LOVE this!

I got this from my friend Alison Shields, who walks with the FBC Relay for Life team in Jackson. It reminds me of WHY we walk.....

They Walked.
The chilling, soaking rain fell as if mocking their efforts, but it was hardly noticeable to the line of soldiers who had set out on their mission hours before.
They all had their reasons for walking.
Some walked because the beast had taken a loved one; some because they had battled the beast…and survived. Some still battled the beast and with the hope of a miracle in their hearts.
Still some walked because they believed it was the right thing to do.
A few of them walked in silent reverence; a face of the voice of a fallen loved one still lingering in their mind.
Some chatted and remembered days past or made plans for days ahead. Others laughed and joked to pass the time; still, there was a reverence.
Always a reverence.
There was no judgment.
Black, while, left, right, man, woman, aged, youth all gathered as one.
Wealth walked with poverty. Able walked with disabled.
The ones who couldn’t walk were helped by the ones who could. Strength was found in the acts of the weak, bravery was found in the triumphs of the meek.
Time crept by.
The late night chill numbed fingers and toes, beckoning them to seek the shelter of a warm bed.
Fatigue reared its ugly head. The clock slowed to a snail’s pace.
Still they walked.
Every mile meant a chance.
A chance for a mother to hold her son again, a chance for a husband to hold his wife again…just one more chance. A chance that one more person would survive the beast’s brutal attack. A chance that one day the beast would be beaten back.
The soldiers held onto this thought in every step of every mile in every hour that they walked.
As long as they walked there was a chance.
Please….just one more chance.
The rain fell in a futile effort to put out the fire burning within the soldiers’ souls, but the warmth of their hearts far overpowered any ills that nature could conceive.
A few of them pulled collars up and rededicated their minds to why they were there.
None of them would have been anywhere else at that moment.
All of them shared a dream….
And, so, they walked.