The Part of the Iceberg I Can’t See
A comment appeared recently on The Long Walk Ahead Facebook page:
“We are on the journey with you.”
I have kept thinking about the word ‘we‘.
When I created Walk With Me, I imagined participation as something visible. Someone would choose a goal, send me their information, and appear on the tracker. We would see the steps, follow the progress, and move forward together.
But that comment made me realize there may be people walking with me who will never join the tracker.
They may never send their name. They may never tell me their goal. They may never comment or share a post. They may simply read something, put on their shoes, and take a walk.
Or perhaps their long walk has nothing to do with steps.
Maybe someone is trying again after a setback. Maybe they are making a change they have postponed for years. Maybe they are enduring a difficult season and finding enough strength to take the next step, even if no one else knows how difficult that step is.
I may never know.
That realization is humbling.
The numbers on the website are easy to count. Steps can be recorded. Miles can be measured. Names can be placed on a tracker. But perhaps the most meaningful part of this journey cannot be measured at all.
It makes me wonder whether Walk With Me is an iceberg. The people and progress I can see may be only the small portion above the surface. Beneath it could be quiet decisions, private struggles, and people moving forward without ever announcing that they have joined.
I do not want to exaggerate what this project has become. It is still new, and I genuinely do not know how many people are following along or what it means to them.
But the possibilities have started running through my mind.
Maybe everyone does not need a formal community. Maybe some people do not want their progress displayed publicly. Maybe it is enough to know that someone else is out there walking too.
There is comfort in that thought.
Somewhere, another person may be taking a step I will never see. They may not know that their quiet persistence would encourage me just as much as anything I could ever write might encourage them.
Walk With Me will remain open to anyone who wants to participate publicly. But I now understand that joining the tracker is not what makes someone part of the journey.
You can walk with me quietly.
You can keep your goal private.
You can move at your own pace, on your own road, toward something only you fully understand.
You do not owe anyone an announcement.
Just keep moving.
Perhaps we are walking together, even if neither of us ever knows it.