My feet hate shoes. They can’t help it – from the day I was born until now, they have rebelled against wearing any form of footwear for a prolonged period of time. Plus I use my feet all the time – for walking…inside and outside. So the upside is getting to be barefoot most of my life…
And all my favorite activities can be done barefoot: reading, cooking, baking, reading, moving, belly dancing, T’ai Chi and Hot Yoga. And now for the downside – at least for others.
My feet bottoms are really not pristine. And by ‘not pristine’ I mean completely horrifying. Probably permanently dark on the underside, definitely cracked around the heels, and split around the pads near the smaller toes. I’m sure they look appalling to people with perfect feet bottoms, and to people that think you can just plop some lotion on those things to get the hideous out. I doesn’t work, believe me, I’ve tried. I use pumice, lotion, exfoliating scrubs, special soaps, etc. To no avail. I really beat up my feet belly dancing – especially on carpet – they haven’t recovered from that, and believe me, it’s been YEARS since I danced in troupe.
So when I began practicing Hot Yoga, I was really worried about what people must be thinking about my very Horrible-Looking-But-I-Scrubbed-Them-Frantically-And-This-As-Clean-As-I-Can-Get-Them feet. It was even worse when I read some blog posts about people mentioning having too LOOK at feet like mine. I had no idea that Hot Yoga would have us laying down for a long time and that we would sometimes be packed in rows like sweaty sardines – able to scrutinize my obvious flaws.
But here’s the upside to that – at least my toes are not hairy. No wait – that’s just a bonus…the upside I decided, was that working in a practice and being in the Yogi-State-Of-Mind, should mean that you’re working to NOT be bothered by something as inconsequential as the state of my feet bottoms.
So now I feel like my feet are there as sort of a meditative device to help you accept cracked heels that cannot repair, and be OK with feet bottoms that are not pristine and flesh colored. One day you’ll thank me…
But kidding aside, I realized pretty quickly into my practice that once I’m in the hot room and doing my thing – I hardly notice anything about anyone else. Some days it’s all I can do to even keep myself comfortable in a posture – much less be taking inventory of people’s body parts. I’m pretty sure this is what’s going on with my surrounding Yogis as well. At least I’m hoping fervently that this is the case.
So if I’ve ever given offence with my feet – for that I am sorry. They are ‘clean’ – but well used. And they are not scenty – that’s as big a bonus as not having hairy toes, don’t ya think?
Your feet – and the body they’re attached to – rock!
Aw Hook – you’re the BEST!
Bare, leathery but not hairy… in spite of the soubriquet of ‘hobbit’ bestowed upon me by my sons… suddenly I feel less alone in the world 🙂
We are sisters in feet ~
So it would seem 🙂
I’ve been trying to wear socks around the house and outside so they are slightly LESS black than during the summer. The only thing that saves me then is that being in pool will bleach them to a queasy looking white.
I know the feeling… even the dog objects to the state of my feet….
But we are USING them constantly…doesn’t anyone CARE about what our feet do all day?? Can we help it if they (our feet) eschew shoes????
Definitely sole sisters…
It seems few give a thought to true value of feet…
Sole Sisters – brilliant. I think a lot about stuff like that…
And not only are we sole sisters – but you’re a redhead – my very favorite of all the hair colors!
https://themercenaryresearcher.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/ginger-er-orange-crush/
Oh yes… has to be red :-)… or orange…
We are feet sisters….my feet abhor shoes and I’m sure the soles of my feet would give yours a “run” for their money. I always think how fortunate we would be if we had to run from a burning building in bare feet….we’d be leaps and bounds ahead of those pedicured feet!!
Ha! I never thought of it that way…you are so right 🙂
Ha! My feet are awful. There’s this product here called ‘Milky Feet’, apparently you put on these exfoliating sock thingos and then take them off again, and over the next 2-3 days all the dead skin peels off your feet in layers. I might try it. But the peeling phase would be pretty gross huh? I’ll obtain said product, give it a go and then report back.
THanks – your research on behalf of my feet is heart and toe warming.
Yay bare feet!!!! I long ago resigned myself to the fact that I cannot run around barefoot in my yard and still have beautiful feet. Bare foot it is!!! And yes, I doubt people have time to pay attention 😉
Thanks! Bare feet are awesome…
Hola, Denise! My feet are horrible, at least I think so, but especially my left toes. I don’t know what’s wrong with them! That’s okay though. I know they’ve done living, walking, running, dancing. It’s all good. Merry Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas to you as well! Phew – I’m not the only one.
I actually do look at the bottom’s of people’s feet! When I’m leading warm-ups in my Aikido class I like to look at everyone’s feet. Not to judge or anything, but to just see who wears shoes and who doesn’t. There was this one guy who must never have gone without shoes, because his feet were pristine! Pink and soft and without blemish. It was amazing. If you want to fit right in with feet that are stained and cracked, come to my dojo! Most of us must be of the no-shoes persuasion, because we have some ratty looking feet! 🙂
Yay! My husband has pristine feet – they don’t know what the floor feels like.
It is part of my retirement goal to never have to wear any shoes but flip flops ever again – and I know tons of folks who think about feet a lot!
That is an excellent goal. Mine is to eat a cannoli every day.
Getting to a place where you are comfortable with yourself…and all your flaws is always a good thing. By the way, I had your feet…I hate shoes too…walking on natural stone all day doesn’t help because it sucks out all of the moisture, making things worse.
A weekly routine of sanding, lotion and when I could bear it, wearing socks eventually did the trick. Now they are more like normal people’s feet. They still get dirty…really dirty…but the dirt rinses off now and I don’t have heel cracks anymore.
I live in the desert so my feet have all the moisture sucked from them.
Please send me your feet and I’ll send yours mine 🙂
No trading allowed!! 🙂
I had your conclusion in mind before I reached the end. If they are noticing your feet then they have to work harder at their yoga. And the only people who like hairy toes are Hobbits.
They’d love me if I didn’t attend to them!
I’ll stick with my boat shoes.
Year round.
Hee hee
Who thinks about feet? Gawd!
A lot of people, it seems!
Certainly never understood that fetish.
Spend more time on the internet. Surely you’ll come across something that explains it.
Or so I’ve heard…
I was completely unprepared to learn that there is a fetish for VOMITING on each other… That one is incomprehensible.
I didn’t learn that on the intergooglewebnets, however, John Waters taught me that.
Thanks so much for sharing!!!! 😀
I like to share. I am a disseminater of information.
I think there’s a fetish group for that too…
hee hee…
or is it disseminator?