September 15, 1997
"I Don't Know How To Walk!"
by Diana Waring

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I hate to admit this. After all, I am 42 years old. But , here it is: today I learned that I don't know how to walk. In order to understand what I mean, let me take you back a few months... I am not what you call a "natural athlete." No, there is no way anyone would accuse me of that. But I did finally come into a personal agreement with the wisdom of the medical community that a daily walk would benefit me in innumerable ways - weight loss, energy gain, flexibility, heart health, lower cholesterol... So, my dearly beloved husband, Bill, and I began to walk. I honestly think that the only reason I've kept up with this regimen is because of our dachshund's antics on his daily adventure. Miggy walks three-legged most of the time, periodically changing the leg that is at rest. He swings his tail in a circle when he's really happy (very unusual behavior for a dachshund). He lives for the sight of a squirrel to chase, and he delights in the everyday changes in neighborhood smells. With this comic dog relief, and the rippling sounds of Spearfish Creek in the background, I have been able to endure doing what does not in any way come naturally to me. In fact, I've started to become somewhat smug. "Here I am, walking while all you lazy people sleep away your life..." That all changed today. Just as I was getting into my "stride" (ha ha...), my dear husband glanced over at me and gently remarked, "You know, if you hit the pavement with that much pounding, it's not good for you." "What do you mean?" I wasn't concerned yet, just thought we were passing the time of day. "Well, it's important to gently roll over your heel onto your foot, then push off from your toes. That reduces the pounding to your body, and it helps push you along." "Oh." Hmmm... "Well, it can't be THAT hard," I thought. But as I started to think about walking from my heels to my toes (which actually DID feel pretty comfy), my calves began to SCREAM my name. "D-I-A-N-A!!! You're killing us!!!!" Since my husband is a natural athlete, and played football, basketball, baseball and ran track throughout high school, I figured he would know how to help me out on this. "Ummm... I don't think I can do this any more, my calves are about to drop me in my tracks!" "OK. Well, let's stretch them out at this bench." Pain. Pain. More Pain. Charley Horse level pain, though I wasn't doing anything except stretching a teensy weensy bit. Up again, it's time to w-a-l-k. I slowed down and the pain decreased. Then my dear husband glanced over and said, "You know, if you turn your toes slightly in toward the center, that will help also." I glared at him. After all, I've been walking for almost 41 years!!! I've seen people walking!!! I KNOW how to do this!!!! But, not willing to put up with more pain than necessary, I turned my toes slightly into the center. Yes... yes... yes... that worked better. But now, I was thinking so much about how to make my body walk in a way that would benefit it, I wasn't even watching Miggy or listening to the creek. By the time I got home, I was exhausted, chagrined (at myself) and nearly hopeless. Can I really do this? Can I really relearn how to do something so basic as walking? A few tears and some reflection later, I realized that if I am open to try these modifications, it will eventually result in a more comfortable, profitable, healthy, enjoyable walk. This applies to homeschooling as well. When I first started teaching our oldest son, Isaac, we started with a little student desk, a flag, recess, textbooks, and an apple! After all, I knew how to do this. Hadn't I been a student for more years than I cared to remember? It couldn't be that hard. And so, homeschooling for the Waring family commenced. It wasn't too bad. Not at first. But within a few weeks I saw a noticeable decline in Isaac's enthusiasm. The wide-eyed curiosity was being replaced by a slightly bored, recticent manner. By the end of the month he was asking, "Mom, do we HAVE to keep doing this?" My answer was, "I certainly hope not!!!!" You see, I couldn't get up any enthusiasm for what we were doing either. To fill you in on the myriad of details about what happened next would fill a book! (Actually, it DID fill a book - *Beyond Survival: A Guide to Abundant Life Homeschooling*) But the end result was that I had to re-examine and relearn everything I thought I knew about education: what it was and what it wasn't. I began to slowly discover what worked for my family, what made their eyes light up and their minds work and their curiosity hunger for more. It involved doing things that did not come naturally to me - like planning ahead of time for our studies!!! And it meant not being so concerned with what other homeschoolers around me were doing. Honestly, homeschooling opened up a whole new world for me as well as for my children, because we began to share the marvelous experience of reading wonderful books out loud together, discussing what we were learning, acting out Bible stories we'd read, creating science experiments from scratch, researching what we didn't know but wanted to learn - like "why do leaves turn color in autumn?" and "why do steel ships float?" Now it seems so natural to me. But there was a painful stage of letting go of what was not working and beginning to try new things. And, frankly, I wanted to give up. But, praise the Lord, we kept going. And the result in our homeschooling has been comfortable, profitable, healthy, and enjoyable. How are you doing? Are you a "natural" homeschool mom - one who just seems to know what to do to make her children jump for joy when school is announced? Or are you more like me? Has it been a struggle, though you've kept going because you knew it was the right thing to do? Are you open to making some modifications, some changes for the better? Remember my learning-to-walk experience - you may have a few tears, some chagrin, and a bit of discouragement to discover that you're going to have to relearn a few things. That's okay. Do what I did -bring your heart, your homeschool, and your needs to the Lord. He's waiting. Blessings, Diana Return to the List of the BOTCW Columns

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