Led by Example

Albert Schweitzer said that "example isn't the main thing in influencing others. It's the only thing."

Leading by example is in my opinion the best piece of advice that anyone can give a parent. Your children watch you like a hawk from the day that they are born. They watch your every move, your every nuance, your every reaction and response. They mimic your actions through their play and in their responses to all that life throws at them. "Oh, yeah, well my Mom says ..." rings through many a school yard or back garden. Even as teenagers, when you are convinced that they firmly believe that you were put on the earth to totally destroy their lives and any hope of ever being awesome, they are watching and learning. They watch what you do, even if they are no longer all that interested in what you have to say.

When I think back to my own childhood and think of my parents I remember my father as being larger than life; always physically fit and active; the strongest Dad on the block. I remember my Mother as a wave of calm and stability that seemed to anchor my life and the lives of my 3 sisters and 2 brothers. As we all grew up and moved across the country more than once, changed schools too often to want to think about and eventually settled and began our own families, there was always one thing that both of my parents kept doing. No matter where we lived or what challenges we were facing in our own lives as a family, both my Mother and Father gave back to the community we lived in.

Whether through teaching Sunday school, volunteering in our classrooms, being a Girl Guide Leader, or giving hours upon hours of service through her sorority, my Mother gave back. My Father being an editorial cartoonist and a local celebrity put back into the community through guest appearances at rodeos, fashion shows, poetry readings, and even once walked 50 miles from Edmonton to New Sarepta to answer a challenge.

My Father has always been an athletic man. He was a champion boxer, a mountain climber and was jogging before it was the " thing to do". He ran his first marathon in 1981 at the age of 51 and with his "partner in crime" columnist Nick Lees began combining marathon running with fund raising for the next 2 decades. Their adventures took them from Athens, to New York City, London England, Ottawa, North Wales, the Arctic Circle and even down the Jasper/Banff corridor (a marathon a day for 7 days!) Through these events they raised thousands of dollars for palliative care programs, the Ronald McDonald House, the Salvation Army, and funded a library for an inner city school, (to name a few of their projects).

Through all those years I watched and I listened to the adventures, the victories and the hard fought battles. I read and saved the newspaper columns, written by Nick and illustrated by Dad, and I learned and was led to understand the tremendous gift that lies in giving back to others.

And so you can understand how when I first heard of the Joints in Motion Program it had instant appeal to me. This was exactly what I should do. I signed on and in the fall of 2005 began to learn to run and began to train for my first marathon. I followed the training plan that I received from Gregory (our fearless leader) and would phone my Father every Saturday morning after I had completed my Long Slow Distance run. "Guess how far this week, Dad?" He encouraged me when I was doubting my very sanity in taking on the commitment and he cheered me on as my strength and endurance built through September, the rains of October and the snows of November. When I finally crossed the finish line in Honolulu on December 4th, 2005 he was the first person I called to say that "I had done it!"

He led by example and now I am doing the same.