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April 30, 2010 (Beltane)
Normally a definitely barefoot day in terms of communing with the Goddess – for those of you who happen to know a little about pagan belief and faith. Traditionally, it is the feast to make merry, to celebrate life and where witches are said to fly around on their broomsticks (as in the German legend of the „Walpurgisnacht“). However, any plans of mine to get a little spiritual tonight were cut short by the ever present demands to function in my work environment. Our team's client tends not to request things, but to demand, and without ever saying „please“... if any private person were to treat me thus, I'd flip him the bird, laugh into his face and walk away. That's not the best strategy to deal with the folks who pay for our service and therefore also provide my own salary, however. So, we have to endure that a**hole behaviour. This time, one of that company's folks decided that he needed a very detailed statistic for the past month by next day – which was impossible to achieve anyway, since we had to think up the parameters on short notice and didn't have the time to do an automated retrieval procedure for the data from our daily reports. Which meant: someone had to do that manually – and that someone was me, of course, since I am that team's guy for dealing with spreadsheets, reports and numbers. Just great, really... (this was sarcastic, in case someone missed it). So, since the client said that Friday would suffice (as the definite deadline! No further postponement!!), I was facing a night shift to get it done... and, of course, also a day at the office, too. Even though I was able to work barefoot (and sky-clad, too) at home, it was a stressy thing, since the clock was ticking... Well, I did manage to finish that monstrous report by 10.30 am next morning (and even could allow me the luxury of almost three full hours of sleep during that night), mailed it out, and then went to the office to do what? Yes, right. Pull more data from databases, filling out spreadsheets and mailing out hourly reports... Never before have I yearned more to get out of there... Due to the fatigue that set in shortly after leaving the office (and during grocery shopping, too) I wasn't quite able to feel the usual relaxation and power surge from after-work barefooting. And, most certainly, I wouldn't be going out on Beltane Eve to celebrate, either. In my mind, I can hear again that barefoot little pixie... she's now trying to comfort me by singing in my ear „Just six weeks until you have a little freedom again... just six weeks... hang in there!“ - one way to motivate me to go to work, too. Count the days to the next leave.
April 28, 2010 Well, I have returned to "the machine", meaning: normal office work.
That also means, that my barefooting is no longer a 24/7 thing, but
a good and welcome means of powering up before and powering down and
relaxing after work. In the last three days, the weather was perfect
for barefooting.
However, nearly no one fully bared his or her feet to the ground, making
the number 0 stand yet again on the "other barefoot people" counter.
What makes me write this entry is the fact, that I have now compiled the
single entries of the Barefoot Freedom Week Diary into a single PDF file,
together with the pictures.
Barefoot Freedom Week Diary - Part 5 Day 8 (Saturday) The last two days of my complete week of barefoot freedom had come... and as I had planned in advance, I was going to spend the larger part of that Saturday in a barefoot-friendly environment – at least as far as the people there are concerned. This weekend marks the beginning of a series of medieval-/fantasy-themed markets/festivals. These events, held in various German cities almost every weekend from mid-April to October are known as „Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum“, and since the opening of that festival season is held annually in a city near my place, I decided to go there together with two friends of mine – both were shod, I was barefoot, of course.
While there was the usual occurances of „The Look“® while using public transport getting to the place, that decreased noteably as soon as we got to the festival site. Among so many strangely clothed people, my bare feet wer no longer an attraction. Quite on the contrary there were other barefooters there, too – among the performers as well as the visitors. And most of the barefoot visitors weren't even dressed in medieval-style garb.
Even though the festival was held in a park, where there were concrete paths and plushy-soft green lawns, there was one part of the park which was decidedly unfriendly to bare soles – a large space, which had to be crossed to get further inside, strewn with quite unnerving, hazelnut- sized bits of gravel... I did my best to cross that space without showing too much reaction to the painful jabs some of these stones dealt to my soles. I saw two little girls, both barefoot and dressed in little fairy-tale princess outfits, who were walking around that space too, saying „Ow, ow, ow...“ on almost each step – with their mother saying „I told you to say if this hurts your feet too much...“ Seems like she was ready to get out some emergency footwear and strap her girls' tender feet in it. Most likely, this was the kids' first barefoot walking this year. Other barefooters on that space were moving gingerly and carefully, too, so I didn't need to feel shame. Kind of cute was a guy who accompanied two young women who wore green bodypaint/make-up on the faces, hands and bare feet as they came from „the stables“ (as the toilets are called on that festival), and on having to cross that gravel track he looked down on the women's feet with concern, saying „Oh, right, you're barefoot...“ A prospective knight in shining armor, trying to protect a damsel's bare feet in distress, it seems.
As it turned out, these women were performers doing a beautiful walking act, one of them on stilts, and all of them quite green – some spirits of spring, it appears.
