My two weeks of barefoot freedom are drawing nearer to their end, and summer has decided to make a glorious appearance in the part of Germany I live in. But that still has not helped in bringing out more barefooters - at least not where I walked.
Here's what I wrote on HipForums about that on June 28:
Flip-flops killed the barefoot walkers... ...similar to video killing the radio star. Ironically, the video to that song was the first ever shown on MTV. Prophetic in a way, wasn't it? With flip-flops and other types of thin-soled fashionable summer footwear (currently amplified by boho and hippie fashion making yet another return – even Karl Lagerfeld had models walking barefoot in flowing hippie chic robes in St. Tropez) bare feet have become a rarity to spot in my local urban environment. The last two days' counter of other barefoot people in public shows the number two so far – number one being a homeless punk woman asking for change, sitting on her blanket in the ped zone, cross-legged, her dog dozing next to her. Number two was a young boy I spotted today walking the suburbian pavement next to his shod grandmother, while I was sitting in the tram. Since I saw him from behind, his black bare soles told me, that he had been walking barefoot for a while, too. Other than that, even those people whom I normally would sort into the target group for barefooting – at least by their dressing the boho/hippie part – are wearing either the foam-rubber sole sweat sponges known as flip-flops, or thin leather sandals. Even though there is plenty of barefoot-positive publicity in health magazines, blogs, this very forum, sports-related articles, etc., it seems that people still don't seem to get it. I guess it needs just more role models to promote the „coolness“ of walking barefoot and swimming against the mainstream, I guess. Plus, even those who might want to walk barefoot are currently taken aback by hot summer temperatures and the sun heating up the pavement to levels unbearable for tenderfoot, untrained non-barefooters. Wiggling bare toes, spreading my own kind of coolness (by wearing a tie-dye skirt when barefooting the town center today... something to really boggle the mainstream's collective mind), ~*Ganesha*~
One more barefoot encounter was just on June 30, where I also reported one mishap happening to me last Saturday on HipForums as well...
Since catching a summer cold (I still think that jerk, who coughed right at the back of my neck in the checkout queue - three times, too... as if to make sure! - deserves to lie in bed with fever and suffer!), I haven't been outside much, just to do some necessary shopping yesterday and buy some drinks at the gas station opposite my apartment house. At least the symptoms of that darn cold have subsided to a bearable level. The barefoot encounter was just when going to that gas station, as a flip-flop wearing mother and her two young daughters came out of the little shop, the younger daughter holding her flip-flops in her hands, walking barefoot. She was just starting a sentence, and suddenly stopped talking, froze on beholding my bare feet, staring at them (well, the two colored toe nails and two toe rings on each foot must have been something new for her to see on a grown-up man's bare feet - just as a grown-up man walking barefoot, too) and then giving me a wide-eyed look of wonder. I grinned at her, passed them and then went inside to get some cold soda stuff and cigarettes. Wiggling bare toes, sniffling a little from that darn summer cold, ~*Ganesha*~
So much for that first mishap... the culprit was standing behind me at the checkout of my usual supermarket last Saturday, indeed coughing three times, not making any attempt to cover his mouth while doing so, or trying to spew his virus clouds in any other direction. But I'm not paranoid enough to suppose that this was a planned act to infect the barefoot weirdo. Nevertheless, before that little disease broke out, I had some nice opportunities to enjoy the summer sun and its warmth on many an occasion, including urban barefooting on sun-warmed pavement, alternating with the cool tile floors inside malls and subway stations, various visits to my favourite lake and my usual park, where I spent a lot of barefoot and skyclad quality time.
One nice visit to the lake was one day before "The Cough Incident", when it was just as warm as the days before (around 30°C/86F), but getting quite cloudy at mid-day, with some clouds even appearing a little scary...
It was on one of those park visits, when the second (relatively small) mishap happened on me, since I lost one of the new anklets I had gotten on the medieval market about a week earlier... the leather one with the shells, which was quite loose-fitting, and therefore must have slipped off my ankle at some point. I noticed its missing on my way out of the park after sunset.
But still, the evening visit to the park was nice, as the day's heat was slowly dissipating into a pleasantly warm summer evening with a slight breeze coming up. I tried to backtrack my steps on noticing the anklet missing, but as it was too dark to find it, I decided to return to the park the morning after and take a look for it - and also to enjoy the sunny morning before the day got too hot.
It seems that this anklet was meant for someone else to be found, since I could not find it on that Sunday morning, but the wonderful time spent sitting in the sun for an hour and then another two hours in my favourite spot in the shade made up for that, for sure.
After returning home from that park visit - and wishing the person who found my anklet luck and happy barefoot steps with it - I felt the first symptom of the upcoming cold, that being a slightly sore throat... at first I thought that could have been induced by the summer heat and raised ozone levels in the urban surroundings I live in (that can happen, too, and a sore throat is one of the symptoms connected with that), and only as I woke up on Monday with a heavy cough and a nose running like a faucet, I realized the viral nature of those symptoms. Fortunately, that subsided by Wednesday, so that the final prolonged weekend (which I have defined starting on Thursday morning) of my two-week leave will be spent as usual, barefoot and skyclad at my favourite places... and the weather forecast is on my side as far as having water to jump into nearby - for Friday, day temperatures at body temperature level (!) are predicted... around 37°C/98.6F. I will most definitely be at the lake for most of that day to have that cool water to spend lots of time in near me.
I'm curious whether I will meet some barefooters on those trips, or if still the flip-flops continue killing the bliss of barefoot walking.
Yes, now it's time for some barefoot pagan voodoo. Just kidding - but I wanted to make a little celebration of the summer solstice, taking place in Germany on June 21, 1.28 pm, by going to my favourite park, directing my barefoot steps
over the grass to "The Fairies' Abode" (as I have named that particular tree)
and to turn the base of the tree, which will always remind me of the dancing and festival grounds for the fairies living in that tree, into a small altar and to worship a little there.
Well, it was not much of an altar, but praying to the Goddess does not require pomp and overblown ritual like the Catholics are so fond of. To explain a little what the altar was made of: the pentagram is symbol of the Wiccan faith, symbolizing the invocation of the four elements plus the Spirit as the fifth - also a universal symbol of the Goddess Herself. And cradled in the leather band which I use to wear that symbol around my neck is a little sitting Ganesha figure - that being me, symbolically cradled in Her embrace.
I sat there for a while, relaxing a little, meditating and sending prayers out and having a horn of blueberry wine (from a bottle I bought the day before on the medieval market I visited.), careful to spill the first bit of it onto the Earth to share it with Her.
After that time of spiritual give and take, I went back home, feeling relaxed and refreshed.
Just as planned, I went to the eastern part of the Ruhr megalopolis, to the city of Dortmund, to visit the "Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum" (MPS) in a different venue. It was held, as usual, in the "Freizeitpark Fredembaum", a few kilometres north of the city center, and this park surely is barefoot-friendlier than the location in Gelsenkirchen, which I endured on April 24. The paths in the park are made up just like the ones in my usual barefoot sunday stroll park near the place I live: sandy soil mixed with small bits of grit for some pleasant free foot massage. And lots of grass to walk and sit on, too. Since the weather was just as forecast (cloudy, sometimes fully overcast, cool with 15°C, occasionally sunny), I expected to see less barefoot people than usual... however, there were some (but not many) among the visitors...:
...and also among the performers (even though in this case the feet were green, since they belonged to spirits of the forest - those are the performers I saw out of their wonderful costumes a few weeks earlier in Gelsenkirchen, too):
Typical reaction of modern-day humans to Nature: either kill it or take pictures
"What are you looking at???"
Of course, there were the usual performers dressed in style with the theme of the event, but only occasionally dressing their part barefoot. At least the juggler and that band (known as "Schelmish") were wearing medieval-style footwear:
And among the visitors, bare feet were a rarity, as well, mostly due to the comparingly cool weather conditions which are seemingly not too inviting for regular shoddists to shed their footwear. So, even though they looked interesting, as far as their costumes were concerned (including some pirates with a quite convincing Jack Sparrow cosplayer), they were shod. I wonder though, what that blue apparition was, one woman (presumably an elder witch or sorceress) was leading around on a chain... her familiar? One spell gone wrong? I didn't ask, just took the picture. And the merry group of people dancing had a clear number zero on the barefoot dancers counter, too.
(Captain Jack himself was kind of hiding from cameras - in this shot,
his back is seen partly behind that bald guy stepping into the picture...)
But I wasn't only there to behave like a tourist from the 21st century and take snapshots, I was there to have a good time and also to look for something to add to my collection of foot jewelry... and for that, I visited the sales cart (well, one cannot call that cute little thing a sales stand, really... and it has wheels and is often pulled to different locations on the market, too) of an MPS regular, known as "Glöckchen" - and incidentally an acquaintance of mine. We greeted each other, exchanged hugs and smiles and stories of recent mishaps - she was footsore as well, therefore only rarely standing next to her cart (as seen below, her back to the camera), but mostly sitting on a small stool next to it.
She had hurt her knee recently from taking an unfortunate fall, and something got dropped on top of one of her bare feet, too... we both chuckled about the irony of people thinking that walking barefoot has to lead to injuries underfoot, pierced soles and leaving bloodstained footprints - but it's rather the top of feet, or front parts or toes that get hurt. After wishing her well and hoping for her poor knee and feet to get better soon, I left her cart to browse other market stands in search of other material to work into anklets. Oh, of course I did purchase something from Glöckchen - a handful of jingly silver bells, which I fastened to two anklets I already wore. At another stand, I saw two bracelets made of braided thin leather bands, with three shells woven into the center - and since those bracelets were designed to fit around slender maidens' wrists rather than big ~*Ganesha*~'s ankle, I bought both, and fastened them together to form a nice new anklet. And while looking for perhaps some more leather bands (different colors, maybe?) to braid into a self-made anklet, I found a thin purple-colored leather band lying on the ground... well, finders, keepers. And so I had a nice little collection of new and some enhanced old foot jewelry:
Since the market closed at 7.30 pm, I had a last cherry beer at my "usual" tavern and then turned my barefoot steps to the park's exit and the tram station nearby, with a small stop at an ice cream car, where I bought me an utterly non-medieval treat for the way home:
I arrived at home happy on dusty, dark-soled and jingling bare feet - those bells made it impossible to sneak up people and were just right to announce the arrival of a non-mainstream person to the world at large.
Well, the countdown has come to an end, and this is it: the start of a full fortnight of barefoot freedom (well, 15 days actually, starting from this Saturday).
I celebrated this freedom by sleeping in, and getting up at lunch time, roughly. The usual Saturday plan was the shopping trip in the town center - with the visit to the street café cancelled due to unstable and occasionally rainy conditions. It was a comparingly cool day, not feeling like summer solstice peeking around the corner (which will be on Monday, June 21, precisely at 1.28 pm CEDT), with only 14°C, which prompted me to put on my hooded cotton jacket - but certainly not any footwear.
