National MS Awareness Month || Begging...pleading... Join me for the local and/or Seattle MS Walk!

Remember the phrase, "Fire, Walk With Me," from Twin Peaks?

Through the darkness of future past,
The magician longs to see
Once chants out between two worlds:
Fire, walk with me.

It has crept back into my memory as I walk this new MS path. Fire, of course, is orange, the color of the MS Awareness campaign. Fire could be thought of as representing a number of things: the inflammation in my brain, the fire that comes from the solar plexus chakra which is all about creation and drive to charge ahead, the literal fire one feels while taking DMTs for their MS. It makes sense that it should be the slogan for my first MS Walk in which I play, not a participant supporter and fundraiser, but an actual MSer.

I've walked twice, previously, for my friend JS in Seattle after her diagnosis. This year I'll walk in my own community with a team that is already composed of some people I already know, so that will be fun. I made myself a family t-shirt this year with this new slogan just because.

But then my excitement about the event was dampened by the fact that my whole family probably can't walk with me.

It turns out that my youngest is in a dance recital that entire weekend and my oldest may not be able to make the local walk (I still plan to do both the local walk and the Seattle walk this year), so it'll just be me and my husband and however many friends I can get to walk along with me. I still haven't found a team in Seattle, but I think Virginia Mason might have one I could join. UPDATE: I've joined the Benaroya Research Institue team, located here.

It's funny, right as I sit and write this I wonder if I'm putting too much energy into it. Part of me is all "nobody is going to come join your walk or wear your t-shirt" and part of me is all "you have to do this even if you walk alone."

But I don't want to walk alone. And I don't want it to only be my husband and my maybe daughter. I love them bunches but, let's just say it out loud: I'm the cheerleader in the family. I know if I walk only with them I will feel like I forced them to do something they don't really want to do (or have time to do).  I might actually feel more alone walking with them. I know, that seems terrible, but I'm a realist. They just aren't into these things.

So... will you? Will you walk with me? With us?

DETAILS

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND MS WALK (TEAM || ROCK WALKERS)
Date: Saturday, April 12, 2014
Location: Starts at BHS and going through Winslow, as I recall (map online is not working)
Address: 9330 NE High School Rd, Bainbridge Island, Washington (BHS)
Site Opens: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Opening Ceremony: 9:45 a.m.
Route: 2.5 miles

SEATTLE MS WALK (TEAM || BENAROYA RESEARCH INSTITUTE)
Date: Sunday, April 13, 2014
Location: University of Washington campus, Burke-Gilman Trail
Address: 3870 Montlake Blvd NE, Seattle, Washington
Opening Ceremony: 9:45 a.m.
Route: 4 miles

Links
Here's the link to the local team, the Rock Walkers. Go there, read the stuff there, click on Join Our Team or Donate to Walk MS. And here's the link to the Seattle Benaroya Institute Team. OR... you could go to my local personal page or to my Seattle Walk page to read what I have to say about the local MS Walk here and either Donate To Me or Join My Team.

I hope to nab a few friends to put in some time walking. It's so much fun and the weather is always nice. Donate or not at your discretion. I'm less about fundraising this year and more about teambuilding and building my support network. And heck, the more the merrier! So please consider helping a friend out so she doesn't have to walk alone, with the fire.