Fortunately, the place where we wanted to go – the main stage, where several bands were playing and a little tavern nearby where we'd get out favourite drinks (cherry beer – and I don't mean the Belgian soda-pop stuff with cherry flavor, but regularly brewed beer, where cherries – real ones! - are put into the brew) – was located on one of the large lawns, my feet got a little relief from the jabs they received earlier. One nice surface to feel on these lawns were little spaces, where a mixture of sand and small, pea-sized round pebbles had been spread in little beds. That was a real tret as it molded itself to the shape of my foot completely. „That's what all sidewalks should be made of“, I said, grinning, to which my shod accomplice replied „Huh? Why?“... Of course he didn't feel what the fun and delight in walking on that stuff was about. But since he's a tenderfoot, feeling uncomfortable even when walking barefoot at home (he has to wear at least socks, he says), I doubt that he'll ever know. At the tavern, my bare feet – or rather my preference of foot adournment – caught the attention of one of the participants of a drinking game. The game itself was of a rustic sort: a piece of log was placed standing upright in the middle of a small group of 5 or 6 people, nails were placed in the flat top, and the objective was to hit the nail and sink it into the log – with the special difficulty of not using a hammer but a small hand axe – and of course hitting a nail with an axe bblade is not as easy as thought, especially after a few beers. I was lucky not to be the last whose nail sticked out when playing two rounds of that game. However, one of the participants of that game – dressed up in medieval-style garb - noticed the purple-glitter nail polish on my big toe's nail and snickered „Hey look at that... why's that nail purple?“ to which I replied „that's an optical amplifier... people are most often staring at my bare feet, so I want to give them something to look at.“ He laughed and said „OK, that's a good reason“. Apart from that, I received no other comments. At about 10 pm we decided to leave the place and use public transport to get back home. Since there were quite many visitors from that festival going in the same direction, using the same tram and regional train, „The Look“® occured next to never... people were rather talking about the fun they had, and it turned out that some people shared the same hobbies as we did, such as fantasy roleplaying games, and two guys were even into LARP (live-action role playing). Of course I couldn't resist to advertize a retro-style kind of online gaming known as MUDs (multi-user dungeons), where adventures are played fully text-based, such as with old single-player games like „Zork“. I still have an elf running around on one of those MUDs known as „Realm of Magic“. It's fun to play in such an environment, and it's free of charge, too. Of course, the player database is not as large as with the current graphic MMORPGs, but after playing for a while, it's mostly a close-knit group of people meeting there. I arrived at home with a nice little beer buzz (not fully drunk, but a little under the influence) and tingling soles, since I had to cross that unpleasant gravel yet again to get to the exit of the festival place. I guess next year I'll skip that season opening and rather go for the more barefoot-friendly venues of that festival mentioned above. The oher barefoot people counter was showing a number somewhere between 10 and 20... after counting more than 10 barefooters I stopped counting.
Day 9 (Sunday) The final day of the Barefoot Freedom Week had arrived. There's no way of denying that – the next day meant back into the „normal“ world of office work... and that means having to don footwear during the larger part of the day, too. At least the weather forecast is on my side as far as mild temperatures are concerned, so that I'll be taking flip-flops with me to wear when walking around and to kick off when sitting at my desk. I decided to make this Sunday count as yet another naturist Sunday, since it was going to be a beautiful spring day. At around 9.30 am the temperature was already at 17°C, which felt more like a full-fledged summer day coming up... the sun was shining and so the choice for spending an energizing barefoot day could only be: pack a blanket, towel, something to drink, a few sandwiches, and the other equipment needed and off to my favourite lake to be barefoot all over.
This time, I picked a small spot surrounded by young birch trees, not lying fully in the sun and sitting on my blanket directly at the lake shore, only one step away from the water. I decided to be a bit more daring than last week, and so it was the first full-body dip into the lake today... although it didn't last too long... I stepped into the water, stood in it waist-deep for about two minutes, splashing the still quite chilly water over my arms, belly and chest gathering the courage to fully dip my body into it. I did that, but only for about two seconds, before then getting out and back onto my blanket. On sitting down, I could see my hands, arms, legs and feet starting to glow as pink as my feet normally do during and after walking barefoot on a chilly day. Even though we are still a few months away from official summer, this day qualified as a summer day, since the day's high temperatures went over 25°C – the magic number by which meteorologists define summer. After about four hours of enjoying skyclad bliss and gathering energy,
I left from the lake, only to encounter the only other barefooter today,
as a teenager was riding his bicycle barefoot towards the lake. All in all,
this was a nice and appropriate happy ending of a week of barefoot freedom.
And the weather was just perfect for barefooting all week – sunny, only once
cloudy and warm. And the sun had enough power to leave her marks on me...
I am hoping for more such barefoot times to come... at the latest it will be in seven weeks, when I have two weeks off, which means 100% more barefoot freedom.
