Reflection Of My March
By Shelley Strong
I was blessed to complete the 50 MILE MARCH this past weekend and wanted to share some thoughts on my experience. I believe each experience in life, large or small, can be an opportunity for learning and growth. Although we completed the march just yesterday, and I know I’ll be processing and reflecting on this experience for a while to come, I wanted to share some of the wisdom and my personal opportunities for growth that I’ve identified so far.
The First Reflection
The first reflection, and arguably one of the most profound in terms of how this was experienced, was the impact of living your values. The 50 Mile March Foundation boldly identifies service as one of their five core values. I personally think this is such an admirable value and one that is challenging to live daily as we all have so many competing priorities in our lives. Over the course of our preparations for the march and certainly during the event itself, I experienced and observed innumerable examples of service. I saw marchers serving other marchers, constantly putting their needs aside to tend to the needs of others first. I saw volunteers that dedicated a full 24 hours (and goodness knows how many more hours in preparation) during the march to the needs of the marchers and each other. These folks didn’t sleep, didn’t rest, and were EVERYTHING we needed at EVERY stop. I experienced folks from the 50 Mile March Leadership team asking marchers, volunteers, and each other what they needed and immediately stopping to make sure they got it. This is the epitome of servant leadership, and I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to experience such a profound example in real life.
So, my personal challenge from this wisdom is to live each day guided by my values. I want my decisions, actions, and behaviors to reflect my values in order to live authentically and reach my personal potential for goodness each day.
The Second Reflection
The second reflection involves commitment. This word came up at each of our briefings and it was also prevalent through various communications, be it social media or email, throughout our preparations, and the march itself. I realized through this experience that each person involved in this immense undertaking had completely committed to their role and making this mission happen. This may sound intuitive, but I’m always fascinated by how and why we commit to various causes and even organizations. Additionally, this experience reinforced the idea that fulfillment of commitment doesn’t happen in isolation. It took many folks committing, and many more supporting those that committed, to make this happen. For me, I could not have fulfilled my commitment to the march and its mission without the support of my husband who provided the space for me to train, and the love and encouragement to continue training and walking when it was challenging. I could not have fulfilled my commitment without my friends. These women encouraged me, held me accountable in the most loving and supportive ways, and celebrated each small win with me along the way before, during, and after the march. Each donation received also demonstrated commitment to the march, but more importantly to our Veterans and their needs. I saw so many examples of commitment and so many ways in which it manifested throughout this experience. So, my personal challenge from this reflection is to be selective and steadfast in my commitments, and be more intentional in the ways I support others in their commitments. This requires some hard reflection on priorities and where my energy and strengths can do the most good. The thing about commitment is that you can’t give it to every cause—we have limited bandwidth and to truly commit takes time and energy. Every cause is important, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should commit to every cause.
The Last Reflection
This last reflection deals with discomfort. Obviously, walking 50 miles in less than 24 hours creates some pretty significant physical discomfort; however, this is not what I want to address in my reflection. I am interested in why or how things cause us mental discomfort, and how we each navigate this. I was so impressed with folks that asked for help throughout this process, whether it was looking for training groups, marchers asking volunteers for assistance during the march, or people asking for help with fundraising, I saw so many people asking for help. Asking for help can be uncomfortable for me. I HAD to ask for help (multiple times, from multiple peoples, and in a variety of ways) to accomplish my goal of participating in the 50 Mile March. This caused me a lot of discomfort, BUT, my goal was greater than my discomfort, so I asked. The wisdom I am taking away here is that discomfort isn’t bad, but it does force us to grow. I was only able to reach my goal because I was willing to be uncomfortable. My personal challenge going forward based on this reflection is to continue to embrace (or at least face) discomfort in the pursuit of growth.
There is so much more that came out of this experience for me, but I’m still trying to put it in words and understand all of it. I am still processing but just feel an immense sense of gratitude right now, and I’m okay with that.