A favorite mantra I tell myself is – even baby steps move you forward. Unfortunately, when it comes to publishing my first book, my baby phase extends far beyond the norm.

So, I finally put on my big girl pants and set out a plan to get my book published in 2025. Has it gone exactly as planned? Of course not. What in life does? But for the first time, I believe it is really going to happen.

Writing on Walking

If the advice of writing about what you know is a good suggestion, then my topic is spot on. Who knows more about walking than this Old Lady who has been walking for over 20 years in the 3-Day, 60 Mile Walk for the Cure?

I am certainly not the first who has done a lot of walking in her life. In researching background information, an Amazon search returned over 60,000 books. Now, that’s a lot of walking – and writing. But the great thing about writing and life is no two stories are the same.

Sh*&%y First Draft

This is not my first shot at sharing my 3-Day stories in a book. But I found my early attempts to be more historical than engaging.

• On the first Walk, this happened.
• Then this happened on Walk 4.
• And on and on.

**YAWN**

I decided to change direction. I’ve often asked myself what it was about this event that drew me in and keeps me coming back year after year. What lessons have I learned from my MBT sandal-clad feet slapping pavement all these years?

Below is a bit of a teaser for the book – so far. It’s very much a work-in-progress. I would love to hear your thoughts.

• Does it intrigue you?
• What would you change or add?
• What more would you like included to persuade you to read it?

The title is a working title. It could change. Please share your feedback in Comments, email me at oldlady at oldladybiz dot com, or you can use my Contact page. Thank you for sharing.

Old Lady Walking in Their Shoes: Bias-Busting Lessons from Walking 60 Miles in 3 Days

What possesses a fifty-one-year-old woman to walk 60 miles in 3 days? One word. Cancer.

In the late 90s, I lived in a beautiful part of southern California, known as Channel Islands Harbor. While sitting at a traffic light one weekend, I saw a long stream of people (mostly women) walking down the coast.

“What are you all walking for?” I asked.

“To raise money for breast cancer awareness.”

One woman told me the walk was Friday through Sunday and a total of 60 miles over the three days.

Wow. Really? These were regular people – in all shapes and sizes. A lot like me. I wasn’t sure why this event grabbed me from the start, but it did. At the time, I did not know anyone who had breast cancer. All I knew was I wanted to be a part of this.

Then years went by. Like a nagging aunt, I began hearing ads on the radio about the event urging me to sign up. But as life has a way of doing, my best intentions took a back seat to my day-to-day life.

But that all changed when my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer became personal – too personal. My sister’s diagnosis was all the push I needed to get up off my couch and on to the streets of San Diego.

I had no plans beyond walking that first walk in 2003. Limping into work the Monday after my first walk, wearing blisters and flip flops, I had already committed to joining my newly found spiritual sisters the next year.

Now, over two decades later, this much older lady is still walking. The question is why. What was it about this event that I could not walk away from?

What I thought would be a one-year thing turned into a lifelong journey that taught me a lot about myself. Old Lady Walking in Their Shoes shares my personal discoveries, including the recognition of built-in biases we all have, and how those biases shape our actions and feelings.

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.

It took a lot of steps to begin to understand the why behind it all, although I am still learning more each year. Maybe that’s why I cannot walk away.

I’ll share what I’ve learned about myself. My truth won’t be your truth but hopefully you will find your own truth to overcome the impact of built-in biases on people who want to do better.

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Note: If you are interested in receiving future excerpts of my work-in-progress book, let me know. I value your feedback.

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