Barefoot Freedom Week Diary – Part 4 Day 7 (Friday) The barefoot freedom week is getting closer and closer to its end, step by barefoot step, so to speak... although I intend to give it a happy ending. I have been able to significantly increase my happy mood by energizing myself on Earth Day (see previous entry), and so I could stand today's portion of urban barefooting without feeling angry, sad or sick. Part of today's mission was to prepare for the aforementioned happy ending by buying something to drink to take with me on Sunday. The weather and the tendency for the weekend reinforced my plan to make Sunday another naturist day out at my favourite lake, just as the Sunday before. That would be enough of a barefoot energy boost to restart my office duties on coming Monday. The Saturday was already set as a day of barefoot fun at a medieval- themed festival with – hopefully – lots of barefoot performers, market sellers and some barefoot audience too, be they dressed in medieval-style garb, fantasy-themed costumes or just „civilians“ such as me. Well, this little urban barefooting trip also marked a special way of enjoying barefoot freedom by taking part in our democratic mechanism of voting. May 9 is the date of the election of our state parliament (known as „Landtag“) in North Rhine Westfalia, one of the 16 states of Germany. Instead of speending some time in a stuffy room, placing my two crosses onto the ballot paper in a small cabin, I prefer to place my vote by mail („Briefwahl“ in German) when I choose to. So, part of urban barefooting was to place that very letter into the German mail's trademark yellow box, which was now becoming a ballot box for me, before heading to sit down in a street café just outside the central mall (the one which still exhibits the same cars as yesterday... only today I didn't let that get at me. The seating in that café was far better than in the one I visited Wednesday, and the prices were almost the same for what I chose to order.
As I was walking through the mall, I once again encountered „The Look“® in its many forms, funniest of which was from a woman who wore a black belt pouch with small white bare footprints on it... she was shod and stared at my bare feet with utter disbelief, while wearing a barefoot-positive accessory. Define irony. With sunny weather and over 15°C in the shade it was nice to pick a table in broad sunlight, take off my light jacket and feel the sun's warmth on my arms and face. Of course, I also tried out whether there'd be WiFi access points near, and again found one which was as wide open as a barn door – no encryption of any sort... so I could also browse the web and post a little note on a fan-base for the movie Avatar where I'm a member – stating that the joke I made about Mother nature getting even for the Shen Neng 1 incident by spewing out that ash plume in Iceland (it was a joke, folks!!) was now backfiring on me, since my pre-ordered DVD of Avatar, which was shipped out by Amazon on Wednesday, still hasn't arriveed as yet. Most probably due to the havoc the plume has wreaked in the transports and delivery business in Germany. The other part of today's urban barefooting mission (shopping for some drinks) went by as uneventful as usual... I spotted again some sets of bare toes in open sandals and flip-flops, however, the counter for other barefooters again stayed on number 0. I guess that fashion still dictates that feet should not be bare but stick either in sneakers or at least flip-flops. And fashion victims are still the majority of people, unfortunately. Other than the typical teenage sneering and snickering, I had no reactions to my bare feet – and still no one asking me „Are you a Buddhist?“ Might be due to the fact, that my hair is beginning to grow again (just kidding, as there is only a darkish wisp of beginning stubble covering my scalp). Well, I am looking forward to meeting the other sort of people at the medieval-themed festival and hope to meet some barefoot acquaintances from the recent years there, too. After returning home from this little urban barefooting trip and checking my mails I saw that my posting my Earth Day barefoot experience to the SBL (Society for Barefoot Living – the renamed Dirty Sole Society) had backfired on me, too. Especially the part where I called the janitor/gardener a moron (see previous part). Here is what another member replied:
Andreas wrote: "At that time, I felt a > tinge of anger, since our apartment complex' janitor/gardener > person decided to just then fire up his gasoline-powered lawnmower > and get to cutting the grass in our back yard. Happy Earth Day, > indeed, moron!" What would you have preferred the "moron" to have done? Let the lawn become overgrown? He'd probably then be vilified by the other tenants as lazy and be fired by his boss. Its probably illegal to let the lawn get too long (it is in my town) so as not to become a haven for "vermin". Or would Gaia (and you, her spokesman) have been satisfied if he'd just waited until the next day so as not to mow on Earth Day? (Kind of like not having sex on Sunday.) We are often scorned for going barefoot, actually for being just a bit different in our thinking. So my hope is that we would also be sensitive to respecting the decisions that others make that we might not wholly agree with.
Well, first of all, that guy must have missed the irony tags that
I should have put in my posting more obviously to see. Secondly,
he missed a point – it wasn't only about that happening on Earth Day
(incidentally, the janitor didn't finish the job on Earth Day, since
the lawnmower didn't work properly, but did so on Friday morning),
but also about laziness. I should have pointed out, that the back yard
and the lawn are quite small enough for anyone operating a non-motorized
good old mechanical push mower. In my youth, I pushed one of those across
our garden's lawn of roughly the same size – and barefoot, too, of course –
finishing the job within a few hours. Here's what I replied for the SBL mailing list to read:
Owen wrote: > What would you have preferred the "moron" to have done? Let the lawn > become overgrown? He'd probably then be vilified by the other tenants > as lazy and be fired by his boss. Its probably illegal to let the > lawn get too long (it is in my town) so as not to become a haven for > "vermin". Or would Gaia (and you, her spokesman) have been satisfied > if he'd just waited until the next day so as not to mow on Earth Day? > (Kind of like not having sex on Sunday.) > > We are often scorned for going barefoot, actually for being just a bit > different in our thinking. So my hope is that we would also be > sensitive to respecting the decisions that others make that we might > not wholly agree with. Well, maybe I should have made the irony tags on that more visible. Incidentally, the janitor wasn't able to finish his job on Earth Day, since the mower didn't seem to work properly. So, indeed, he did finish the job today. The main point is not so much, as you wrote to respect a certain holiday and just wait until the day after, but more a matter of laziness, since the back is small enough to use a good old mechanical push-mower instead of a motorized one. As you can see here: It seems like I am now in the midst of a little barefoot battle among barefooters... Let's see what the outcome may be.
