For as long as I can remember, I have loved to be barefoot. There is no pair of shoes or sandles that make me and my feet as happy as going barefoot. I think it is the most natural way to be, and so I look for every possible opportunity I can to go barefoot.
I think my love for being barefoot started because I grew up on a lake. From the first sign of summer until practically the first snow my siblings and I were down on our beach with no sign of shoes or sandles. We would run and play for hours barefoot in our sand and in the water. I remember hating it when school started up each year because I knew that I needed to wear shoes to school each day. I also knew, however, that if I was careful, I could slide my shoes off once I was seated at my desk during the day.
If you come to my house today, you will rarely if ever see my feet covered. I just love to be barefoot. Even in the middle of the cold of winter you will not see me walking with socks or slippers in the house. I will be barefoot even if I am freezing cold. I love the freedom of being barefoot, and quite honestly, I love the way that having bare feet regulates my body temperature and keeps me from being too hot.
I'm so thankful that I choose writing for a profession, because whether I am writing at home or at the office I can always write barefoot. My co-workers laugh at me when they come to my office and see that whatever shoes I wore into work are sitting right by my office door. I guess to many people being barefoot sounds unnatural and uncomfortable, but to me, there is no better way to be.
For all of you skeptics out there, I'll encourage you to take every opportunity you have in the next days and weeks to go barefoot. With summer coming upon us, you should have no lack of opportunity. In fact, this is the best time of year to do this experiment. Wearing sandles rather than shoes is a great first step toward loving being barefoot. When you wear sandles you can just slip them off your feet without the hassles of untying shoes.
I'm telling you, once you start being barefoot you will never go back. Unless, I guess, you are crazy.
