I’ve held a few signs in my life.

The one I treasure most said,

“Last day of chemo!”

and I remember grasping it so proudly alongside my husband and son who a year later lost his fight with cancer.

Signs definitely speak.

And our family definitely had a message to deliver to the world on that special day.

A few years later, KLove asked for photographs of people showing how they were living proof of God’s love and power in their lives, so I had a friend take a photograph of me sitting between our two children’s tombstones.

I wanted the world to know that with God you can face the unimaginable and somehow smile again.

I guess that’s what signs are for……………………..being heard without opening our mouths.

And I’m all for people being heard.

Women

Men

Children

Abused

Neglected

Broken

Confused

Lost

Mistreated

Marginalized

Forgotten

and even Famous

Freedom rings in a country where we’re free to march down any street we choose,

carrying a sign declaring any type of conviction.

I really wouldn’t want it any other way.

I wouldn’t want to live, like many do around the world, in fear of sharing my thoughts openly and honestly.

I’m thankful for a country where all voices can be heard…………loudly and clearly.

And I would never criticize the masses of women who felt compelled, for whatever reason, to join together to make their voices known.

Some marched carrying handmade signs.

Others marched by using their keyboards.

Whether you chose a street or a form of social media to express your views during the past week,

you had a place to freely say whatever was on your mind.

And there was plenty said on all sides of every issue.

Street marching

and

Keyboard marching

They’re one and the same to me.

I love words, and I find great power in them.

But lately, I’ve found words exhausting.

Too many voices and too many signs and too many posts have turned the beauty of the human language into an alphabet soup of chaos………………..

and I don’t really know what anyone wants anymore.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Except for everyone else to be quiet and listen to them.

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So, I’m choosing to walk……………….

not march.

I’m choosing to put one foot in front of the other as I move from my bedroom to my kitchen for my morning coffee

and as I leave my home to teach

or take photographs

or sit with female inmates in jail…………….

Women who took their freedom too far and now long for someone to help hold them back from everything they thought they needed or wanted.

I’m choosing to walk not march because I don’t feel compelled to pressure anyone else to make my world better than I can make it myself by loving deeply and living honestly.

And as I think of my own daughter, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter and the many dreams I have for each of them………………………

I feel very content walking through life with them rather than marching down streets for them.

I feel extremely powerful walking through my days rather than marching,

because every single morning I wake up and dig deep into the tiny little part of this great big world God has made my own………

and in that digging, I hope I plant seeds along the way that continue to grow into beautiful things long after I’m gone.

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If God can bring good from all things (and He promises He will),

I hope He takes this past week filled with so many words being carried high and spoken loudly and causes us all to look deep within ourselves and ask,

“What difference am I really making on this planet?”

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Maybe that’s it.

Maybe that was the driving force for this weekend’s movement.

Maybe everyone just wants to be sure they play a pivotal role in this crazy thing called life.

I’ve read a lot of news articles and looked at even more photographs from the past few days,

and I admire people who traveled far and wide to join what they believed they needed to join in order to be heard.

Who am I, as a blogger, to say their voices don’t matter?

But for me, I’ll stay off the street and in my own little town doing what I can to make the world a better place one friend-to-friend conversation at a time.

I’ll vote wisely and pray for my leaders.

-no matter how I may feel about them-

and thank God daily for a country where I don’t have to hide my beliefs or fear being imprisoned for speaking my heart.

March if you need to……………..

but never take lightly the significance you make when you also choose to walk.

Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.