Barefoot Freedom Week Diary – Part 3 Day 5 (Wednesday) Today I had no real plans for going outside, so I stayed at home, lazily, and did some laundry – rather boring and normal. I used the time while the machine was tending to my clothes to shave my head. During the mild seasons, that is my usual hairdo, since it provides some natural cooling via a large evaporation space. And recently, the hair had grown back to almost 5 mm length. One might think, that although I don't like labels too much or being put into some drawer as far as categorizing people is concerned this is somewhat antithetic to the typical appearance of a barefoot hippie person... after all, trademark appearance markers of a hippie are apart from bare feet or the expected style of clothing long hair – either flowing freely or in dreadlocks. A buzzcut or a totally shaved head are more associated with violent right-wing people. Although that has changed over the time as well, since those people are now either blending in with the normal crowd, more often hiding in businessmen's outfits or have adopted the uniform style of the radical left black block members, forming their own version of it.
My choice of hairstyle is purely based on practical reasons...
I don't like feeling too hot. What I have noticed personally is
that in my case the shaved head together with my bare feet and
my choice of outfit even amplifies my hippie image. It's during
the warm seasons that I am asked most often if I am a Buddhist –
which is based on other people's expectations that someone walking
barefoot looking like me either is that or a follower of Krishna.
Whenever someone asks me that question, I politely decline and say –
truthfully – that both have very positive aspects to orient one's
life after (e.g. the principle of „ahimsa“ in Buddhism, the path
of peace and non-violence), but that my spirituality is based on other,
equally non-violent principles. People tend to miss that I am wearing a
silver pentagram pendant not just as a piece of nice jewelry, but for
showing my faith being based on the Goddess, literally Mother Earth
Herself. Even though I look like one happy barefoot Buddha
(and my physical attributes as well as a large – haha – part
of my personality has made „Ganesha“ being a name given to me
by people who still dwell in my heart and never will leave it),
I am not made to be as asketic a person as Buddhism or the Krishna
faith asks for. I like being who I am and having my body too much
to aspire a state of full spiritual being. I wouldn't want to leave
my body behind just yet – it's too much fun to have it. So, even though this was not a day to report any barefoot events out of doors, it still was fruitful on terms of thinking and reflecting on my barefoot self, I think. Thursday is going to be different, since it's going to be an inofficial holiday for all barefooters – Earth Day. I have my plans all set, including that I want my bare soles to be in touch with our Great Mother as much as possible – and even though I will touch some concrete, too, I will make sure that the majority of my skin contact with Her will count more by walking on natural soil as much as I can. And by touching Earth this way, I will be in contact with all other like-minded spiritual barefooters who come in contact with Her, too. That is an uplifting thought, really. Oh, and the fact that the newly-released DVD version of my current favourite motion picture (which also features barefoot characters, incidentally) is most likely delivered on Earth Day also adds a certain happy mood to it.
Day 6 (Thursday) – Earth Day Happy Earth Day, everyone... that was what I thought when getting up and getting ready to celebrate this utterly inofficial holiday. I felt a little like a kid waiting for his chance to get his birthday present and then happily unpack it (see above, about the DVD), but that feeling subsided, when I called at the office and heard that there had been no delivery for me. Oh well... that's not a big setback, but it would have made this day special in more than one respect. Since I had the mail that it is underway on Wednesday, I will most likely be able to pick it up Friday, then. As long as I have it before the weekend, everything's fine.
I then spent a lazy morning, preparing myself to get into town,
as some grocery shopping had to be done. At that time, I felt a
tinge of anger, since our apartment complex' janitor/gardener-person
decided to just then fire up his gasoline-powered lawnmower and get
to cutting the grass in our back yard. Happy Earth Day, indeed, moron!
It was late afternoon – some time between 5 am 6 pm – when I decided to get up again, fix me some coffee and prepare for my nature walk, which now was going to be an evening walk in my favourite and usual Sunday barefooting setting.
I felt that I needed to exchange some energy with Mother Nature, feeling myself powering up again as my bare soles touched soil, sand and grass and as I inhaled the scents of grass, blossoms and newly-green trees.
It wasn't as warm as it had been the days before (somewhere around 12°C) and so I was glad for wearing a cardigan, as I felt the air getting cooler and slightly chilly as the evening sun was slowly making her way towards the western horizon.
Standing firmly on the cool and moist green grass, I inhaled the fresh and cool spring air, and then exhaled slowly, focusing some of the energy I had received with a feeling of love and sent it back down through my soles into the Earth. Even though some people might think such moments are new-age nonsense and treehugging flower-child mumbo-jumbo, I must say: it helps me a lot to feel this inner flower-child, to recharge my batteries as a human being before I have to get back to again be a part of „the machine“, to merely function instead of living, to tell the world „Hey, look! I am a freak in your eyes... and guess what: I love being me!“ - I need such moments, and yes, I want to share them with others. And it warms my heart to know that I am not alone... I know there are others feeling just like me. And this was merely another stop on my journey through a week of barefoot freedom... there's three more stops (three more days), before it's back to the office treadmill.
