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WALKLING BAREFOOT IN THE SAND
Here’s something we did yesterday that was totally unplanned…
In the morning…and the evening…we walked barefoot in the sand.
There is something magical when feeling the sand beneath your feet…
It’s like when two friends who haven’t seen each other in a while…
have a chance to meet.
The morning sand felt cool…after a night of rest…untouched by anyone…
The evening sand was warmer…after a day out in the sun.
The morning sand was quiet…save for two sounds I adore…
birds waking up and greeting one another and waves crashing against the shore.
The evening sand was much louder…with people all around…
laughter…singing…music…it was a sweet cacophony of sound.
Standing in the water with the sand squishing between our toes…
we watched the sun set into the ocean to a chorus of…’there she goes’.
Studies have proven the benefits of walking barefoot as a way of reconnecting with the land…like we did when we were children in the grass, the mud…the sand.
Perhaps that’s why I wasn’t surprised…to me it wasn’t shocking….
the moment I took my shoes off…it was my child who did the walking…
Which is why of all the places I have walked across this wonderful land…
I find my child seems the happiest…walking barefoot in the sand.
sand squishing between these
sand squishing between these gregarious toes
extricate, exfolioate skin to soul, ones woes
other kids run off with buckets, spades and hoes
but you and I, barefooted, comb the beach in rows
here is poetry that doesn't always conform
galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver
Wonderful to read this
Beautiful and so true. I miss walking barefoot. I used to live on an island so sand/beaches were never far away... and I spent all summer barefoot. Now I am more inland and in a different state... not super close to the ocean anymore and also have fire ants so don't really go barefoot very much... have scorpions and rattlesnakes too but I seldom see those. Thanks for the trip down my own memory lane... - Heidi
More years ago than I care to
More years ago than I care to admit, I was compelled (in September following my high school graduation) to attend a college a couple of hours, by highway, from my home; and thus I had to live on campus. But one of the unexpected advantages was to find that the campus landscape emphasized more lawn and flowerbeds than pavement. It even had a small creek running through it; and its center was a tree-lined, flowery, area where none of the hallmarks of nature---including large stone, the creek itself, and such---had been removed to make way for expansion of the facility. In our geographical area, during that particular "weather decade," autumns continued quite warm until nearly the end of October; and springs began to warm up by early to mid-April. (The present global warming may have increased this temperate period.) I then quickly discovered that a good many of the students attended class, or took meals in the dining hall, or made purchases in the bookstore entirely shoeless; mostly barefoot, some wearing just socks. The trimmed lawns on either edge of the sidewalks that connected all of the academic buildings and the dorms received a lot of pedestrian traffic. The college enforced very little of a dress code; and footwear was not addressed. One simply had to be aware, when on the sidewalks, of broken glass, or discarded rings from opened pop-cans, or other debris. In the four years I was there, I never heard of---much less seen---any foot injuries from this aspect of our residential life there. Even off-campus, some of this was maintained: On a balmy Friday afternoon, I once walked to the post office (nine miles, one way) with my flipflops more often in my hands than on my feet. We had no beaches on large bodies of water, but we did have well trimmed lawns next to almost every sidewalk, and three temperate seasons each year, and flipflops to get over a few uncooperaitve patches. [I apologize for the typos in the original; I think I have corrected all of them.]
Starward