“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.
To bare my sole 