I was inspired by a new friend to walk barefoot around my labyrinth yesterday. It was in the afternoon, so the ground was mostly dry and warm in spots where the sun shone through the trees. Very lovely.
This morning I headed out to walk and thought to myself, “Oh, no, I’m not walking barefoot this morning. The air is still a little chilly and there’s no way that the ground will be warm from the sun yet.”
I took a few steps into the labyrinth and noticed that I was bothered by how my feet were slipping around in my sandals. Out I went, off with the shoes and back in again.
The redwood duff is still a little prickly, but oooh! there’s a soft spot of sand! This spiral of the labyrinth is built on where we had a twenty-foot by forty-foot sand box with a big play structure in it, so there is some residual sand left underneath the moss that has grown over most of it.
I notice that I’m walking more slowly, not because I think the small twigs will hurt my feet, but because I’m enjoying the sensations coming up through the ground. Chill, solid, yet with a slight give on the bits that used to be very muddy. Noticing where the gopher has decided to put an exit hole at the edge of one of the inner paths.
Yesterday I had been tromping those ridges down. Wanting my path to be smooth. As I walked out I had the thought that it might be interesting to see how long the gopher would keep that entrance/exit hole if I didn’t keep ruining the tunnel by squishing it. She’d seemed pretty determined to reopen the tunnel, so maybe I’ll give her a chance. (No, I don’t know if she’s a she, I only know she’s a gopher, but I like thinking she’s a she, so a she she shall be.) (And I really like how that parenthetical sentence sounds when read aloud.)
I like feeling all the new sensations that come from walking barefoot. And I, of course, like the metaphor that comes with the thought of walking barefoot through life. Could be a simile, I never could keep those two concepts straight. Metaphor, simile, whatever. I like the farther reaching idea of walking through life barefoot. Adding the sensations of my feet to everything else that is informing me moment to moment.
