Today the participants of the Susan G Komen 3 Day walk completed their 60 miles. Even though everyone walks 60 miles, there are two types of walkers.

One, is the walker that is doing it in memory of someone, or to help others, or simply to be part of the solution.

Two, is the survivor. This is the woman (or man) that has been diagnosed with breast cancer, fought breast cancer and kicked breast cancer’s butt.

Group one admires group two a great deal. So when group two walks into the closing ceremony, group one salutes group two by taking off one shoe and holding it up in the air. Its a salute, a sign of admiration and a moment that will bring tears to the eyes of the most callous person. 

It sounds like an odd tribute but it truly isn’t. Good shoes mean the world to a person that walks 60 miles in 3 days. The perfect shoe that each walker has found for their foot…is absolutely treasured. So to take that shoe off and hold it proudly in the air to salute another walker means the world. 

We all know that someday it could be us that hears the dreaded words, “you have cancer.” We also know the women that have gone before us and fought the good fight and won each battle cancer threw at them…will be the sign of courage, the sign of strength and the sign of success that we will look for on those darkest days.

So raise your shoe and salute the survivors that walk through this world knowing they have kicked cancer’s butt.