The shopping trip itself was the usual, including the occurances of "The Look"® here and there, but as I proceeded to shove my shopping cart towards the checkout, one of those rare accidents happened, as I stubbed the small pinky toe (quite hard) of my right foot on the right rear wheel of that confounded cart. So, if people think that it's dangerous to do grocery shopping barefoot due to broken glass or stuff on the ground - that's not it. It's those damn carts that pose a threat to bare toes. And as if to prove that, a small trickle of blood oozed out from under the toe nail, running down the toe and leaving small droplets of blood where I stood. Well, let's hope that this isn't some sort of portent or ill omen for my bare feet during the next 15 days...
Blood on my toe... |
Subway barefooting with shopping bags |
Well, to answer that instantly: I certainly don't believe that it is - shit happens
to bare feet at times, sometimes literally, too, when stepping in dog poo,
sometimes by stubbing your toe.
This surely won't keep me from baring my toes and wiggling them happily while they
touch Earth in Her different forms.
And tomorrow will definitely be a delightful day, since I will visit another stop of the medieval market tour known as "Mittelalterlich Phantasie Spectaculum", this time in a very barefoot-friendly park in Dortmund. And I am sure, since the weather forecast still speaks of slightly unstable and cool weather (around 15°C) that my bare soles will celebrate the feeling of moist and cool soil and grass beneath them.
I will surely keep you posted.
Of course, it would not be a proper Sunday had I missed my chance to take my usual energizing barefoot Sunday stroll in the park. Since the weather was not the warmest on that day (cloudy sky, only about 17°C), I did not choose to make it a barefoot and skyclad sunbathing day, but rather chose the evening hours to have some peace and quiet during the time when people were most likely sitting in front of their TV watching the German national soccer team... thanks to the soccer world cup thing currently going on, the streets were almost deserted.
Having downloaded a new psytrance album recently (ektoplazm.com - if anyone wants to know where to get very good free MP3 downloads of good psytrance music), which is quite fittlingy entitled Creatures of the Forest , I listened to some new tracks, while walking barefoot down the street to the park. And on arriving there I realized that there are quite some people not interested in soccer, either... the park wasn't as deserted as I expected - there were still some people taking strolls, one quy walking his dog, two female joggers and an Asian couple trying themselves at throwing a boomerang... and I was the only barefoot person among those. As I sat down on my usual white bench to have a first smoke, a family came near, with a young man asking, where the nearest park exit with a bus stop were... and they were asking about a church, too. Funny, since I really don't know any church nearby. I told them the nearest way out, and off they went (without even so much as a raised eyebrow or comment about my bare feet or my outfit - the usual skirt and Ganesha t-shirt combo).
After listening to the first three tracks of the Avatar score, I stood up, and enjoyed the barefoot walk over the grass to the western corner of the park.
| Here, I decided to sit down on yet another bench, an old-fashioned wooden one, as it most commonly used in parks. This one looked very inviting, since it was placed directly in front of some bushes and young trees, making the weary and tired traveller sit in a frame of green (well, not that anyone would get too tired while taking a slow and lazy walk in the park... I just wanted to stick with the imagery. It is just too inviting a place to sit and take a rest). A very scenic backdrop for taking a break, gazing into the park and feeling the sandy soil of the trail under my bare soles | 
|
As the seventh track of the Avatar score was drawing near its end - the prayer song to Eywa, as heard in the movie sung by the Omaticaya clan at the Tree of Souls - I decided to stand up, walk a few steps from that bench to the tree that I named "The Fairies' Abode" today (see my last park report from May 30 below about that tree), and place an incense stick into the central platform at its bottom:
(If you look closely, you'll spot a little orange dot in the center, in the bottom
third of the picture - that's the incense stick's glow, right there).
I then stepped back to the bench, sat down, looked up and let my eyes wander around all that green in the shrubbery's canopy directly above me. The thought of that tree's base making a very good altar then crossed my mind, and I decided that I would do just that when celebrating the summer solstice, which is also the beginning of my two-week leave coming up (do you hear my barefoot pixie singing merrily...? "Only five days of dull office work... the time of barefoot and skyclad freedom is drawing nearer and nearer!!" Oh, and she's so right...!)
After sitting there for a while, I stood up, walked again over the soft and cool grass underfoot to another bench, this time at the south-eastern end of the park, sat down there to take a look at where I just came from and to take gazes of farewell (for this week) through the park...
After again cherishing the feeling of sandy soil underneath my bare soles...
... I stood up and walked home, relaxed and energized for my return into "the machine", starting tomorrow. But, as I pointed out above, that is also the start of a five-day countdown to the beginning of a beautiful summerly time of barefoot freedom - and nude freedom on many of those days, too, as I will definitely spend a lot of time at my favourite skinnydipping lake.
Last week was a truly gorgeous time for barefooting, since the weather had decided to go full-throttle as far as summer is concerned... temperatures around 27°C in the shade, sun, blue sky... those are the ingredients for a barefoot season (with possible pain to tenderfoot barefooting newbies, if they walk on sun-heated pavement for the first time, burning their untrained soles).
 |
The office days were the usual, with one exception on June 3, which was
a holiday in the Catholic parts of Germany, known in German as Fronleichnam
("Corpus Christi" in English... sometimes it just feels that Catholics aren't
celebrating their faith, but rather burying it, revelling in some kind of death
cult). Since our tenants' telephone hotline had to be manned (we only get a day off
on nation-wide holidays), people responsible for training and coaching, personnel planning
and reporting also had to be there. And so I went there for a half-day shift of
five hours, and left any footwear at home, since none of the big bosses or any
prospect customers were going to be there... That gave me the opportunity to
spend a barefoot day at work, including barefoot cigarette breaks in the sun.
Well, it wasn't a true replacement of a barefoot nature walk or a naturist day spent by and in the lake, but still a little barefoot freedom in the otherwise shod office environment. |
The weekend after that holiday was now almost a routine even, too... a very pleasant one,
however. Saturday was my day of the barefoot café visit, barefoot shopping and later a
barefoot walk to the park and some very barefoot resting beneath a tree, with sunlight
filtered through the canopy... it was just too warm to sit in the sun directly. What I
saw was that my urban barefooting and sitting in my usual café in broad sunlight had
given me a typical "t-shirt tan", with my lower arms and legs (including bare feet) nicely
tanned, but the rest of me comparingly pale... kind of vanilla vs. caramel cream.
Well, I know, I am yummy either way, so who cares... 
All kidding aside, I wanted to make amends to that bicolor appearance and so the sunny Sunday was to be the naturist day at the lake (the usual favourite lake, that is), and it was there where I spent a bit more than four hours, three of which I was sitting and laying on my blanket in full sunlight, and one hour (in several intervals) spent in the pleasantly refreshing water of the lake. This time, the water certainly was warm enough to take a swim and feel it flow around all of my skin - well, "warm" is a relative term here, since it was still cool enough to properly refresh me after basking in hot sunlight for about an hour, but not too cold. After that half-day at the lake, my skin was getting a little darker in the vanilla places, but the difference was, of course, still there. So, as often as I can I will make sure to get out into the sun skyclad to get me evenly tanned.
Barefoot encounters by that time so far: one on Saturday - on my urban barefooting shopping trip I met one barefoot young man passing me on the ped zone on my way to my usual outdoor-seating café. And two barefooters on Sunday - as I walked back from the lake to the small train stop nearby, a trio of fashionably dressed teenage girls was coming from the train stop, with one of them walking barefoot, holding her ballerina slippers in her hand. As they passed me, one of the other two shod girls was taking a look at my tanned and adourned bare feet, and then looked into my face with a mixed expression of shock, wonder and awe. The other barefooter was a young man, whom I saw walking through the basement of the neighboring city's central station. He looked like a regular soccer fan with a soccer club t-shirt, baggy shorts, baseball cap... and bare feet. Normally, those kind of people wear fashionable sneakers.
The rest of the week was again the usual routine of pre- and after-work barefooting... until June 7. That day I saw something weird, since the barefoot person I saw wasn't barefoot at first. When I had finished the office day, waiting for the bus to take me to the town center, I watched as a silver VW van (newer T5 model, no cute old T1 or T2 hippie van) stopped at the bus stop on the opposite side of the road, about 50 meters away. The side door slid open, and a young man stepped out, wearing bermuda-style baggy shorts and a T-shirt, and went to the waste-paper basket at the bus stop, stuffing something inside. The weirdness started, as he then pulled up his right foot, pulled off his sock (only then I realized he stepped out of the van sockfooted), stuffed that into the trashbin, too, repeated that with his left sock, then stepped into the van, barefoot, door slid shut and off it went.
That was something to leave me stare, open-mouthed for a second.
It might well be,
that before taking off his socks he stuffed his old shoes into the trash... I didn't
go and check, since my bus arrived only a minute afterwards... but that truly was a
first-timer as far as watching someone get barefoot in an unconventional way is concerned.
Other than that, no other barefooters around, though.
The rest of the week went by without any barefoot encounters, sadly, but another portion of weirdness on Thursday, June 10...
|
This time, it happened at the bus stop where I do indeed stand regularly and wait after work
to take my bus on the way home, that someone must have thought "There's that barefoot
guy standing here every day... Let's give him a gift" and left - as you can see in the
picture - a cardboard box with a pair of hiking-style sneakers.
Well, OK, it might not have been aimed at me, but rather a rude example of littering,
but again, a strange coincidence after that weird incident two days before... losing
footwear at a bus stop - again. |
 |
And those were the barefoot key events of last week... Will there be more weirdness
waiting for our barefoot hero? Tune in and find out...
Even though I already had been in my usual favourite park for a barefoot stroll on Saturday, I didn't want to forfeit the Sunday stroll, even though the weather was rather unstable and not the most inviting one for barefooting... all through the day rain had been falling and the temperature was only slightly above 10°C. A quite cool gusty wind was blowing, accompanying sometimes heavy showers. Still, I was able to pick a time that looked like inbetween showers to take a barefoot walk down to the park and to enjoy the positive and beautiful side effect of a rainy day: cool and wet ground underfoot. It felt like a walk on a wet beach, as my bare soles touched the paths in the park, laid out in sand and small pebbles, and the puddles on the paths provided some extra delight:
Sitting down on a bench after enjoying the "beachy" feeling of the paths I had a cigarette, while watching the sky changing its appearance swiftly, as clouds in different hues of grey were fleeting by.
At some point, it even looked like the clouds breaking up, and so I stood up and began a stroll over the lawns, enjoying and cherishing the feeling of cool and wet grass beneath my naked soles.
Since the sun had decided to peek out from between the threatening grey clouds, the park was lit up nicely in the late afternoon sunlight, and the air felt a lot warmer almost instantly. I continued my stroll and decided to take closer looks at some parts of the park, which now almost looked like parts of an enchanted forest - such as the back part of the duck pond, which was hidden behind some shrubbery:
In another place, there was a tree - or a few trees rooting together, rather - that looked like a home for a tribe of fairies... and the center, where the trunks converged, could well have been their central festival ground:
I felt a little envious for not being one of those fairies, since the view directly up into the canopy above that center was marvellous indeed:
No, I did not step onto that platform to take that picture... I just held my arm
inside and shot upwards.
