, as well as Cathy’s efforts through the years.
PURCHASE LINKS HERE
Now, without further delay, I turn the blog space over to Cathy.
What possesses someone over the age of fifty to walk sixty miles in three days? The answer for me was breast cancer. No, it was not me with the frightening diagnosis, but my older sister, Terry.
Fate Steps In
Have you noticed how often fate steps into our lives? Those life moments that take an unexpected turn to bring you right where you are supposed to be. I have encountered many such moments, but few felt more significant than my sister’s diagnosis.
In the early 2000s, I saw a stream of walkers making their way down the coast of southern California. I later discovered they were participating in a three-day, sixty-mile walk to raise awareness about breast cancer.
I did not know anyone with breast cancer but there was something about what the walkers were doing that grabbed me. I wanted to join them, but you know how life tends to trample over the best of intentions. That was until my sister received her diagnosis a few years after I had first seen those walkers.
Now it was personal.
The Pink Hook
So that’s how a fifty-one-year-old, relatively fit woman signed up for her first 3-Day, 60-Mile Walk for the Cure. What I did not know at the time was how I would be hooked by the event and its community we call the Pink Bubble.
And what a journey it has been. Over two decades later, this much older lady is still walking sixty miles in three days. The question I kept asking myself was why? I don’t mean the cause. As I came to learn, the number of individuals and families affected by breast cancer (or any cancer) is staggering. So, everything that comes with walking sixty miles is a cake walk compared to cancer.
But why did I keep going? Through my fat years and an aging body, I never once thought about quitting. What was it about this event that kept me coming back year after year? After several years of walking, I decided to write about my experience. Maybe that would help explain why I was so hooked.
It took only fourteen years to publish my book. I guess I had to get more walking under my feet.
Journey of the Heart
Picture the last twenty years of your life. I bet a lot has changed. For me, I struggled with the loss of confidence that had once defined my life. I gained weight. I questioned what I was doing. Where had the happy, positive, confident person gone?
I needed something drastic to change. Hey, why not walk sixty miles in three days? Returning to work in flip flops and blistered feet the Monday after my first Walk, I was sure of one thing. I was not done with the 3-Day, 60-Mile Walk for the Cure.
So, I walked the next year. And the year after that. And again and again. The lessons I learned (and continue to learn) would not let me walk away. What I thought would be a one-year thing turned into a lifelong journey that taught me a lot about myself and others.
Perfectly Imperfect: How Walking 60 Miles in 3 Days Shed Plenty of Biases shares my personal discoveries, including the recognition of built-in biases we all have, and how those biases shape our actions and feelings. Stereotypes and other cognitive biases are formidable roadblocks on our path to becoming better humans. Today’s climate in the U.S. is a painful caricature of the devastating effects of those biases.
It took decades of extreme walking for this self-proclaimed Pollyanna to recognize even people who want to do good have built-in biases. The ones we direct at ourselves are the most damaging and are often the reason we treat ourselves and others the way we do.
In her review, Maryann captured my main lessons I learned from walking 60 miles in 3 days.
- Accept myself first – When I understand and accept myself, I am ready to receive and offer the best of me.
- Appreciate the uniqueness of others – The uniqueness of others is a gift waiting to be opened and shared. The book shares remarkable stories of survival, loss, and hope. I thank all those who shared their stories. You inspire me to keep walking.
- Change my narrative on unconscious bias – After two-plus decades of walking, I know I will stumble, but I will get up and take another step.
It took a lot of steps to begin to understand the “why” behind my coming back to this Walk every year. I continue to learn more each year. Maybe that is why I cannot walk away.
Walk on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cathy Miller spent over thirty years as a professional business writer in both the corporate setting and as a small business owner. Her love of storytelling blossomed into her debut memoir that recounts her two-plus decades of participation in the sixty-mile, 3-Day Walk for the Cure. Cathy also writes at her blog, OldLadyBiz, where she celebrates the joys of reading, writing, and walking (lots of walking).
When she is not writing, Cathy cares for her amazing mother, who has passed the century mark, and their adorable Miniature Schnauzer, Penny. Cathy also creates designs for the Old Lady Biz Store, featuring fun collections for book lovers, writers, walking warriors, and anyone who enjoys a touch of old lady humor.
Website *** Contact Page *** Author Page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for this guest piece, Cathy. It was nice to get to know more about the story behind the story.
That’s all from me for today, folks. Be safe. Be happy. Be kind.