Oh, one little side note: no one asked me today whether I was a Buddhist or Krishna follower and again a number 0 shows on the „other barefoot people“ counter.
Barefoot Freedom Week Diary – Part 2 Day 3 (Monday) Technically, this should be called „Day 1“, since it is the first regular work day I have off, but I have decided to count from the first day off including the weekend... plus, I already counted the Friday in the first part of this little diary, even though it was a work day. However, the barefoot encounters, or rather: the world encountering my bare feet on that Friday were noteworthy (to me, at least). But it certainly was the day, the happy barefoot pixie in the back of my mind (see Part 1 below) was merrily chanting about: „You don't have to go to work today... or tomorrow... or the day after... all the way till Friday... la-laa“. Well, yes and then there's Saturday and Sunday, too... I can say with conviction: I'm feeling very happy at the moment.
one barefoot pixie The day started comparingly normal, only with the exception that I didn't have to get up nearly as early as if I had to go to the office... I was able to lie in bed comfortably until 8.30 am, when I woke up without the dictatorial beeping of my alarm clock. The morning and mid-day was spent lazily, doing nothing much but watching a few episodes of one of my favourite anime series (Death Note), checking private mails, writing a few ones, checking postings and writing one or two on my favourite web forums (two of them including barefooting topics), and answering a few questions on the phone, since twice colleagues at the office needed to know something about procedures I normally tend to while there... even though I left detailed „how-to“ powerpoint files. Seemingly, I am quite indespensable. At least they didn't call more often. As yet, that is. The afternoon was planned for visiting a café with an outdoor seating area – enjoying some cappucino and presenting me and my bare feet to the unbelieving stares of the world and a little shopping. Actually, an Italian ice cream parlor/café type of place in the city center was the first stop after getting off the subway and so I decided to take a seat there and enjoy a Italian-style cappucino (see previous entries) and a soda. I was rewarded with a decently-sized cup (see picture) for a nice price of only € 2.10 – quite a difference to the smallish cup and high price I got in the mall café several weeks ago.
Speaking of the subway, a group of teenage school kids coming from their remedial afternoon courses entered the train halfway on the trip to the city, and made quite a fuss in pointing out my bare feet to each other. I was considering to ask an admission fee if they had continued behaving like attending a carnival or freak show. Sitting in the street café I was doing the same thing as yesterday in that coffee-to-go place – tuning up the weirdness a bit more by sitting at my table and writing away these lines on my mini laptop computer. I guess that only my accidental toppling of the little metal tablet the soda glass was on and the clatter it made when hitting the pavement got more attention... well, at least it didn't drop on my toes, and neither got soda onto my computer. That would have been a really peculiar barefoot accident, for sure. One thing has to be said in favor of that more posh and expensive mall café, though... the seating there was far more comfortable and stable than the flimsy light-metal chairs and tables at the street café. Every place has its qualities, for sure. So, next time I guess I go for comfort again rather than just looking at cheap prices.
Since I mentioned „looking“, I was able to count numerous occurances of
„The Look“® again, as usual, as I was walking from the cafè to the mall
to get some quite important supplies from my usual supermarket. As I got out
of the store, the stares of disbelief were a bit wider than usual, since
the barefoot guy was carrying a large pack of toilet paper. Funny, really,
since I bet even the most normal of people do take a dump on a regular basis
(or at least I hope so...). But then, I might have found one new possible reason
for anti-barefoot sentiments: constipation.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
This was planned as being one of the „special event“ days of my barefoot
freedom week, and just so it turned to be...
We tend to modify old steel plants and coal mines into places of art and culture, such as the well known „Zeche Zollverein“ in Essen or the „Landschaftspark Nord“ in Duisburg. There, a colorful light installation turns a whole old steel plant into a giant piece of artwork at night. And some of the old buildings of the former Lohberg coal mine now serve as studios and offices for creative and arts people. Directly opposite the bus stop, I got my first glimpse at the place where I lived, and felt a little shock to see, that the wall separating it from the road was looking a little different, in one place even leaning inward, imminent of falling. Furthermore, the iron latticework between the columns, that used to be part of that structure, was gone completely.
On crossing the road and approaching the place known as „Kasinoplatz“ I saw that at least the little paths leading inside were still the same dark-grey and white (white-ish by now) small cobblestones they had ever been there since my childhood, and it was a very emotional moment to feel those same stones underfoot that touched my bare soles when I was a little kid. The central lawn between the houses, that are standing in a U-shape around it, was looking quite well, a dense green carpet with blots of yellow, where dandelions were growing liberally.
Next step was to get to central place itself, to see whether there had been any changes, too. With a pleasant feeling of nolstagia I saw and felt the same old cobblestones on the place in front of the house with numbers 3 to 5... and the same old hammer and chisel mining symbol laid out in the center, too.
