Faithful in the little things

“To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.”

– William Blake

(Friday 15th March) Barefooting today has been both a challenge and a joy. Winter has finally begun to yield to Spring’s warmth. I decided just to pack my Birkenstock sandals in case of particularly unforgiving road surfaces. Oh, and I had to sign some documents at the recruitment agency. I thought it better to go about ‘official business’ conforming to more conventional, ‘shod’ (in shoes) dresscode.

The 4km walk into Coleraine, however, offered almost uninterrupted grass verges to welcome my still tender soles. The mud was still cool but the Spring sunshine had already warmed the dew that nestled between the blades of grass. It was quite simply a joy and infinitely more pleasant than concrete and tarmac.

Advocates of barefoot and minimalist running often promote the concept of ‘mindfulness’ during the sport, the concept itself a fashionable term in the contemporary medical profession. In barefooting it involves being conscious of the ground beneath you, your surroundings and your posture. Running unshod encourages the foot to strike at the ball, rather than the heel (as is encouraged by training shoes with cushioned heels). This in turn encourages more engaged calf, knee and thigh, as well as core, muscles. In essence, it encourages us to run the way we are designed to. For much more detail, start here (I particularly enjoyed the way a guy named John Durant is introduced as ‘Urban Caveman’).

I believe barefooting also encourages us to be mindful of a lot more. How our urban spaces are reconciled with the natural environment and vice versa, for instance. I mean, I search far more desirously for green spaces when my afflicted soles are screaming at me due to harsh concrete and grit! Coleraine’s Christie Park, which runs alongside the River Bann for about a mile, offered a pleasant sanctuary this afternoon, and even the grass verges on the way from home to the park. Coleraine does offer many green spaces, however small, which encourage wildlife and natural water drainage through the soil (thus easing the job of artificial drainage pipes and making serious flooding less likely). Look around your local area. Are there sufficient green spaces for wildlife, humans and barefooters to share harmoniously?

Lastly, barefooting means slow-footing. One is forced to take shorter strides and slow the pace down. Ditching the shoes is a welcome deceleration of an otherwise fast-paced life. This is a challenge for me as someone who usually tears down the hill into Coleraine on his bike as fast as he can. Slow-footing allows me to take in the little things: the heron perched beside the river, the crocuses sheltering beneath the trees. The little things of God’s creation that He values greatly and with which we have been entrusted.

Barefoot through Sainsbury’s

So, barefoot training began this week in earnest. Yesterday I walked the 2.5 km back from Coleraine’s old bridge, along the River Bann, to the retail park. “Time to look like a weirdo again…”, I thought as I stuffed my boots and socks into my rucksack. The tarmac alongside the river is deceptively knobbly and coarse, however, and the soles of my feet did an excellent job of transmitting every ounce of pain and discomfort up through my body. One becomes something of a tarmac connoisseur, you see, once he sheds the protection of leather and rubber and opens himself up to the whims of modern highway construction. “With an estimated 100,000 – 200,000 exteroceptors in the sole of each foot, your feet are among the most nerve-rich parts of your body”, says Daniel Howell, ‘the barefoot professor’, here. Your feet thus very effectively tell you about changes in terrain and temperature. Stuffed inside shoes you receive little of this but unshod the feet perform a marvellous task.

Whincing sligthtly, I bravely passed a couple walking its dog. My bare feet being very much at the front of my mind, I expected at least a funny look or a murmur as they passed. Nothing. I think the little chiwawa may have fancied a sniff, but that was it. With them gone I retreated to the grassy parkland, which offered some much needed squelchy, cool mud to sink my toes into. Careful to avoid the hidden presents left by previous fellow barefooters (or ‘dogs’), I cut across and up to the retail park to face the biggest challenge of the day.

“I need to pop into Sainsbury’s”, I thought. “Do I put the shoes back on? There’s civilisation in there. Leave the caveman at the door and put your boots back on.” But the challenge was too great. If I was serious about barefooting and the Cambodia cause, I was going to be publicly so. Alas, Sainsbury’s too offered little reaction to my Frodo-Baggins-look. As I pitter-pattered down the aisles, however, I thought about the social role of shoes. In developed society it is surely a sign of civilisation, the unshod (shoeless) man epitomising poverty and indignity. I mean, you can wear whichever clothes you like in whichever combination, but who doesn’t wear shoes of some sort? I guess my barefooting is therefore a dedication to those in Cambodia whom we are going to help. Those who are poor and undignified, the social barefooters. Those for whom reactions of shock and compassion ought to be boundlessly more forthcoming than for Frodo in Sainsbury’s.

Introducing the blog

‘We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do.’

– Barbara Ward, Statement of 1972 Stockholm Environmental Conference, ‘Only One Earth’

I am writing this blog for three main reasons:

• to raise money for a mission trip to Cambodia in June
• to inspire people to go barefoot
• to challenge myself to write

I am part of a small team of young adults raising money for a 2-week trip to Pnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, in June of this year. The team will be working with various Christian and humanitarian organisations that are already there combatting human trafficking and sexual exploitation. Each team member needs to raise £1,000 over the next 12 weeks, both through team fundraising events and individual action. This is my take on the latter.

I want to raise £1,000 by completing a barefoot walk in May up here along the beautiful north coast of Northern Ireland. All are welcome to join and yes, you are welcome to keep your shoes on! If you wish to go barefoot, however, you’re more than welcome.

I also want to challenge myself to write. “I want to write a book one day”, you might hear people say, me included. “I’d love to write but I don’t know what about”, they lament. Me included, again. So here’s to challenging oneself to writing, of all things, about going barefoot.

“But why barefoot?”, they cry. I shall reveal more in the coming posts about why I have chosen to ditch the shoes, as well as:

• the health benefits of barefooting (and its drawbacks)
• my previous injuries and running
• environmental issues and getting ‘back to nature’
• general caveman tendencies (barefeet, facial fuzz et cetera)

I will also post information about how to donate to the Cambodia cause, Support Cambodia 2013.

Until then,

P.B.