From that tree, I turned around, and into a corner on the western end of the park, where large pines were growing... the ground there felt almost like true forest floor and the smell was like that, too. Moist soil, pine needles and cones... and another true delight for bare soles to walk on.
From there, it was again a short stroll over grass
to yet another part of the park where I found a small copse of trees, that made
me feel almost like standing in the middle of a forest - were it not for that
stench of urine, since that copse seems to have been in use as an outdoor latrine
quite often. Thank Goddess, this picture only transmits the beauty, not the smell:
On the way back for a second round through the western corner of the park - clearly my favourite - I passed the duck pond again, and this time the sunlight gave it a truly enchanted atmosphere (also partly due to the artifacts it created on my cheap cell phone camera:
But the camera was still good enough to create something that could also become a typically kitsch picture postcard:
Actually, the place where I took the pictures of the pond was quite near the corner where I did my skyclad relaxation and meditation after dark... and a small copse of trees was right next to it, too, with a little entrance inside, where I found yet another enchanted place:
Inside that little copse, the ground looked and felt like you would expect it from a real forest, where leaves had fallen on bare earth for years, forming a soft and thick layer of dark brown and black humus soil. Since it already felt nice and soft to the touch of my bare feet, and the inside of that copse was well-hidden from outside views, I decided to get nude, and sit down on that warm and soft skin of Mother Earth. Once again, I felt truly communing with Her, as I sat down on the ground, cross-legged, Indian-style, and took deep breaths to relax and unfocus my eyes to meditate a little on the spots of sunlight filtered through the leaves ahead. When propping my left foot up onto my right thigh, I noticed how richly earth-colored my bare sole was from walking on that beautiful surface... I felt very happy to have found that place of peace and bliss.
After about half an hour in that little world of mine, I stood up, put on my kaftan and took another few steps on that wonderfully soft and rich surface, feeling my bare feet sink in an inch or two in some spots and observing happily that they had become very Earthcolored all over, too... I took a wistful parting glance at the magic light still filtering through the green of leaves, and left the copse to reluctantly walk out of the park and back home...
On walking out, I bid that little copse goodbye, promising to return as soon as possible and make that my new personal Mother Nature nude meditation spot.
All in all, it was a wonderful Sunday afternoon in the park - especially with
some discoveries made. And, the timing as far as weather was concerned was just
perfect, since it started to rain only as I was a few paces away from my doorstep.
However, I would have liked to fee some rain in the park, too, and then having the
opportunity to take a nude rainbath there... that's a special delight, too.
Maybe next time...
Saturday at last... the beginning of the usual barefoot weekend. And two days of nothing worn on my feet but foot jewelry and sunlight. Well, considering the weather forecast and the light rain that has begun just as I am typing this, one day of sunlight, at least. It was to be a usual Saturday, with a little trip into town to do some shopping and to have the usual at my now sort of favourite Italian street café... I didn't take a picture of the cappuccino and soda this time - it becomes a bit redundant, I thought. But before I went there, I had to amend a little mishap happening to me the day before - Friday, that is: my earphones broke down on me, and so I had to get a replacement set. This time I bought a pair that can be hung around the neck with the MP3 player attached to it. That will prevent cable damage which occurs, when you carry the player in your pocket, and the earphones cable gets bent and crumpled. On the positive part, that set of earphones is the same quality as the previous one, and cheaper, too. I then decided that it might be the time to upgrade the player itself, too (an old 1 GB Philips) and so I was happy to see a sales offer of a nice-priced 4 GB model of the same brand. And so, I went home with a new MP3 player, as well. No comment from the personnel of that Saturn megastore in the posh new "Forum" mall in the center of Duisburg - I even got one guy to help me in finding out whether the player I chose had an internal rechargeable battery, charged via USB or whether I'd have to use AAA size rechargeable batteries like with the old model. The only comment I've heard was a slightly ironic-sounding "Great shoes..." from a teenage girl. I decided not to grace her with a reply, although the fitting answer "Thanks... my parents made them for me" was on the tip of my tongue.
Well, not quite home yet, since from there on the other shopping part began. I went by tram into the center of Mülheim, the town where I live, and went first to what has become my usual café on sunny Saturdays: the "Eiscafé Galleria" right in front of the central mall in Mülheim, incidentally called "Forum" as well. After enjoying my usual hot and cold drinks and typing away - as usual, too - on my mini laptop (a new little writing project called "All of Me", which will appear as a PDF file on my personal web page, as soon as it is finished), I went for the little regular Saturday shopping tour, which was first to a drug store to get some foot care products (a moisturizing cream called "Fuß-Butter" - cute name) and a few candles... I just love candle light at home in the evening. Next stop: the supermarket, for the usual grocery shopping. No comments, just the occasional occurance of "The Look"® and not much to report on the sight of other barefooters in the town center... there were none.
On the tram ride home, however, I spotted one young woman walking barefoot on the sidewalk, carrying her sandals in her hand. At least one person who bared her soles together with me today.
After returning home and unpacking the stuff I bought and stowing it away in the appropriate places, I felt that the barefoot day couldn't be over as yet... it was getting close to 6 pm, and the sun was still out - even though the sky was looking a little hazy, making it appear like frosted glass. So, I decided to get into my favourite hippie outfit: skirt and purple Ganesha-print t-shirt, and packed some equipment to take a walk in my usual park. This time, I also packed some incense stick to add some ambience. It was also a prime opportunity to try out the new electronic equipment I bought earlier today. And it turned out that the earphones I chose were just perfect. I took a barefoot stroll over the park lawn, listening again to my favourite music - the Avatar original score, and revisited the places of my nude night stroll which I took on Whitsun:
But before that, I went to my old friend, the young oak, to sit beneath it, and soak up the remnants of sunlight:
Like on Whitsun, I took off my t-shirt, baring my belly to the world at large and pulled up my skirt to a minimum of covering over my maleness, so that people wouldn't suspect me being nude underneath (which I was, really, but didn't want to tell the world... yet, that is). I sat there, looking again very much like some reclining Buddha, lit two Nag Champa incense sticks, listened to some ambient/chill-out music and typed away a little on the aforementioned piece of writing. Even with the sun slowly disappearing behing clouds that were beginning to become grey, threatening with rain to come, I did not feel cold... and so, after about an hour of sitting at the base of that oak, I decided to take a little stroll from that spot to the bench where I had sat down almost a week ago when taking that smoke before I got fully naked. I kept my t-shirt off, and walked over there barefoot and shirtless.
Well, lucky me that there are no "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service" signs in that park.
After sitting there for a while, I noticed that the park was totally deserted. Only after returning home, I found a reason for that: a pre-World Cup soccer match between Germany and Hungary had begun while I was in the park. But since I was alone there, and no one to be seen, I decided that this was the perfect time to repeat my nude stroll in broad daylight. So, I took off my skirt, put it in my bag and went nude from the bench over the path to the western corner of the park, and then crossing that to revisit the place of my previous skyclad night relaxation:
That is the corner where I rested my bare behind a few nights ago, and looked out into the dark. The view from that corner looks like this:
Oh, yes, I know that there are those people you often see posting in web forums: "pictures, or it didn't happen!"... Well, I do have evidence of my daylight public nudity:
As you can see, I am a rather shameless person... I even did a little flashing before getting fully naked by pulling my skirt up to the waist:
That was before sitting down on the bench and deciding to be really bold. Well, one word about "shamelessness": I don't feel that nudity itself is something to be ashamed of. It's just the most natural state of being. Therefore, I don't feel ashamed at all to be nude, to tell others about it and to show it to the world here, too.
After taking a fifteen-minute stroll barefoot all over I went back to the bench, got dressed again, and sat down for another smoke before leaving the park... and quite in time, too, since only five minutes after I sat down and lit up, a jogger came into the park. Had he arrived a few minutes earlier, he would have spotted me in all my barefoot glory. I chuckled inwardly, enjoying my cigarette
All in all, a wonderful late afternoon in the park, making me and my hippie feet very happy.
Saturday
With getting out of the office on Friday shortly after 6 pm, it was the start of a long barefoot weekend with the addition of a Monday, again courtesy of Christian tradition – Whitsun, celebrating the descent of the holy spirit to Earth... that's what is depicted on some church window by that dove basked in light.
Just as it the case with Easter for me, I am not really touched by that, since I renounced Christian faith. However, I do cherish the occasion of having an extra day off to leave shoes at home and be 100 % barefoot, before returning to the part-time barefooting of the days when I have to work. Even though it's just an extra day off, my little barefoot pixie is singing with joy, wiggling her little elven toes, just as I wiggle mine with delight. And with the weather forecast issued for this long weekend, it is a delight, for sure. These first paragraphs are written yet again while enjoying the spring sun in a street café, with my usual combination of cappuccino and soda:
Of course, people are again giving me „The Look“® for my barefooting as well as for the mismatch of a barefoot hippie guy typing away on his mini laptop. With warm temperatures, there are lots of other people wearing summerly footwear – flip-flops and open sandals. However, I have yet to spot a fellow barefooter. On the subway, I saw one particularly cute set of bare toes in white flip-flops, adourned with a golden toe ring, belonging to a stunningly beautiful young African woman. One look of benign interest at my outfit and my bare feet together with a slight smile came from another young blond woman wearing cut-off jeans shorts with a flowing hippie-style blouse, her wearing very thin sandals and anklets... pity that she wasn't barefoot, since her overall outfit was really shouting for baring her feet fully, too.
After about an hour of basking in the sunlight, wiggling my bare toes, listening to Ali Project and enjoying my beverages, it was off to the mall to do some barefoot grocery shopping. As usual, that went by unhassled, even though there were, again and as usual, various examples of „The Look“® present there, as well. Nothing more to report about my way home... no comments, no other barefooters around. I hope that I can report a higher number than 0 on the barefooters counter on Sunday, as I am going to visit a medieval-themed festival taking place in our town... since it's only a ten-minute ride by subway there, I might meet some people I know there. And considering the still very nice weather conditions predicted for tomorrow as well, there is a quite high chance of spotting a few pairs of bare feet there.
On a side note, this Saturday started in an involuntarily invigorating way,
since for some reason I couldn't find out the hot water was turned off,
leaving me with taking a cold shower in the morning. Somehow, this was
reminescent of the times about ten years ago, when I was living in that
alternative commune without tap water, and enjoying to take what we called
rain baths by stepping outside nude in rain showers... Even though we didn't
have some of the creature comforts of modern society, it was an enjoyable
life and I will always cherish that time as being the time of ultimate barefoot
and naturist freedom (among other things). On warm days, we also celebrated that,
such as on Beltane. And since I was out in the sun skyclad quite often, I had a
nicely dark skin tone, too.