Again, I felt a lump in my throat, walking there. Of course, the whole place looked very small to an adult's eyes – which I knew already, but realized today yet again. As I was taking pictures and came to stand before the house I grew up in (number 5), a woman was eyeing me suspiciously from our old house's living room, wondering what that barefoot guy might be doing there... Since part of the window was open, I called out „I used to live here a while ago...“ which she seemingly didn't hear at first, and so she came to the front door, still looking a bit suspicious and worried, which changed a lot when I explained, that I used to live in that very house until 1987. She was relieved to hear, that I wasn't someone from another landlord's office, since there had been many changes in ownership of the houses, and some people had been so bold as to step up to the houses unwanted and even trespassing into the tenants' gardens. After she knew that I wasn't one of those people, we had a cordial little chat about the place and quality of living there... she likes the house a lot, and she's happy that her tenance contract entails the life-long right to live there. However, with the changes of ownership, many of the old tenants had moved out. Only one family who owns their house since I was a kid still lives there... I didn't get the chance to say hello to them, though, as they weren't at home. Fun thing was, even though she could not miss my being barefoot, she never said one word about it.
All in all, it was a nice visit to see my old grounds again. I boarded a bus to get me
back to the town center, since I was to meet a dear friend of mine (who in the past
was more than just a friend, too). Since she is a professional barefooter, so to speak,
being an oriental dancer and bellydance teacher running her own studio, bare feet are
her job's standard footwear most of the time. When arranging our meeting, I made sure
to tell her before, that I'd definitely be barefoot. On getting off the bus, I spotted
her across the road, waving happily, a huge smile on her face. We hugged, greeted each
other happily (we hadn't seen each other in person for years... even though I don't
live that far away – however, our individual schedules of work and personal life just
differ too much) and walked through the pedestrian shopping street
that constitutes the bustling town center (I should put irony tags there, really...)
of Dinslaken. We found ourselves a café which had moved to a different location, but
was renowned for its hot chocolate with whipped cream during my high school days...
we spent many hours playing hooky and enjoying that beverage there... Pleasant nolstagia
yet again. After spending an hour of talking and updating each other on a few things and enjoying the hot chocolate, of course, we parted with a hug (and the promise to stay in touch a bit more often than just by exchanging mutual happy birthday mails), and I went to see a few more places, like in the historic „Altstadt“ part of Dinslaken and then to sit down on a bench in the city park, which is directly adjacent to my old high school, to collect thoughts and emotions and yet again to shatter expectations of a barefoot hippie by typing away these very words on my little laptop computer. I even found an „unsafe“ i.e. open wireless access in that park, which wasn't encoded in any way... no WPA-2, no WPA, not even WEP!! At least the looks I got from the high school students as they walked or cycled past me at 2 pm were more of the amused sort... I guess they were educated enough not to leer or sneer at that barefoot guy who was sitting there with a fashionable piece of mobile communcations electronics. Looking at the park lawn, I felt fond memories coming up, since I sat and lied on it many times together with like-minded and barefoot hippie teenagers in many a summer, when I was part of our local peace and one-world group.
The way back home, that is, to my current residence went by without anything noteworthy. The „other people barefoot“ counter stayed on number 0.
Barefoot Freedom Week Diary – Part 1 (beginning on April 16, 2010): Day 0 (Friday) Since the spring weather has become inviting enough to be barefoot, more and more people have switched from winter to spring outfits, and have adapted their footwear accordingly. However, so far I have been the only one as yet to bare my soles to the ground, too. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised to see a set of toes in flip-flops on a still quite cool morning, as I was changing from subway to the bus line to get me to the office building where I work. The toes' owner was either oblivious of my bare feet or intentionally not looking at me... I couldn't tell. One totally unexpected reaction to me (or my bare feet?) was a man walking his dog past me – and the reaction was from the dog. It was a cute-looking little mongrel, with many different races and breeds in the mix. It was fuzzy, mostly white with a few coffee-and-cream brown spots in its fur... and as the man passed me by, the dog was looking at me – up to my face, not at my feet, interestingly. People who have dogs or are often near them know that dogs like feet (especially the scent and taste of feet... I had many dogs who came near me and knew me lick my feet quite often). But that little fellow was looking up into my face with a little fear in his eyes. And every few steps, as the man was walking his dog away from me, the dog would stop shortly, and look at me, as if to make sure that I wasn't following him. Strange, indeed. That wasn't the only animal encounter I had, however. But more on that later. The office day itself was an „under-the-radar“ barefoot one, since I was able to slip off my flip-flops under the desk and wiggle my toes in happy anticipation of the clock showing 5 pm, the time, when my barefoot week off was starting. And as that moment came, I happily stepped out of the office on bare soles, making my way to the bus stop to do my usual commuting home, my soles free and my mind full of ideas and plans what to do during that week of barefoot freedom. One of those plans was directly connected to a weather forecast promising me this weekend to be the starting point of my outdoor naturist season... the other fixed plan was for the end of that week to enjoy a barefoot-friendly event known as „Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum“, a medieval-themed market and festival taking place in a city in my vicinity (to be precise, that event is held all over Germany, and there are three occasions to visit it in the Ruhr Area, the first being in spring in Gelsenkirchen, the second one in summer in Dortmund, and – most recently added – the third one in fall in Moers). I have been an annual visitor to the Dortmund event so far, and even though they have a very small sentence printed on their posters that wearing sturdy shoes on the premises is suggested, they don't ban bare feet – which wouldn't work anyway, since a lot of the performers and people dressed in medieval garb (in German called „Gewandung“) are barefoot, too. The rest of the week was only loosely planned so far, but with the adamant rule I set up for myself: nothing to be worn on my feet but the usual jewelry (toe-rings) and anklets until the morning of April 25, before entering the office again.
