Primarily Primate

I've always enjoyed feet, and abhorred shoes.

Even socks annoy me...to wear. I don't mind if others wear them--in fact, they can be quite cute, especially if you have some fun with them and sport festive knit graphics, or perhaps you prefer to share a message of "love" or "peace" with your socks. I've seen more than one occasion where the right sock can become a conversation piece.

But shoes? No thanks, not in the house. Gross. Dirty, icky, disgusting soles dragged around my home. Wiped them on the mat, you say? Big whoop--see those grooves in the bottom? Perfect for tracking all sorts of things in...unmentionable things. Because, you see, in your shoes, you have NO idea what you've stepped in. Can't feel a thing. You think my bare feet are disgusting? At least I know when I've landed in a pile of...oh yeah, unmentionable. Right.

This month's Smithsonian Magazine contained a little blurb about barefoot running. Well, I'm not much of a runner these days, but I do find myself propelled forward by my feet from time to time, so it did tickle my fancy a bit. The very next day after I read this blurb, a friend posted on Facebook that she had taken her dog for the first walk of Spring...barefoot! I was quite impressed, knowing that this woman lives on a gravel road, and I thought more about the concept. I was quite smitten with the idea, actually.

A few days later, barefoot walking, and its anatomical benefits, was mentioned briefly on a television show. OK, that's it, I'm getting this message over and over. I'm trying it.

I set off this morning for my first barefoot walk. Knowing my little virgin soles might not be tough enough for extreme temperatures which my asphalt road would sure provide after a chilly night, I had to exercise enough patience for the sun to warm my way.

I have to now chuckle when I reflect on my announcement to my husband, "I'm going to go for a walk...barefoot!" and how he didn't even flinch. I guess he's a bit used to my unconventional lifestyle choices!

Giddy. Silly. Adventurous. Rebellious. I felt all of these things as I practically skipped out the front door, no socks to don, no laces to tighten. Ooh, whoops, I'll have to sweep those little tiny pieces of I-don't-know-what off of my front porch from my son's T-Rex archaeological dig science kit...they're tiny, they're round, and they're sticking to the bottom of my feet! So, after my first few steps, I paused and brushed the bottom of my feet against my pant leg to clear them--an important new move I would repeat a few times on my first foray.

Warm. The sidewalk, the blacktop driveway...it all feels so warm on my foot. Not hot. Soothing. It feels goooooood. I notice how walking up the hill to the road feels natural. Not at all like walking uphill in shoes. How do describe it??? It's easy! It doesn't feel at all like a struggle! Interesting...perhaps it's just the lilt in my walk, though--a little of the giddiness lightening my step? Noted...

I reach the road. Without breaking stride, I step into the road--a dead-end, very quiet residential street. There are only nine homes on my street, which is 1/4 mile long. I know all of the neighbors here, and most of them know me well enough to simply shake their heads at my bare feet and chalk it up as another of Julie's eccentricities. Perhaps only the new neighbors next door might wonder if I was perhaps just a bit insane. Of course, in this Metro Detroit Great Recession economy, they'd probably first just assume I didn't have money for shoes.

Well, nevermind it--I am happy that I feel confident enough in myself and my neighbors' brotherly love to only consider for an instant how this shoeless shenanigan would be perceived. On with it!

At first I think it's my hopeless optimism. Next, I wonder if it's some subconscious desire to want to be different. I disregard both of these notions...it is just simply GLORIOUS!!!! I feel so FREE! I feel so HAPPY! I feel like I'm not walking, but dancing! Everything flows, everything has rhythm! I'm not just putting one foot in front of the other, plodding forth to get some mandatory exercise. My whole body is participating in this wonderfully balanced motion. I feel it in my hips, which slightly sway...yes, yes, I'm actually swaggering! Not intentionally, but there is definitely a smooth side-to-side, curvy sort of pattern that has emerged. I even sort of feel sexy! That may be overstating how an on-looker would perceive me, but to go from a clog-walker to a fluid-walker is definitely evoking that sexy kind of self-perception!