So, it's quite easy to play a little "spot the Ganesha" in that picture of a
beautiful skyclad and barefoot past:
Sunday
Sunday began just as Saturday had ended: bright and sunny... as I embarked on my little trip to Broich Castle (Schloß Broich – an old medieval castle, built in the 9th century, which helped Mülheim to remain safe of the Vikings – they rampaged Duisburg, but Broich Castle kept them out...) I was looking at a bright blue sky, without any clouds, and the sun shining. It promised to be a very nice summerly day, to be sure.On the ten-minute tram ride there I noticed quite a few people who were most likely to visit the „Pfingst-Spectaculum Broich“ as well, as the medieval-themed market there is called – I saw even one guy changing in the tram from his black t-shirt to a saffron-colored shirt with a wine-red vest combo... so that was one of the people trying to dress in style... I was just in my usual hippie-ish outfit, with grey cargo pants rolled up to below the knee, bare feet with the usual foot jewelry and a black t-shirt with a white Ganesha pictogram on it. A small part of the market was located inside the castle's inner courtyard, but the larger part was taking place in the adjacent park, providing a very barefoot-friendly environment, since the paths there were either paved or laid out in sand with very small gravel and lots of grass to walk on. In comparison to the park location of the market/festival in Gelsenkirchen I visited a few weeks ago, I'd measure this one on a 1 to 10 scale of barefoot-friendliness with a clear 10 – the other location would get a 7.
The castle itself was providing a nice scenic backdrop for the market, indeed:
I was able to count plenty of other barefooters there – mostly among the partcipants dressed in medieval-style garb... although there are sometimes style breaches, such as this flip-flop warrior:
But there were also barefooters, including some of the salespeople at the market stands:
Since this market was in the town I live in, I wasn't surprised to be greeted by co-workers, whom I hadn't really expected to meet before Tuesday – including the head of our IT department, who's sort of a Goth person. After spending a few hours there, and 4 pints of mead-laced beer later, I decided to head home, with a nice beer buzz, which I didn't want to grow into something nasty, since I drank my last pint in bright sunlight... and beer with mead is a potent mix, indeed. I went away from the castle grounds, turned my steps towards a tram stop nearby, and encountered one barefooter outside the market, as a young woman riding her mountain bike barefoot whizzed past me. She looked straight ahead, not at me, a happy smile on her face, listening to some music via MP3 player, it seemed. Her smile and stance as she was riding her bike reminded me strongly of the happy smile the female lead character Neytiri wore in Avatar when riding Seze, her ikran.
Waiting for the tram to arrive, I sat down on a bench with the prey I brought from the market at my happy bare feet:
The clay bottle contains another potent mix known as „Drachenglut“ (dragon embers) made from mead with cherry and elderberry. And it's not only a potent but very yummy mix, since I already had a taste by filling up my half-pint drinking horn with it. Just in case you're wondering, what's in that box: I found me a beautiful gothic barefoot pixie on her toadstool to take home with me:
My new barefoot pixie |
A taste of Drachenglut |
Monday
Absolutely no "manic Monday", but rather an extra Sunday - that's what waking up on this wonderfully bright and sunny morning told me, while my new barefoot pixie standing near my computer (see above) smiles at me...
The first part started like the usual Sunday does - getting the laundry done and while doing so, shaving my head. After all, I want to give that barefoot Buddhist impression again, when embarking on my stroll in the park later on, as that is the usual thing I normally do on a Sunday. And, since this day feels like one, I shall treat it as such. Well, about that head-shaving thing: that "Buddhist impression" was a joke. Of course, people tend to believe I must be a Buddhist or Hare Krishna member, walking barefoot, wearing a flowing multi-colored skirt, head shaved bald and wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a Hindu God on it... I love playing with such images and defying mainstream's expectations. The foremost reason of shaving my head is: cooling. In the warm seasons, my scalp provides some extra evaporation space for sweat, when the hair is gone. I've mentioned that on this page before, but I know that the world-wide web tends to have a short-term memory where texts are concerned, so it's OK to repeat that, I guess.
The barefoot park stroll
With bright sunshine being my accomplice, I set out to my favourite park to take that usual barefoot walk to feel some natural soil and grass beneath my soles. Since it had been dry and sunny over the last week, this also meant a prime opportunity to find me a spot and sit in the grass, preferably under a tree to have its green canopy above, while being in touch with Mother Earth below.
I had brought a little bag of equipment with me to spend some quality time there – including of course my hippie hi-tech gadgets: cell phone/camera, MP3 player and mini laptop. And, in addition to feeling the warm and soft grass and earth for energizing purposes, I also packed a small bottle of caffeinated stuff – incidentally my favourite brand of cola (largely unknown outside Germany, I'm sure, since it's a German brand).
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After a short walk through the grass, I found a nice chestnut tree to sit under,
directly at its base. Since the wind was picking up and large fluffy clouds
starting to build high towers in the sky, a change of weather was foreshadowed,
and the wind had also provided a carpet of chestnut blossoms lying beneath that
tree... and I sat down there, appearing to the mainstream people in the park
walking by or sitting on nearby benches to be some modern reclining Buddha –
at least until I got out my laptop to begin typing this... all the time
while I was sitting there, the wind (a pleasantly warm breeze) kept shaking
the canopy, sending down more blossoms to rain onto the ground – and onto me,
as well. There could be worse things raining down on me, for sure – therefore
I took it as a bit of Mother Nature's mischief. It felt as if she were in a
playful mood... or perhaps it was a bunch of mischievous fairies, seeing me
sitting beneath their tree and saying „Look!! A hippie! Let's throw flowers
at him!“. Since I was listening to some ambient music from my MP3 player,
I couldn't hear any fairy giggles... but it might still be true, nonetheless.
And just as I had written this, a good handful of blossoms rained down on me.
I also noticed several caterpillars landing on me... which felt a little creepy-crawly
as they also landed on the back of my neck...
Another note on listening to music: just before I chose to listen to an ambient album by Proton Kinoun, I did my usual listening to the Avatar soundtrack – the usual favourite tracks 5 to 7 – and this time read the corresponding parts from the Activist Survival Guide which I had brought with me... And as I came to the final part of track 7 - Jake's first flight - when the prayer song to Eywa is heard, I felt a tingle run up and down my spine, sitting in the grass with my back resting against the tree trunk. Communing with Mother Earth, indeed.
After getting pelted with some more blossoms, I looked around and found me a
different tree to sit beneath, right in the sun to soak up a bit of sunlight,
too, before heading home again... I figured the one being just the right spot
for that – a young oak. As I sat down at the base of that tree, a funny
thing happened: the wind had suddenly died down, and the shower of blossoms
beneath the chestnut tree had stopped. It might be true, that there were
some mischievous fairies in that tree who now decided that the fun was gone
along with that hippie... In the distance, near the duck pond in the park I
could see a woman taking off her clothes to lie down in the grass wearing a
bikini... so, I decided to tune up the reclining Buddha impression by taking
off my t-shirt, and bare my trademark Ganesha belly to the world at large.
The warm breeze together with the bright sunlight was a true delight. A bit later, another young woman chose a spot on the lawn to take off her clothes and lie down in her bikini, too... So the two women and me were building a large sunbathing triangle... Even though that park wasn't a naturist sunbathing site, I felt as close to it as possible, since I wore my skirt the most comfortable way – without underwear, as usual. I mean, what is the point in wearing a skirt if it's not done barefoot to the waist? The only thing missing to make it a perfect site would be a small lake to skinny-dip - and if that were there, I bet people would begin sunbathing nude, too.
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After spending more than two hours in the park, one of them reclining semi-nude in
the sun, I decided to head home, feeling very relaxed and energized at once...
Only in hindsight I relized that there was one thing I didn't bring to add some
hippie ambience: incense sticks. That's definitely going onto my list for spending
some quality time in the park. On the way home, I passed a spot on the sidewalk (which I passed on the way to the park as well), only to again shake my head at the foolishness of people, since some asshole had not only smashed a bottle of cheap Sangria, but also made it his business (I'm very sure that jerk was male!) to trample onto and spread the shards around for people to step into or have their bicycle tires punctured... well, the world is filled liberally with idiots. And that particular idiot seems to have been wearing combat boots. This is sad... very sad only. |
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After returning home and entering my apartment, the first thing for me to do was to get barefoot all over (naked, that is), step into the shower and have a stream of cool water flow over my sweating body - not only to make up for the missing lake, but also to rinse off the odd caterpillar I might have overlooked. All in all, a nice barefoot day-out and an almost perfect happy ending for a barefoot Whitsun weekend.
Why only almost...? After coming home, I felt that it was something like a dessert fit for a king, with ice cream, amarena cherries, chocolate and caramel sauce, a nice crown of whipped cream... only the cherry on top was missing. I felt that there was something more I could do to make it a perfect barefoot Whitsun, sort of the triumphant final chord of a barefoot symphony.
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So, I decided to return to the park after sunset. This time, I was wearing an African-
style tie-dye kaftan (see left) and was skyclad underneath. I wanted to pursue an idea
I had when taking an after-dark barefoot stroll in the park eight days ago (see below):
get in touch with Mother Nature not only with my bare soles but with my whole bare body.
Since the garment I wore was almost as light as a soft breeze, I felt almost nude when walking down the road leading to the park. Just like the time before, it wasn't really dark, since the sky was still glowing faintly after sunset, and in the south-east a waxing moon, two-thirds full, was casting a milky light over the park. The grass was only slightly moist underfoot, as dew hadn't fallen fully yet. Nevertheless, the feeling was delightful. With temperatures still around 17°C it was pleasantly warm, just as the occasional very slight breeze. I went to the middle part of the park, sat down on a bench and had a cigarette, listening into the evening sounds, mixed with the drone of the highway (A 40) nearby, looking over the park to see, whether there were still people, or at least people-shaped silhouettes out there... But there was neither a person to see nor to hear - which would have been easy on the sand paths, mixed with small grit. Shod feet walking on that make a very distinct and quite audible crunching sound. So, after smoking my cigarette, I went to the south-eastern part of the park, sat down cross-legged, Indian style, on the earth near a group of dense bushes, facing the north-east, where the sky was still gleaming with last remnants of orange-red, and pulled the kaftan over my head, now being fully nude. |
I felt, that this was the ideal way to get in touch with Mother Earth, and so I sat there,
relaxing, breathing, almost meditating for half an hour, before I decided to tune up the
boldness level a notch - or rather to tune it up to max volume, really. I put the kaftan into
my shoulder bag, careful to pack it in so that it could be pulled out fast and pulled over my
body even faster... I almost felt like a parachutist packing his gear. I then stood up, still
naked, brushing earth and leaves from my bare behind and started walking towards the western
end of the park, where I had been today in broad daylight. Since I hadn't heard any hints of
other human beings in the park, I decided it would be safe enough to take a nude stroll.