Day 1 (Saturday) Since it was a Saturday, it felt not different from any other weekend – I have the weekends off, too – but there was that little joyous voice at the back of my head singing „You don't have to work this coming Monday...“, which gave the impression of a little barefoot pixie wiggling her toes merrily while chanting this. Therefore, even the usual chores of a weekend day – grocery shopping, for instance, had a lighter-spirited feeling to them than usual. The routine was the same as every weekend: taking the subway to the city center, walk barefoot into the central mall, find my usual ATM to get money for the shopping itself, then padding over to the supermarket and get the stuff needed. All of that unhassled, as usual. Even though it was even warmer than on Friday, people were of course giving the „The Look“® on seeing my bare feet. And I was again the only „full“ barefooter, since others still didn't dare to bare their feet fully. The number of feet in flip-flops had increased, though. I saw several sets of female and male bare toes around. But no one found me inspirational enough to lose even their minimal footwear, it seems. I also saw some people wearing their sneakers – ultimate sign of being a fashion victim – without socks. I thank the Goddess that I wasn't near those people when they removed their footwear. The smell alone must have violated numerous treaties against biological and chemical warfare. Later that day, I was on my barefoot way to our usual bi-weekly role playing game session, where I was about to steer my woodsrunner character towards a hopefully happy ending of the current chapter of our campaign. This time, I was looking out for the tomcat I encountered four weeks before (and braced for another disapproving feline glance), but it seems that such meetings only occur when you're unaware of them. The cat wasn't on his usual lookout post. About the game evening I can say, that indeed we managed to survive (one ogre and seven orcs aren't a match for us – especially with a magic-user in our group!) and were able to end this chapter, so that next time in two weeks we're able to pick up on our second campaign, based on the Spacemaster system, where we'll soar off into deep space again – and, as usual, into deep sh*t, too, I'm sure. We always manage to do that, nearly (or in one case fully) blow up our own ship, and end up with new enemies – but we also made peace with former enemies who have become allies, now... All in all, it was a still quite regular Saturday as far as barefooting is concerned. I was still waiting for my first encounter with a true barefooter, though.
Day 2 (Sunday) Still being part of what could be a regular weekend, this Sunday promised to be different, though. That was due to weather forecasts telling me (and others, too) of a sunny spring day, which it turned out to be, with a blue sky without any cloud in the sky! Even the usually visible condensation stripes from jet aircrafts were missing, thanks to Mother Earth's big show in Iceland, where a giant plume of volcanic ash had emerged and still is emerging. Due to the danger of that ash to jet engines, all over Northern and most parts of central Europe civilian and military jets remain grounded. That weather forecast prompted me to change my usual Sunday plan of a mere barefoot walk to emotionally and spiritually recharge myself with Nature's energy. It was going to be a barefoot walk, but not into the usual park I visit, but to the train station of the neighboring city to board a regional train and take a 15-minute short trip to a place on the outskirts of Düsseldorf known as Angermund, which is the location of a nice lake, that being my favourite naturism and skinnydipping spot. The path leading to the lake is at first leading through a suburban housing area, on paved sidewalks, then, at the end of the road by a little horse farm and riding school, and then past a few pastures, where the farm's horses are grazing. From that point on, the ground changed to dirt paths, sometimes sandy and dusty, and often littered with small, sharp bits of gravel – very much like the kind I find unnerving during winter, when it's spread on sidewalks for anti-skid reasons. On one part of the path, however, that gravel had been put on the ground forming a thick bed, which gave way under my bare soles and proved being a true massaging tool, as the gravel molded itself to the shape of my foot, every little stone massaging the bottoms of my feet from toes over the arches to the heels. Had all of the path been made that way, I would have been delighted.
On arriving at the naturist part of the lake, I saw that I wasn't the only one who decided to make that day the start of a nude season... nevertheless, I found me a nice spot to spread my blanket, shed my clothing and feel the ground beneath me, the sun above me, the mild breeze around me and a bit of the water too to the max.
Well, that is, the water was still a bit too cold for my taste to take a full swim, but at least I took a little foot bath and stepped into it as far as up to my knees, doing a little cold-water exercise in the spirit of Father Kneipp. After about three hours of basking in the warm spring sun, I felt relaxed and refreshed and took off to get back to the train stop about a kilometer away from the lake. Oh, one funny thing happened – as I wrote earlier about strange encounters with animals... a pair of ducks was curious and bold enough to step up to my blanket and size me (and my bare toes) up, seemingly pondering, if they should try them for a snack... they came as close as half a meter to me... This time I was quick enough to pull out my cell phone and snap a shot, before they waddled off to take a look at the other nude people lying or sitting in the grass.
