An Afternoon of Lies and Deception…

One beautiful fall day I was minding my own business in the comfort of my own home, when my mom texted me and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with her and my sister in the trails, just south of town. They’re about seven kilometers in total, and go around some really nice homes and half of a golf course. However, I was not in the mood to go on any sort of walk. Not even remotely. I’m in terrible shape and I know I need to start exercising, but that day was not the day to start making positive life changes.

“Oh come on,” she said, “my hip is sore and Alisha will be pushing a stroller, so we’ll probably only walk for a half hour or so.”

“Ugh, fine,” I groaned.

And thus began the vortex of lies and deception… from my own mother and Pastor…

We got to the trails and since this was only supposed to be a half an hour walk, I thought I would break in my new orthotics.

We started walking when my sister, Alisha asked, “how far do you guys want to go? I was thinking two or three kilometers at least.”

“Ummmm, what? … Mom told me we’d only walk for a half hour…” It is at this point I started to regret my life choices.

Mom piped up, “let’s just walk a couple kilometers and see how we feel.” Not today, Satan, I thought. Not today…

“Oh, so when you said we’d only walk for a half an hour; that was a bold faced lie, then?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was an outright case of bait and switch. And false advertising. And downright deception!

“Oh, you’ll be fine,” replied mom. “Let’s just go.” Classic mom, ‘you’ll be fine’… No, I most assuredly, will not be fine!

We got to the one kilometer mark. It’s not so bad, I haven’t passed out yet. Only one more kilometer to go and we can turn around. Two kilometer mark. I was mid pivot when mom said “let’s just go another half a km.”

More lies and deception…

By this time, we’ve walked by some big, beautiful houses and mom has said a few times that ‘one day’ we should do the whole seven kilometers, because it’s a really pretty walk and she’d like to show us how it ends. Little did I know that ‘one day’ would be that day… I’ll show you how it ends… it ends with me passed out on the middle of the sidewalk. That’s how.

Before I knew it, we’ve passed the three kilometer mark. If we turned around right then, which neither Alisha nor my mom seemed to want to do, it would still be a six kilometer walk. “Let’s just go all the way around,” said mom… or Alisha. I didn’t even know by that point, I was just struggling to survive. My faith in humanity was gone and I succumbed to my fate. I felt so betrayed.

“Aren’t the trees so pretty?” asked mom. Who could even tell? My stubby little legs were working overtime just to keep up, that by that time I was quietly gasping for air, praying that the Lord would return right now. Take me now, dear Lord!

Also at this point, I realized that trying out my orthotics was probably not a good idea. My feet, arches, shins, hamstrings, and hips were all screaming at me. What could I do? I thought. I’ve fallen victim to false advertising and now it’s too late. All hope was gone.

After what felt like a month and a half, we got to the car. I was severely dehydrated. But more than that I felt like there was not enough water in the world to quell the betrayal I felt in my heart. How could they?

… But after driving about five minutes, I took a deep breath and realized, I just walked seven kilometers for the first time since I can remember, and it actually wasn’t that bad. Good for me.