And as it turned out, it was... I went to the place where I had the idea of lying down nude
in the grass, outstretched, and feeling Mother Earth's dewy kiss on my naked skin and did
just that. I lied down on my back, arms stretched sideways, legs spread and took several deep,
deep breaths, looking up into the now cloudy sky, with a few stars winking between the clouds.
It was magnificent, feeling truly like Mother Earth's son, being held in Her loving arms.
After about two minutes of lying in the cool grass I stood up - still
nude, and again listened into the park... no sign of anyone near, no crunching steps on the
paths - so, therefore no reason to get dressed yet. I strolled over to the place where I had
sunbathed the afternoon before, touching the bark of that young oak as if greeting a friend,
looking over to the fairy-ridden chestnut tree with a grin, and then slowly walking towards
one of the paths leading eastward. I then decided that there was no point in getting dressed
at all before leaving the park, since still no one was there. So I went to the bench where
I had sat down before going to my relaxation place, and sat down there again, having a
cigarette - still nude. After finishing that cig, I still didn't hear or see anyone near, and
so I stood up and walked relaxedly and still naked towards the park's exit, using the main path
which now bent southwards, parallel to a large road - and there was plenty of lighting, too,
since the large street lamps were on, basking the path partly in their orange light. That
was the really risky part of my skyclad stroll, since a random pedestrian on the sidewalk
slightly above the park could have easily spotted me buck-naked on the path below... And just
as I reached the paved part of the path, almost in sight of the road, I pulled out my
kaftan from my bag, slipped into it, put my MP3 player earphones in and happily padded
home on my bare feet, listening to some psytrance, feeling elated.
Now that truly was the missing cherry on top and the true happy ending of a barefoot Whitsun weekend.
This is sort of a condensed entry, containing what happened over the last week... Everyday barefooting has become more or less of a routine thing, happening before and after work – and running errands like regular grocery shopping – which all happen unhassled, but with the usual occurances of „The Look“®.
Bare toes before work... |
...and after work, too. |
Even though last week offered me an opportunity to do some extra barefooting on Thursday, May 13, that was cut short by yet another of those demands of my employer's client who again wished to have a detailed month statistic, which confined me to working at the computer all day... and also a good part of last Sunday, too. However, since I didn't wish to forfeit my barefoot Sunday stroll, I decided to change my schedule slightly and took that walk after sunset, around 10.15 pm.
It was a different experience, since the park I usually visit is not lit at night... With temperatures around 12°C and a cloudy sky, I set out to mostly feel my way around that venue. Even though it isn't truly dark in an urban environment, the rest of light in the park – partly shining through the trees from the adjacent road – was rather meager. I was able to tell the sandy paths from the darker grass, but orientation as far as the surfaces were concerned was clearly my bare soles' job. Since dew had already fallen, the grass felt cool and moist underfoot, and it was a quite special delight to feel Mother Nature's dewy kiss on my toes. Since I couldn't quite see, whether there were other people around, I turned off my MP3 player which I normally take with me to accompany my barefooting with the right soundtrack. On arriving in the back part of the park, I could see a thin crescent moon hanging over the western horizon, with Venus shining to its right, slightly below. This sight was framed at the bottom by a row of trees, or at this time, a row of dark tree-shaped shadows. Standing there, looking into the sky and feeling the cool dew beneath my feet, I pondered briefly on shedding my clothes and lying down skyclad, outstretched, receivign Mother Nature's dewy kiss all over my body. However, that notion was cut short as well – this time not by work life's requirements, but by a female voice hissing from somewhere in the dark „There's someone there!“ and a nervous male chuckle answering her from the same place. It seems that a couple had chosen that particular place and time for their personal celebration of the rites of spring. I smiled and slowly walked away from the place, silently wishing them fun, whatever they were planning to do. After this invigorating as well as relaxing walk, I left the park and turned my barefoot steps homeward to get ready for the short night before another of those „manic Mondays“, marking the usual weekly re-entry into „the machine“.
One slightly funny thing happening was the spotting of a second male barefooter, just after leaving the tram, walking the last few meters to my apartment complex... people waiting at the red traffic light were gaping at a man wearing dark grey cargo pants, a loose-fitting white tank top, bare feet (without shoes in sight) and carrying a six-pack of bottled beer. He looked slightly disheveled, unshaved and with rumpled hair, just as if he had come out of bed only a few minutes ago. And then I came, walking barefoot over the ped crossing, directly towards that other barefooter... double-takes were the movement of that moment. The fun thing is, even though I didn't know that man, I saw him walking ahead of me, entering just the apartment house I live in. I saw him again the morning after (a slightly cool one, around 10°C) wearing a normal outfit, including coat and shoes – although his disheveled hair style and bad shaving hadn't changed. So, just an occasional barefooter, then.
Encounters with shod people and them asking questions happened, too.
For instance, two young women, dressed not like the typical fashion
victims, but rather sporting a bit of emo style entered the bus I
rode on my way home from the office. As usual, I was barefoot,
equipped with my „leave-me-alone“-shields: MP3 player and a manga to
read. One of them stepped up to me seat, smiled shyly, motioning at
me to take my earphones out and then asked „Excuse me, what is it you're
reading...?“ I showed her the cover, and she said „Ah, we know that one...“
and from the back, her accomplice asked „It's a Kaori Yuki, right?“ -
Well, those two know their manga, alright, since it was indeed Kaori
Yuki's best-known work, Angel Sanctuary (volume 6). So, this time
it weren't my bare feet triggering curiosity, but my choice of reading.
Another funny encounter was after exiting the bus at the central station,
where a boy of about 10 shyly asked „Excuse me, may I ask a question?“ -
well, go figure, there are still polite kids out there... - I said „Sure...“
and he asked „why are you walking barefoot?“, to which I replied
„Well, it's healthy.“ He then asked „But.... doesn't it hurt?“ Of course,
my answer was „No....“ with a smile. He then seemed to have become a
little more courageous and asked „...and why are your toenails painted?“ -
I had my usual dark red and purple glitter nail polish on two of my toes,
plus the usual toe rings and anklet. I grinned at him and said
„You know, since people stare at my bare feet all the time, I want to
give them something to look at...“. I heard him chuckle, and so I left
the place to go to the subway stop and take my usual subway/tram homewards.
Apart from that lone barefoot man mentioned above, there were no other barefoot
sightings the whole week.
Weather conditions: mostly cloudy, no rain imminent, 16°C, almost no wind...
perfect enough for a barefoot Sunday stroll in the park. And as far as the idea
of taking an afternoon stroll in the park was concerned, I certainly wasn't alone...
Lots of people (mostly families and couples) were having the same idea – however,
I was again the solitary barefooter among them.
Since some of the people were dressed in their Sunday best, it never seems to occur to them, that walking barefoot in such weather could be a real delight, especially feeling slightly moist and cool soil and grass beneath their soles. I pity them, for they did miss a treat. At least those people's dogs were able to enjoy it... and some of them passing me were quite intrigued by my bare feet and a few came closer to take a whiff of my bare toes. Dogs love feet (especially the male dogs...).
Even though it wasn't a brightly sunny day, it was clear that Mother Nature had again turned up the volume as far as blossoms and foliage are concerned. The last few days had been rainy, prompting the trees to sprout even more leaves, and so some (like the copper beech seen below) were presenting a very nice dress of leaves. Also, the grass was spotted with more daisies and dandelion than the weeks before, giving me the opportunity to shoot some „hippie's delight“ pictures: flowers and bare feet.
Since I had embarked on my little stroll at the usual time for Sunday coffee and cake, I had something coffee-ish with me... as I stated in some posts on HipForums, for instance, caffeine fuels my motor – and I do worship the Coffee Goddess.
So, I had some bottled cold cappuccino milk with me, containing 80-100 milligrams of pure caffeine (that equals 2 cups of espresso). So, today's walk was energizing for my soles, my soul and the body as a whole...
Of course, as I sat down on a bench to enjoy my bottle of chilled cappuccino milk, have a smoke and type these very words on my laptop, I became again the target of „The Look“® of people who seemingly couldn't grasp the combination of a barefoot guy looking like some incarnation of Buddha – I shaved my head today, too - typing away on his little piece of hi-tech.
To round up a nice and energizing Sunday, I went home to then watch the DVD of my current favourite movie, Avatar, enjoying the view of some of my newest barefoot heroines and heroes.
As far as barefooting is concerned, I could take the previous day as a blueprint and apply it to this day... pre- and after-office barefooting were the same, as were the weather conditions, making it again both relaxing and refreshing to walk barefoot on cool, wet ground and splashing through pleasantly cool puddles. The only difference was in footwear, since representatives of our client regularly visit our office on Fridays, and that means for me: in cool weather conditions (below 10°C) to wear closed shoes...
The encounter I had today was a little different from the one described below:
It was after work, when I was taking the bus to the central station and on
changing from the bus to the subway, I rode the escalator up from the underground
bus stop, and a woman aged about 50 was taking the stairs that are next to
the escalator, and made it her business to state the obvious - quite loudly for
anyone within earshot to hear, too - by saying
"You're not wearing shoes!" and thereby triggering the following dialogue:
Me (grinning): "Great observation skills..."
Her (grinning as well): "Can't you afford any?"
Me: "Oh, I can very well afford them, I just don't like wearing them."
Her (talking to an elderly woman standing behind me): He's barefoot.
Elderly woman: "I hadn't noticed until you said so..."
Her (talking to me again): "Don't you ever get ill...?"
Me (smiling): "Well, I haven't had a flu or heavy cold in years... It's a bit like going to the sauna or doing Kneipp cures regularly."
Her (nodding): "Like an inurement..."
Me: "Exactly..."
Her: "So, do your feet get calloused?"
Me: "Actually my soles get more of a leathery sort... they toughen up."
Her: "And small stones lying around and the like...? You still feel those...?"
Me: "Oh, very much so... my feet are still sensitive to that... however, walking barefoot has many health benefits, too."
Her (smiling): "Well, then, good luck and godspeed in your walking barefoot, have a nice day."
Me (smiling as well): "Thank you and same to you."
Well, as far as reactions to barefoot people are concerned, this surely was a positively different one. The world isn't just full of grumpy old geezers, after all. Since I wasn't wearing the baggier style pants or a Ganesha-printed shirt as the day before, but a regular blue jeans and polo sweater outfit, she didn't get the idea to ask about me being a member of a cult or possible religious reasons... such questions (if someone asks them) only arise the more hippie I look in terms of my outfit.
Actually, it was a rather regular day, with no special plans ahead but the usual pre- and after-office barefooting and a more or less relaxed office day. At least I did as I planned and began my late shift an hour later in order to get some more sleep than the nights before and be less edgy... and it worked. Even though I had to do some extra statistics, which was presented to me the day before, just on leaving, I felt less stressed by it, was in a better mood and wiggled my toes quite relaxed under my desk (where I kicked off my flip-flops, of course).