All in all, it was a very nice and energizing afternoon, being barefoot all over. And listening to my still favourite motion picture score felt even more intense in those surroundings. On returning to Duisburg central train station, I decided to replenish myself with some of the fluids I lost during my baskin in the sun – and since I had depleted the drinks supplies I took with me on the train ride back (good planning, since that prevented me from being too thirsty), I went to one of the coffee-to-go places inside the station, got a few samples of „The Look“®, one of those from the guy who was restocking the soft drinks and soda shelf, and decided to sit down with my Powerade and my cup of coffee in one of the sofa corners of the place, and tune the weirdness of the barefoot guy up a notch or two by pulling out my little Dell and beginning to type away at this very paragraph. Sometimes freaking people out and shattering their Sunday normality can be just great! Before sitting down, I noticed another set of bare toes in flip-flops belonging to a young woman who was also wearing an anklet made of tiny silver bells... At least one almost-barefoot person. Ultimately, I spotted one barefooter without shoes in sight, as I was waiting on the underground platform for my subway to arrive. It was a punk guy, who walked his two equally barefoot dogs and stopped at the back end of the platform, initially not noticing me. As the subway train arrived, people who were ready to get out gaped at his bare feet as the train passed him, and then at mine, as the train passed me – I was standing a few meters ahead of him. It turned out that that guy is an acquaintance of mine, normally wearing the punk trademark boots, but preferring to bare his feet in warm weather. As I was getting near the stop where I had to get off the train, I walked to the back of it to greet him. So, at least the number 1 was showing on the „other barefoot people“ counter. On arriving at home I felt a strange but pleasant mix of barefoot happiness, feeling both energized and mildly tired at once... It felt very much like after a tantric massage... only that I didn't have to spend nearly as much money today as such a massage would cost.
A spiritual walk in the park - April 5, 2010: Since Christian tradition has presented us with a long weekend, in memory of that certain prophet/martyr being crucified and resurrected, I postponed my regular barefoot walk from Sunday to a Monday (not the manic sort, but one feeling as if it were Sunday). This time, the weather was on the brighter side, being cloudy with the face of the sun peeking out between the clouds occasionally. Temperatures are still a bit below 15°C, but mild enough for my taste... the sun already has the power to warm up surfaces considerably, which I could feel on the walk to the park on sunlit parts of the paved sidewalks. Sitting down on a park bench was also possible – at least for a short while, since the occasional breeze blowing around my bare shins (I had decided to make my wide-fit and baggy cargo pants into three-quarter length pants this weekend – not permanently but by rolling up the cuffs) was still feeling quite cool.
Nevertheless, feeling Mother Earth's skin beneath my soles was as usual a delight – but today it was with a quite somber mood, since I was doing so not merely to refuel my own spiritual and wellness battery, but to give back some of the energy from within me to Her, hoping and praying for Her to heal from the most recent blow to Her face, which happened at the Great Barrier Reef, where a Chinese coal bulk freighter ran onto the reef and is currently leaking its 1,000-ton load of heavy oil fuel into the sea and onto the reef.
So, even the sight of new green leaves budding on most of the sunlit trees in my favourite park, promising new life was coming with a slightly bitter aftertaste due to that horrendous „accident“. True enough, there is lots of such things happening on a daily basis, dealing blows to Nature – and most if not all of them triggered by stupidity and greed. Considering that, one could well lapse into permanent sadness and depression. But such things happen to wake us up, I think. There's no point in sitting down, burying our head in our hands and wail and lament about the vileness of humanity... However, this latest event is worth to be thought upon, shed tears about and then start giving something back to Nature. Therefore, my barefoot walk today was one of the purely spiritual sort, sending prayer, love and healing to Mother Earth, making Her feel and know that there is at least one of Her children sending her what She deserves and needs.
Using my usual favourite movie's original score, one special bit was just right to fit this moment of sending a prayer and love to Her:
(Link opens a page with a media player in a new window) I just hope that there are more of Her children feeling the same and doing likewise (not necessarily by means of bare feet – but it helps being in direct contact, touching Her). |
| View May 2010 entries | Back to my barefoot page (Part 6) | View February & March 2010 entries |
the back yard is not that large - the circular concrete place in the
middle has a diameter of about 5 metres and the orance rectangle
marks the position of my apartment on the 3rd floor and its cute
desk-sized balcony. We had a lawn of that size back in our garden
where I grew up and I did use an eco-friendly non-motorized push-
mower to cut the grass quite often - and barefoot, too.
So, that janitor could get his job done and not be fired with
gasoline-free tools quite easily.
As I wrote in a reply to the last welcome message to new SBL
members, barefooters come in all shapes, sizes, colors and
*spiritual flavors* - that referring to myself as well. I am surely
not the "spokesperson of Gaia" as you put it, but I do base my
barefooting on spiritual reasons, too.
I do take pride in my being different and if someone scorns
me for it, I am rather "in-your-face" in replying along the lines
of "I'm happy that I am me instead of you!". And speaking of
barefooters meeting the scorn of others, I must have missed the
irony tags in _your_ reply, too. Otherwise, I can attest that you
are quite able of using that scorn on me.
Andreas Spring
--
Andreas ~*Ganesha*~ Spring
Barefooter - Free Spirit - Rainbow Brother
Web: http://www.barefoot-spring.net/
"Life is chaos, chaos is life! Control is an illusion" - Trance Gemini
