Sometimes it's cool to think about how our bodies are designed. I have hands that can type our the words you're reading right now, and a brain that works so quickly that I don't even have to look at where I'm typing. We have internal systems that allow us to breathe, digest food, fight off sickness, and so much more, and we don't even have to think about or tell our bodies to do these things, they just do it! We have feet that allow us to walk, run, and jump while holding up the entire rest of our bodies every day. Yet, how do we take care of these bodies?
I know many of us don't often think about how we take care of our feet especially. We may brush our teeth, keep clean, and even exercise, but then we constrict the very feet that God gave us to feel, grip, and walk on the ground. Wearing shoes with padding or memory foam or thicker insoles may feel more comfortable initially, but it often ends up hurting our feet in the long run. The more we wear shoes that do the work of walking for us, the less our feet muscles get to do what they're actually made to do. It's why if you normally wear shoes, then it hurts to step barefoot onto rocks. Yet, if you're used to being barefoot, the rocks don't hurt as much because your feet are stronger and more able to walk on the earth without pain. This is part of why so many people in American culture have feet or ankle issues: they're always wearing shoes! Then the shoe store people explain, sometimes even in fancy terms, that they need more protection or more padding to solve the issues, which long term only make them worse! A comfortable shoe is a temporary fix for problems that come from not using your feet properly.
I've always loved being barefoot and spending time running around in the grass or climbing trees with no shoes to stop me from feeling it all! It's so much nicer going barefoot than wearing shoes, especially when going on longer walks, with the only downside being sidewalks aren't as nice to walk on as grass or dirt. Personally, I'd take mulch or even rocks over sidewalks any day. It hurts more walking on a flat concrete surface, especially blacktop, for extended periods of time than to walk on anything God created. Yet what do we do all day at work or school? We wear shoes more often than we don't. It's required in public spaces. Even daycares require toddlers to wear shoes, and they're still figuring out how to walk! Kids' feet can get screwed up from walking in shoes all the time, and it can affect them the rest of their lives.
The point here is: it's important to spend some time getting your feet dirty. With how often we hide them away in socks and shoes, we need to prioritize spending a little bit of time being barefoot outside. You can even go to a park, especially with a soccer or football field for more quality grass, if you don't have a solid outdoor space of your own to hang out barefoot. Even just wearing shoes with less padding helps too. When it's warm enough, I choose sandals over shoes any day. When it's colder, I tend to wear what's known as "barefoot shoes" with less tread and padding and more room for your toes to spread out and your feet to move as God intended. Nowadays there's several companies with barefoot shoe options. Some people even stopped having feet and ankle issues after wearing barefoot shoes for a while, like my husband who's had ankle problems most of his life.
It may take some transitioning, but it's so worth it being barefoot at least sometimes. I find I can run faster and feel better when I'm not wearing shoes. I get less blisters, and while there's the occasional risk of impaling my foot on a stick or something, it pushes me to be more aware of my surroundings and movements. Granted, I still run into things sometimes because my spacial awareness tends to be lower than it should, but going barefoot encourages me to pay more attention and run into less things.
Overall, that's my latest pondering. You can take it or leave it, but I'm gonna encourage you to ask yourself: how did God intend for the human body to work, and do I take care of mine in ways that line up with God's intentions and design?
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