However, there was one specialty about this otherwise usual work day which makes it
noteworthy to me:
In the morning, I used public transport as usual, went to the town centre and into
my usual supermarket to get some caffeinated drinks to keep my engine running
during the office day, and since I had some time left before my bus to the office was
due to leave, bought me a latte to go and stepped outside the central station mall to
sip on it and have a cigarette. The various occurances of „The Look“® were
nothing to bother me, but since it was a cool morning (no warmer than 10°C), some
of them were of the even more incedulous sort than usual... that includes a middle-
aged woman (well beyond 40), whose look was really oozing arrogance.
The most peculiar occurance of „The Look“® that really prompted me to write
this entry was coming from an elder man, his age somewhere in his late sixties or
early seventies who was pulling one of those shopping trolleys which are most often
used by elder people here in Germany:
He looked at me, a mixture of disbelief and disgust on his face, and I could see his lips move, uttering the word „Penner!“ while looking at me (he made sure not to utter it audibly but under his breath...). That word is German for „bum“ or „homeless“, and he made it his business to shoot his annoying version of „The Look“® at me three times in total – and at the third time I retaliated by flipping him the bird!
And quite rightly so, I might add. OK, there is truth in saying that you should respect your elders for knowledge and wisdom – if they do behave worthy of that respect. However, just assuming something from appearance (which in my case was hippie-esque, admittedly, but nevertheless clean) and behaving like an uneducated, loud-mouthed and rude old geezer is something not worthy of respect, IMO.
I kind of hoped to encounter him again after finishing my latte and cigarette and went to the bus stop, so that I might have educated him a bit about who I am... I would have enjoyed it greatly to say to him: „You're the one who called me 'bum' a few minutes ago, right? Well, here's something for you to think about: I am currently on my way to the office where I work on a full-time basis, at least 40 hours a week, sometimes more than that... I do have a nice little apartment, I own two computers, one of which I carry with me in my bag right now – and which has a value of about 300 euros... I work for my monthly salary and I pay taxes and also my employee's share into the pension scheme, out of which your old-age pension is paid. So, next time, inform yourself before calling other people names, try to behave, follow the rules of common courtesy – which old geezers like you complain about not being obeyed by 'young people' nowadays - and be nice to one of your sponsors!“
Oh, I would have loved to see his face after that. And since I work in a direct and dialogue marketing firm, I would have known how to talk on without letting him interrupt me. Alas, he had evaded me, though, so that I could not apply my power of words to him. But if I ever see that guy again, and he calls me a bum again... oh, beware a shower of words coming from above, old man! Well, literally, since he was considerably smaller than me.
Other than that, it was a delightful day for barefooting, especially after work, since it had begun to rain about noon, and most people were sad about it, saying „Ugh, it's cold... it's raining..“ etc., while I was thinking „Cool! Puddles to splash my bare feet in and cool wet ground to walk on and cool off after the office day...“ And so it was - a real delight to walk on and to arrive at home relaxed and refreshed.
After another long office day (10.5 hours today, 11.5 yesterday) it was off to do some urban barefooting in bright spring sun. One nice thing about spring are blossoms, even the fallen ones, like these, spread over the sidewalk and providing a special barefooting surface:
(Sakura barefooting)
With three stops planned, I went first to the slightly freaky grow and head shop I usually visit to replenish my supply of incense sticks. As usual, no hassle about my bare feet (in fact, the owner has praised me for being the different kind of person I am). Then, over the little ped zone shopping street of Mülheim (which is only a little longer than the one in my old home town) to a tobacconist to get me my favourite cigarettes as well as some Zippo lighter fluid – the only two things where I am adamant about using particular brands instead of no-name products. No cheap gasoline will be used to fill up my Zippo lighter! Never ever!
Of course, „The Look“® was my usual companion, since again people seemingly cannot comprehend someone walking barefoot willingly, voluntarily and on purpose. Even in May, I can see people still wearing rather thick fall and winter jackets and closed-toe shoes. Of course, sneers and giggles by teenage fashion victims did occur, too, as usual. The third stop was at my usual supermarket. No hassles from the personnel there, either.
After shopping I decided to have a cigarette outside the mall, and stood in a place quite near some drunkards (at loeast very low-income people, perhaps even homeless...). And, as I experienced last year, one of those guys just couldn't stop himself, stepped up to me and asked „Hey, are you OK walking around without shoes...?“ with a rather heavy tongue... as I could smell, the bottled beer he was holding was hardly the first he had downed so far. Since he talked loud enough to be heard over the music of my MP3 player, I removed one earphone, replied „yes.“ and put it back into my ear again. But, alas, he wasn't happy with a simple reply. He asked – again loud enough for all the world to hear - „are you only barefoot in summer?“ to which I replied – again after removing the earplug - „I'm barefoot the whole year, as long as there's no frost“ and put the earplug back, this time also making it clear by body language, that for me, the conversation was over – I turned away from him.
The day had started as one of those spring days with coldfooting opprtunities in the morning... the temperature was only 1°C as I departed for the office at around 6.30 am, and enjoyed a very refreshing experience with toes aglow:
After getting a good night's sleep which I had missed the night before, this Saturday was again a barefoot day to visit the bi-weekly role-playing group again.
Since we have re-started our SF campaign I was again able to get our butts scorched a little - well, actually, I wasn't too good on my d100 roll on my hyperspace pilot skill roll, which ended in jumping to hyperspace a split second too late to evade the effect of the explosion of an Andrium-enriched missile we fired on an enemy vessel... the stern of our ship got a little beating from that. But, we survived... again.
And I encountered the tomcat again, that gave me that disapproving look a few weeks ago for walking past "his" window in my bare feet while he had to stay inside (as I wrote in my journal)... well, he was a bit more outside yesterday, sitting on a balcony this time, but still not as free on his bare paws as I was on mine, therefore not looking quite happy:
Another bare-pawed animal encountered was as usual our game master's dog, named Chewie (for the sounds he quite often makes... German shepherds seem to have some Wookie DNA... they "talk" a lot):
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 maling 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.
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.
More and more bare toes in sandals and flip-flops were visible, though.
It's only a very small step to lose that little bit of footwear and enjoy
full barefoot freedom. If only those people would take the sight of me as
their inspiration...
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.
It can be viewed/downloaded right here (just click or right-click on the PDF icon):
 |
My Barefoot Freedom Week diary (PDF, size: 2.4 MB) |
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.
My feet waiting for the tram
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...
Tan lines where I wore my anklets.
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.
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.
The picture below shows the back yard (the orange rectangle marking my
apartment on the 3rd floor) and the circular concrete place in the middle
has a diameter of about 5 to 6 meters. That makes the whole place small
enough to use a more eco-friendly lawnmower, get the job done and not fired...
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: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
It seems like I am now in the midst of a little barefoot battle among barefooters... Let's see what the outcome may be.
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.
And that includes feeling the world around me under my bare soles.
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!
I decided to push back that anger and get things done so that I could
get to my other plan, that being a nature walk... so, I went for my usual
little visit to the city mall, the ATM, and then the supermarket...
and just as I walked inside the mall I saw that some car sales company
had decided to exhibit some of their models right in the middle of it.
The anger that I just had pushed back emerged again, and I felt even a
little nauseous seeing a message of Earth-awareness turned into some kind
of absurd travesty, as the posters read messages like „our new 'eco' models“
next to „we are Rallye world champion!“ - And together with that were the
people scurrying past, looking like the braindead puppets that advertizing
and consumerism wants them to look like. It made me sick. I went as fast as
I could to get the stuff needed and all I wanted was to get out of that
place, get home and hide from that absurdity for a while. In order to
chill, I went to bed and slept for about two hours... thank Goddess dreamless.
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.
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.
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.
Well, all kidding aside, that was sort of the end of my necessary barefoot
errands for this day, and the ride home via subway/tram was the usual thing –
with a somewhat funny exception, as a guy in business outfit carrying a typical
laptop briefcase sat down opposite me, noticing my typing on my little laptop,
then noticing my bare feet and starting to frantically play with his cell phone...
after about a minute, he got up and walked away. And there wasn't even a stop
nearby. Another case of „the barefoot freak“ not acting according to normality's
expectations. I just love this. The „other people barefoot“ counter stayed on
number 0, since the weather was OK enough for my taste to bare my feet to the
world (cloudy, a little windy, 15°C), but seemingly too „cold“ for other people
doing likewise.
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...
I went barefoot to my old home town, Dinslaken (a small city of
about 70,000 people north of Duisburg, just outside the Ruhr megalopolis). I felt
a little nervous, for it had been many years since I last visited that place,
and most especially the place where I grew up and spent twenty years of my life –
many of which were happy years, too. After arriving at the station by train,
I boarded a bus to the traditional working class part of the town, a suburb
called Lohberg, which was called after the coal mine that used to be the main
employer until it was shut down in 2005. I felt very mixed emotions, beginning
with nervousness, of course, since it had been such a long time, paired with a
little anxiety as to whether the things and places I knew would still be there,
or had changed a lot over the time passed... As the bus pulled nearer to the stop
where I had to get out – directly at the former coal mine – I was somewhat relieved
to see that the old shaft towers were still there, as part of an industrial monument.
I had read on the web, that there had been plans to demolish them.
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.
Of course I had to have a hot chocolate there, reminescent of old times – and yes,
it tasted just the way it used to. She wasn't barefoot, though, so that the part of
playing the city's novelty was all on me. And people were giving me (or rather us)
plenty of „The Look“®, as we passed them by, chattering about how life is and
what had happened recently. I got one positive and encouraging comment
(„Hey, cool, he's barefoot!“) from one of two punk guys sitting on their blanket
in the ped area, begging for change. Neither of them was barefoot, however. I guess
that most people just couldn't comprehend how a big barefoot hippie guy could walk
around with an attractive woman dressed in regular outfit, both talking casually to
each other. And perhaps people would be gossiping about how that nice-looking woman
could know such an ogre of a person. Hah, let them. I enjoyed myself greatly doing
this! And, if she noticed those looks, I bet she did so, too.
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.
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.
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:
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).
This sunday I did take my time to visit my favourite park again and let my bare toes play in muddy puddles and be again in touch with Mother Nature...
As usual, I did wear my favourite and most comfortable outfit - a skirt - and went barefoot up to the waist. After all, what extra comfort is there in wearing a skirt when not going commando? ;)
Clear signs of spring were daisies on the grass and some of the smaller trees and bushes showing a first hue of green with the promise of new and fresh green leaves to open from their buds.
Playing with my toes in the mud was amusingly amplified by listening to the original score of the movie Avatar on my MP3 player, especially to track 2, where Jake Sully discovers his avatar body and begins running barefoot to end up wiggling his blue bare toes in warm soil:
The only pet peeve was that I forgot to take a spare battery for the player with me, since the one inside died on me during my stroll... I'm using rechargable batteries, and normally make sure to take a full spare one... just today I forgot, before I could get to the nicely uplifting and motivating tracks 5 to 7...
