As I mentioned in my earlier blog (“On Being Deaf…and Pagan”), I am a certified Firewalking Instructor.
Now, you can imagine what happens when I go to Deaf Clubs or Deaf Events or whatever…
“So, Virginia – what do you do?” “I teach people how to walk on fire.”
“Huh??? Repeat that?” “I walk on fire, and I teach others how to do it as well.”
“Are you serious?” “Yeah.”
“ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!”
Welllllll…the jury is still out on that one!
Once I have convinced my audience that I truly do walk on fire (and teach others how to do it as well), then I get the laundry list of questions.
But the interesting thing I have noticed is how it seems the very first question they tend to ask is…
“IS IT HOT???” Well…yeah. (If you consider 1500 degrees hot, that is.)
This gets followed up by:
“Does it hurt???” NO
“Do you still have toes???” YES
“Have you ever slipped and fell and burned your butt???” NOT YET!!!
But of course, the biggest, most important, primary thing that people want to know is…
“WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANT TO WALK ON FIRE?!?!?!”
This is a good question, and I’m not sure that I can come up with a good answer. It’s hard to explain the reasons behind wanting to walk on fire. The only thing I can say is that you really have to experience it for yourself to fully understand what it’s all about.
What I will say is that walking on fire can be one of the most empowering, transformative, enlightening experiences of your life. It can teach you a lot about yourself and about how to look at things from a new, different perspective.
When you take a firewalking workshop, you learn how to pay attention. You learn how to focus. You learn how to solve problems. You learn how to set up goals. You learn how to develop the process for achieving those goals. You learn how to expect the best. You learn how to plan for the worst. You learn how to go for it.
And when you have accomplished that goal, you learn how to celebrate. You learn how to feel good about yourself. You learning how to share that pride and joy with other people.
And you learn to recognize all the possibilities…and all the possible yous.
The bottom line is…it’s pretty damn tough to feel lousy about yourself after you’ve walked on fire.
Not convinced yet? Still don’t get it?
Okay…let’s see if I can explain it a bit further.
C’mon – let’s head on to the next page and we’ll discuss this whole firewalking thing a little bit more.
continued on “Deaf People Can Do Anything…even walk on fire!”
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
Cool Blog! One thing I’ve always wanted to find out…do firewalkers’ feet get burned? Can you walk around without pain well after the firewalking experience?
I won’t lie, Shane…I HAVE gotten burned while firewalking. When you have done as many firewalks as I have, sooner or later it is bound to happen.
I did one firewalk where I suffered a pretty nasty burn that left me limping for several days – but that was kind of a unique situation…
I was asked at the very last minute if I would come and do a firewalk for a picnic gathering, and the money raised from it (everyone would make a donation in order to participate in the firewalk) would be donated to the victims of Katrina. We had three days to put this thing together, and thus we didn’t have the time or money to secure the type of wood that I normally use for firewalking (you can’t use just any ole type of wood…there are specific woods that are utilized, for safety reasons). I did a little research and was able to come up with some substitutions that we could get at little or no cost, but this was the first time I had ever tried walking on such woods.
Well, these woods burned a bit hotter than I had anticipated, and left much harder coals that were somewhat more uncomfortable to walk on. I should have taken that into consideration and let this fire burn down a bit longer, the coals become a bit softer, and allow it to become a bit cooler before trying to walk it…but I went ahead based on my knowledge and experience of using my traditional woods, and it proved to be rougher on my feet than I expected, the result being that I did sustain a painful burn on my right foot.
The funny thing is that none of the others received any burns. That’s okay – if anyone is going to get burned, I would rather it be me. The good thing is that because I was the first one to walk and thus test the fire, I was able to determine that it was in fact too hot and too hard, and thus require that it burn a bit longer and cool down some before the others walked. That’s a good thing.
And considering that we raised over $1500 for Katrina…and when I think about everything those folks down there went thru…a little burn that inconvenienced me for a few days seems like a small price to pay in comparison.
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