My second 100 miles in 100 days walking campaign is coming to an end. This Saturday I will walk my 100th mile at the Prosthetics Outreach Foundation's Walk-a-thon. Looking back on the past three and a half months, I've experienced some wonderful walks. I've enjoyed walking and talking with my husband about our respective days, listening to my daughter talk about what she's excited about in life and learning how to walk more efficiently at Carol Frazey's Fit School for Women classes. But there's one walk that stands out as special.
About three weeks ago I received a late night phone call from Harvey. My regular readers will remember that Harvey is the man who I was in my accident with, the man who hit me, causing the loss of my leg. Harvey and I reconciled about fifteen years ago and have seen each other sporadically since then. Three weeks ago Harvey was driving through town on his way home to Victoria. He asked if he could walk my mile with me the next morning.
So at 6:30 the next morning Harvey pulled into my driveway. I hopped in his car and we drove down to the a park near the water to take our walk. Since we hadn't seen each other for nearly a year, we spent the walk catching up on each other's lives. Harvey looked great. He started attending boot camp in January and had lost 40 pounds.
The last time we saw each other was last September at my local bookstore. I was giving a reading of my first published essay in the anthology, The Spirit of a Woman, Stories to Empower and Inspire, edited by Terry Laszlo-Gopadze. This is the story my reconciliation with Harvey.
After our walk, we went to a coffee shop for a cuppa and reminisced about that night last September. Harvey talked about how healing it was for him. I've only seen Harvey five or six times in my life and this was the first time he didn't offer to give me his leg or otherwise try to make it all better. This time there was no furrow to his brow. This time, he looked peaceful and happy. That brought joy to my heart.
Harvey and I remind each other how important and powerful the gift of forgiveness is. That fateful snowy winter day on the freeway nearly thirty four years ago could have ruined each of our lives. We could have each remained angry, bitter and resentful. The accident and all that resulted from it changed our lives forever, but neither one of us let it ruin us.
Harvey posted recently on Facebook, "Make peace with your past so it doesn't screw up the present." Amen to that, Harvey!