Still, it was an enjoyable afternoon, drawing energy from our Great Mother, again leaving my barefeet pleasantly Earth-colored.
One thing I realized, though:
Be careful when going commando and taking pictures... you might end up doing an
involuntary Britney Spears:
Now I am waiting for warmer days to get out into Nature and commune with our Mother the best way possible: barefoot all over (meaning: nude).
Wiggling happy toes,
~*Ganesha*~
I have to be grateful to the company that regularly reads the consumption gauges on my heating radiators and the water consumption gauges, too, since they dropped a card that they'd visit me in the afternoon. That allowed me to leave the office in bright and sunny spring weather with almost 20°C in the shade.
It was a real delight to feel the sun-warmed pavement beneath my bare soles.
Yesterday it wasn't a stroll though the park but a mix of using public transport sans shoes and two short barefoot walks to a friend's place and back from there to the tram stop. We had made our little appointment to modify my fantasy and SF role-playing game characters (incidentally, that friend also is the game master of our regular role-playing game group) a few days before, and so I decided to skip the park for walking to his place - at least part of the way. Since the main surface to walk on was paved sidewalks, the variety wasn't in sole feelings, but rather in the different occurances of "The Look"® by the people who saw me either on the tram or walking past them.
I tried my best to return their looks with a fitting mimic reply, such as the totally aghast gaze of an elder man, which I retaliated with mild amusement and a slightly raised eyebrow. On the way back by tram, there was a guy shooting flashes of disapproval at my bare feet and into my face... I returned his gaze with a neutral expression, playing the old "stare-down" game... he lost.
However, I encountered something, that left me totally surprised and unable to
return "The Look"® in kind - utter discontent and disapproval... and that
gaze came from a large black-and-white cat looking out of a living room window,
as I passed an apartment house. Since the window-sill the feline was sitting
on was almost exactly at my face level, he was looking right into my eyes.
Well, it might have been envy, since my bare paws were happily outside and his weren't.
The shape of that cat was hint enough to make me call it a "he"... the trademark
large head and the larger physique was saying "tomcat" quite loudly.
Well, even though I had not much variety in textures, this sunday was at least divert in reactions. Comments (if there were any) were again warded off by my acoustic shielding device (MP3 player, current favourite: a certain James Horner original movie score... not hard to guess which one).
OK, my plan for next sunday is to get some real skin of Mother Nature under my soles again.
Kiyevame ulte Eywa ngahu,
~*Ganesha*~
As I wrote before, I wanted to make the Sunday barefoot stroll a regular installment in my barefoot life... and so I did today as well. Even though the weather forecast had painted a dark picture of winter returning to our region, yesterday and today proved to be very fine and fair days, with lots of sunshine and cool (not too cold) temperatures.
I embarked on my Sunday stroll, when the temperature gauges on my computer read 3°C – that meaning in the shade, of course. Since the sun was high in the sky and shining brightly, I knew that there were going to be warm spots underfoot. And I was simply delighted to see as well as feel where those spots were. The tactile sensations to my bare toes and soles were shifting constantly back and forth between „cool/dry – warm/dry – cool/moist – warm/moist“. This time it was not so much a meal consisting of several courses, but a variety in taste and flavour, alternating between sweet, slightly sour and spicy.
Since there were more people around due to the wonderfully sunny weather today, I received „The Look“® quite often – even though the other attraction in the park, several silent lawnmowers in operation were gaped at, too. On one field of grass, six sheep had been put inside a makeshift pen to cut the grass the natural way. It might also have been the fact, that I was typing these lines in my OpenOffice Writer on my netbook, sitting in the sun on one of the park benches, that bewildered people just once again... a barefoot hippie typing away on a mini laptop?? How can that be? Sometimes I just love to freak people out. I had my MP3 player with me, as usual, to provide a nice soundtrack for the sunny mood.
Compared to last Sunday's walk in the park, this was even better, since I was able to feel the cold and warm side of Mother Earth all at once and bask in sunlight, too. Now, all it takes to make a perfect barefoot Sunday in the park would be temperatures rising to 15°C and more so that I could shed some layers of clothing. Oh, yes, and the living lawnmowers should be there, too... they just went „baa“ as I was typing and looked at me. Seems like they knew that I was going to tell the world about them, too. Weirdness continued: just as I was saving this text and copying it to an SD card, a large group of people went past – someone commenting „he's gotta have cold feet“ or something like that, and a two-man camera and mic TV crew strolled past me, going to the small pen where the sheep were munching away. As I was writing this, a woman stepped up to the bench I was sitting on, asking „Excuse me, are you part of the production?“ - well, since the park is adjacent to a theatre, that might spring to someone's mind seeing a fellow dressed like me sitting in the park, typing away on his laptop.
Another question I heard while typing was the typical „Isn't that too cold?“ question from another elderly woman passing me. And on my reply „No, it's OK“ she went on asking whether my being barefoot had any faith reasons, to which I replied „Well, to an extent, yes, but mainly it's well-being and health.“ To which she replied in a merry tone „Well, as long as you don't feel too cold, I don't care...“.
Such things can happen, if you have to change the battery of your MP3 player, and people just happen to zoom by that very instant. All in all, however, a very nice and amusing walk in the park today, leaving me with very happy and nicely earth-colored feet
Prologue: pre-weekend curiosity
It was Thursday, late afternoon, right after work when I was standing otuside the office building, having a smoke (regular cigarette... how boring!) with some colleagues, one woman asked about my reasons for walking barefoot, since she had seen me barefoot quite often on the bus, equipped with my MP3 player and a manga, so she didn't dare asking me then. Interestingly, she asked whether I had any religious reasons for doing so – I explained that is is for fun, general well-being and health reasons foremost. I didn't want to get to deep into detail about my spirituality, which also is part of the answers to the „why barefoot?“ question since the barefootness alone makes me appear weird enough among my colleagues. Nevertheless, something positively different than the usual „The Look“TM or people sneering.
Since Monday, temperatures had been ideal for barefooting (around 10°C/50F) and the forecast for the weekend spoke of the same temperatures – although wet conditions. Automatic foot-washing guaranteed.
Friday, Feb. 26:
Since my colleague who does personnell planning took a day off, I had the "pleasure" of taking over her tasks today as well – that coupled with a new database application launched without warning really made my day, which was a full ten-hour tour... never before on as a Friday had I longed more for the office day being over and kicking off my shoes after work.
6 pm – dry, an overcast sky with a bright stripe just over the horizon, 7°C/45F... and finally, time to leave the office, step out of my shoes and stow them away until Monday morning. Since the day was quite rainy, the walk from the office to the bus stop was a pleasant bit of puddlefooting. After a rather stressful office day, this – together with some chillout tunes on my MP3 player – was just perfect to cool down, relax and be refreshed all at once. Thanks to Mother Nature for rain and puddles.
Grocery shopping – the usual delight in feeling a smooth and cool tiled floor, which felt sticky (nothing to see though) in one place... to find out whether something had stuck on my sole (price tag, or whatever), I checked, only to see a soot-black sole. Nothing beats those tiled floors in subway stations, malls and supermarkets to get very black soles very quickly. No hassle from the shop employees (they know me for shopping barefoot and I'm a regular customer, too), quite many occurances of „The Look“®, and some typical fashion victim teenagers giggling (female), sneering, making faces, laughing and poking each other, pointing out the barefoot weirdo (male). Possible comments were successfully ignored thanks to my acoustic shielding system (MP3 player ). The ride home on the tram (part underground) basically went by without anything unusual. During the ride, a young woman – most probably a college student – went past my seat to sit in a row in front of me, half facing me, but not indicating any reaction to my bare feet. A moment later, another young woman joined her to chat with her, and both were either oblivious of (a bit unlikely, since my feet were in plain sight) or indifferent to someone sitting in the tram wearing nothing but three toe rings, an anklet and a bit of nail polish on his feet. On reaching my stop, I stood up and passed them on my way to the exit – and they still kept on chatting. Since both were wearing neo-hippieish outfits – one of them wore dreads, too – I had kind of hoped for some reaction.
Saturday, Feb. 27:
I had scheduled this Saturday to run some small errands, such as looking for either a soundtrack CD or, if it weren't in stock, for some small hardware – and went to a large department store, which had huge „SALE“ signs hanging everywhere... the CD I looked for wasn't in stock (well, there's always Amazon to help me out in that respect), so I got me a small 4-socket USB hub and a USB card reader. Afterwards I went to a little freaky grow and head shop, which also sells goth outfits and jewelry – quite a mix – to get some of my favourite Nag Champa incense sticks. Afterwards, it was off to the mall near the central station to get a buzz cut (yes, it's getting too warm on my head, as temperatures are rising again... therefore, the summer haircut will be a bit early this year). But since there were three customers waiting before me, I decided to go for some Italian hot drink and a soda in a nearby café...
Surfaces I walked on running these errands: pavement, subway station tiles, PVC floor in the stores I went to, and the mall's faux marble tiles, which are of the same quality as the subway station floors.
Of course, „The Look“® was present everywhere, and especially, when I
sat down in the café, ordered my cappucino and cola, lit a cig and got out
my little netbook to write this very bit of text...
One could almost see the comic-like balloons over the people's heads
reading „That guy's barefoot!“ „A laptop and no shoes??“ „He spends money
for a shiny silver Zippo lighter, but not for footwear...??“ „Look at that!
Painted toenails and rings on his toes!“ - Had there been an appreciative
or admiring look or a smile beamed at me, I could report some balloons
reading „Cool!“ or „Cute!“, too. Well, there weren't.
Side note on the café in general: they do indeed charge extra for their nice central location on the mall's first floor and their live piano playing... a rather small (though good) cappucino with steamed milk (no fake one with whipped cream for me!! No, thanks!) for EUR 2,20 and a large cola (0.4 litres) for EUR 3,40 (!) are what is in German known as „Apothekenpreise“ - pharmacy prices. Very comfy seating, though... They could make that place more popular with a free wireless access point. Well there are pros and cons for any place, I guess.
Interesting reaction: one family searching for a free table, one of the two boys sits down at the table opposite mine... and his parents motioning him away to a table where they don't have me in sight... Podophobia at its best.
After finishing my cappucino and soda, my usual hairdressing salon was the next stop. Employees there greeted me as friendly as the times before, I was shown to a seat, where I waited, while the young Turkish coiffeur apprentice who cut my hair last year as well was tending to a boy's unruly clump of hair. Afterwards, he got his equipment cart, rolled it over to me and asked „I've cut your hair before, right...?“ „And before you, I did!“ an attractive young blonde woman chimed in merrily, beaming me a smile. „He's in for his usual spring haircut“. Well, it was clear, that they remembered me – and I'm sure that it is from the fact that I visited their salon barefoot every time I went there, including today. None of the employees mentioned or asked about my bare feet, since I had answered their questions on those previous visits already.