Ok, so I'm totally blissed out, and I phase into the next stage. Earth connectedness. I feel so in tune with the ground below me that I'm also feeling like an extension of it. Perhaps asphalt isn't the most romantic material for a tree-hugger like me to feel extended from, but it doesn't feel like only the road giving rise to me. It also feels like the grass running along beside me. And I feel like I can imagine, eons ago, what it was like to be walking with purpose, packed dirt beneath my feet. Am I walking to the well? Am I searching for berries? Am I perhaps journeying towards a new home? I know, now you're thinking that I just might be a bit insane, or in the very least that I have a ridiculously wild imagination, but it's true. I am thinking these things.

I recently read "The Call of the Wild" with one of my sons. Do you remember this story? Buck, the St. Bernard/Shepherd mix reconnects to his canine roots in the Alaskan wilderness. The omniscient reader knows that Buck often has memories that tie him back even further, to the first days of domesticity, when he warmed himself around the cave-dweller's fire. Memories that were not of his current incarnation, but were either of a past-life or perhaps a collective memory.

I cannot say that I was having any visions or any recall of barefoot walkers, but I could imagine it. My mind definitely drifted there as I consciously imagined my barefoot ancestors. Could I, or would I want to, eventually train my feet to withstand the uneven ground, pebbles, twigs, as they did? What would my feet look like?

And I look at my feet...they look pretty much the same as they looked tens of thousands of years ago. Hundreds of thousands...except perhaps the toes are a bit shorter and less dextrous. Primarily, my feet were that of any primate's! And we humans are the only ones to be wearing shoes...to protect our feet? Hmmm....I'm not seeing a grand argument for that, as most people develop foot problems in their middle age, despite our high-tech footwear. Need more padding for troublesome joints? That argument is falling away quickly as more and more research shows that barefoot is actually less impactful.

But wait a minute, all this scientific pondering is taking away from my sensual foot grace! Let's get back to the walking!

So now I'm trying to quantify my experience so I can communicate it to my husband, who is an engineer and is never convinced by something "feeling" right. Words, I need words....examples...ok, I can feel my pants lightly whooshing over the tops of my feet. That feels nice. My steps are quiet, and I'm noticing more bird calls than usual. Nice...my foot is moving all over the place. Ok, that's harder to describe. My toes, the sides of my foot, my heel, what's going on down there? How is my foot rolling? It's all just happening very naturally, and faster than I can really think about each individual motion...

I have now turned down the nature path, still paved, and now we get a little hilly. Shoot. I hate walking hills--especially the downhills, where I have to take teeny, tiny steps because I always feel so ill-footed. But, wait! What's going on? This is FUN, and it feels GOOD! (Yes, I do know I keep repeating that, but it was a very prominent thought throughout the walk)! The downhills are EASY. The step is actually reversing its motion--the toes and the balls of the feet are touching down first, and the heel fills in the step...weird! Well, it makes sense and all, but what's weird is how natural it feels, how uncharacteristically steady I feel, and how it all happened intuitively. Goodness gracious, after all these generations of walking in shoes, how grateful I am that our brains haven't forgotten what to do!!!

This all sounds terribly exaggerated, doesn't it??? Sigh....it really was that significant to me. I have never enjoyed a walk so much. I've never felt so naturally groovy about exercise! I felt like I had finally found a new way to ground myself, so to speak! Are you very in touch with your intuition, reader? Can you recall making a change in your life that, once made, felt SO right there was no denying its place on your journey? This was one of those moments to me.

What does this "barefooting it" experience mean for my future? I have no idea...we'll see as I share my experiences on this blog. For today, it means some slightly sore soles for me...I ended up walking over a mile this first time, which was probably pushing it a little.

What does that mean to you? Well, I don't know...perhaps my passion, which has driven me to start this blog, will inspire others to give it a shot, which may result in similar reactions, and at the very least, some healthier feet and joints? Maybe it will make you think twice before putting shoes on your children's feet indoors? How's that pair of thick-soled tennis shoes looking to you now when compared with a traditional moccasin?

Love your feet, but shave your toes,

Jules