Funny thing as I exited the salon, and my MP3 player wasn't yet ready to shield me acoustically: I passed a couple of elderly ladies, and one blurted out: „Barefoot!... He's barefoot!!... Linda, look! That man's BAREFOOT!!“ There's nothing like stating the obvious... and three times, too. Maybe she was a faithful Christian, emulating St. Peter. However, I never read something like „Thou wilt call out for the world to hear, that ye spotted a barefoot man“ in the New Testament. Maybe I missed an update.
Sunday, Feb. 28:
Sunday. Finally. To quote a famous song by the Bangles: „That's my fun day... my I-don't-have-to-run day“. Do you remember the video to „Manic Monday“? Vicki Peterson was seen walking barefoot in it... so, it could be today's theme song. Actually, running was absolutely not on my mind when planning my Sunday. The weather forecast was sounding warnings of the first heavy storm of this year to hit Germany, going by the name „Xynthia“. It seems that heavy storms in Germany have weird names. A few years ago, it was „Kyrill“ that left a trail of heavy damage. But since the forecast had promised a calm before the storm, I decided to use the opportunity of mild weather and only imminent rain to take a barefoot walk in a park near my place. Since the weather was mild enough (12°C/52F), I decided to show my hippiedom in more than just bare feet and put on a multicolored tie-dye skirt with a knee-long black cotton skirt over it. Next came a dark wine red t-shirt with a silver line drawing of my namesake Ganesha and a dark grey hooded jacket. On my bare feet I wore four toe rings and anklets on both ankles, including an ankle made of prayer beads around my right ankle. Thus, I could make every barefoot step on bare Mother Earth a prayer to Her. So, this barefoot walk was not just a treat for bare feet, but also a spiritual event for me.
The treat for bare feet consisted like a good meal of many courses... first: feeling the man-made paths in the park, which might have been designed by a barefooter. The paths are made of compact sand, mixed with small round pebbles of stone. Due to the last weeks' snow melting and recent rain, the paths were pleasantly soft, cool and wet. The snowmelt and rain also promised another treat, and so I went on to the second course: walking on grass... and this was actually more than just one course, since the soil underneath was soaked in water like a sponge. I could feel the ground give way underneath, puddles had formed on the lawn and mud was squelching up between my toes. Mother Earth was a very wet and sloppy kisser on my toes, indeed. Even though I have been walking barefoot for more than a week now after the winter has decided to leave, but today was the real thing as to starting a barefoot season with all possible sensations a wet spring day has to offer plus a nice spiritual experience of exchanging energy with the Great Mother by way of my bare soles.
I can only call this Sunday a perfect barefoot day. To close this day, I had decided to take another trip to Pandora – yes, I went to the movies for the fourth time to watch Avatar in 3D. However, as far as cinema visits of this movie are concerned (at least, this version), this was the last time. I only wanted to come full circle, since I went barefoot on my first visit and again barefoot today. Trip 2 and 3 to Pandora were unfortunately shod due to cold weather.
Apart from the movies' visit, I am planning to make the barefoot walk a regular Sunday activity...
So, this barefooter will be seen more often in Raffelbergpark on Sundays.
Finally, there's a hint of winter coming to an end... no frost this morning, a light drizzle and snow and ice melting to slush. Even though the thermometer was showing just 3° C / 37 F this morning (wind chill of -1°C/30 F), I decided that this would be first day to start my personal program to abate possible LWNBD („long winter, no barefooting depression“)...
Walking to the bus stop to get to work at around 6.30 am, the ground felt cold and wet, with a light drizzle falling, making it a mix of coldfooting, rainfooting, puddlefooting and occasional slushfooting. One major annoyance was and still is grit lying on the sidewalks where it was spread for anti-skid reasons... Even though my soles have grown thicker and tougher with barefooting, I still feel each and every grain of these little „klingons“ (they cling on to the sole, and they are just as unnerving and annoying as their namesakes – hence the nickname).
Walking on the cold and wet surface quickly fired up the circulation properly – and only when I was standing at the bus stop, waiting for my bus to arrive, I felt slight tingling as my feet were getting a little cold again. Some of the commuters on the bus were giving me „The Look“® of utter disbelief – typical reaction to a cold-weather barefooter.
The work day was the ususal „Hide your feet in your Birks“ routine... and waiting with a little impatience for 5 pm, the moment when I could leave the office and release my feet again to their happy bare state. My impatience grew considerably when at around 1.30 pm the clouds broke up, revealing a clear blue sky and bright sunshine. The sun was already strong enough to boil away snow and slush. And also wet spots from the morning rain were dried up quickly. Nothing beats the sun warming the pavement on a cool day, enabling a barefooter to feel where the sun shone by the touch of bare soles... Since sunset was scheduled for 5.45 pm, it meant being able to walk happily barefoot into the setting sun. In the shade, temperatures were climbing up to 8°C/46 F...
Finally, after a long office day, the clock showed 5 pm! I packed up my stuff, went to get my jacket, got out of the building, and as soon as my then still shod feet touched the pavement just outside the employer's premises, I stepped to the side of the pavement onto a strip of grass, took off my shoes, allowing my bare feet to feel the cool, moist and soft grass under my soles. Since quite a few inches of snow had molten on this grassy strip, the ground was soft, too – not yet muddy, but giving way to my steps. This was what I had longed for during the frosty times: feeling Mother Earth's soft skin on my soles... I took some time to take my steps to the bus stop, making sure to stay as long on the moist grass and earth as I could. As soon as I got back onto the paved sidewalk, I could feel the temperature shifting between dry spots that had been sunlit just before, and cooler wet spots. A small clump of slush on one strip of grass invited me to step in it and feel it underneath the ball of my foot and coming up coolly and wet between my toes... Another thing I felt on the sidewalk were the „klingon“ bits of grit still strewn across it.
Into the bus and off to the town centre I went, heading for my usual supermarket to do some unhassled grocery shopping. On my way through the mall and into the supermarket, „The Look“® and double-takes hit me in abundance. Comments went by unheard, courtesy of my trusty MP3 player and some of my favourite Trance tunes in my earphones...
All in all, just the right way to start the barefoot season – and here's hope, that the world will see my barefeet on a daily basis now, since forecasts have no frost in sight during the day.
I just hope, that with LWNBD over, I'm not lapsing into PAD (Post-Avatar depression) .... just kidding!
Kiyevame ulte Eywa ngahu,
wiggling VERY happy bare toes,
~*Ganesha*~
posted in my HipForums journal and to the SBL mailing list
Greetings, fellow barefooters,
after reading again and repeatedly about the liability and safety misgivings provided by supermarket and shop employees, I was quite amused by the concern I met last Friday in a supermarket while grabbing my usual provisions for the office day (snacks and drinks).
At the dairy products shelf, there were two employees doing their refilling of the shelves, taking the products from shopping carts, with which they got it from the shop's storage. Since they were in my way between me and the products desired, I politely asked to step through, to which they gladly complied, taking their carts aside. The amusing part was one employee telling the other "Watch it. Don't run the cart over the young man's toes!" I grinned and said "Thanks, but no reason to worry", and then continued my shopping.
This has been the first reference to my bare feet by shop employees in a long while, and one of the amusing sort, to be sure.
If only all shop employees were to word their safety concerns this way, instead of quoting phantom or rather nonexistent podophobic laws.
(the above text also is a posting to the SBL mailling list).
Other reactions to my barefeet were the usual anti-barefoot way... this includes quite impertinent versions of The LookTM, such as practised by this old lady, who happened to be at the same bus stop (central station) with me several times, and who always made it her task to first stare at my barefeet, and then send a disapproving scowl to my face - and not only once, but every single day I and her happened to be at the bus stop at the same time. Funnily, she also sat in the same place every time. So, at one occasion I had anough of it, and decided to take a snapshot of that scowl... Of course, since it was a fast shot, it got blurred, but still can serve to document the whole thing:
Of course, anyone has the right to disapprove of my outfit and/or bare feet, or whatever. It just got on my nerve, that she was doing it in such a permanently impolite way. Before taking the photo, it was my strategy to lock eyes with her and stare back until she turned her head... I am just waiting for the occasion at which she might ask "What are you staring at?" only to reply "Well, who started it? You or me?".
The other (quite usual) reactions were the typical teenagers of the fashion victim and "cool" category, making it their business to nudge and point and giggle... Nothing out of the ordinary and quite unworthy of any reaction on my part. However, one certain teenage loudmouth did elicit a reaction, as he made it his task to yell "Freak!" loudly enough for me (and anyone within 30 ft. distance) to hear over the music in my earphones, while I was walking through a mall. Of course, there are different levels of insult to that word, and the actual German word he used was "Missgeburt" (translating to something along the lines of monstrosity or freak of nature). Since I was sure, that this imbecile was staring after me, as I passed him seemingly unaffected, I made sure to flip the finger at him over my left shoulder, which only prompted him to utter something like "Oh-hoh, haha...", proving my notion of his lack of eloquence due to his stupidity quite right.
That was about it, aside from the usual "Aren't you feet cold???" concern line from several elderly ladies...
All in all, an almost typical barefoot week in the times of spring trying to begin properly over here...
Wiggling toes, waiting for more sun to warm them,
~*Ganesha*~
Aside from countless occurances of "The Look"®, the last two barefoot days went by without any hassles.
Yesterday I had to go to the central station of the neighboring city (which is nearer than the one of the city I live in... weird geography, but that's what you get for living near the border of the town... ) and get a ticket for a short trip on the weekend after.
The whole thing went hassle-free (as I expected, to be honest, since German rail and public transport employees do not care about people's footwear). At the ticket-vending desk, as I waited in line, there was a young woman trying to sell an unneeded ticket to those waiting there... And as she came to me, she didn't stare down as some other bystanders, but just looked me in the eyes, smiled, and asked "Are you travelling far today?" (what a beautiful hippie question, really). I returned the smile, replying that I was going to travel far, but not today... she shrugged, still smiling and went on, trying to get rid of the ticket (simply returning it at the ticket desk would mean losing money, as the refund would be only 50 per cent of the original price).
After purchasing the ticket I needed, it was off to the subway and on to my way to work. As I had just missed one train, I had the time to wait for the next one out in the open, in a sunlit place to warm my bare toes. As I stood there, I saw the only other person baring his toes (the first almost barefoot encounter, as he wore black flip-flops). I bet, though, that he got more looks for his choice of outfit, than me in my quite normal jeans, t-shirt and hooded jacket combo: he wore no pants or jeans, but a tie-dye sarong in different shades of green together with his flip-flops. At that moment, he was a braver man than I, considering his choice of outfit. Had he worn no shoes, the number of barefooters in that place (including myself) would have been 2 instead of 1.5...
When changing from the subway to the bus that'd take me to the office, there was another hilarious occurance of "The Look"® from an old man who was about to enter the escalator upwards... He already had a quite goggle-eyed look, due to somewhat protruding eyes, but as he spotted my bare feet, they almost popped out of their sockets (scary!!). He stared down at my feet, and into my face (even scarier!!) and locked eyes with me! I did not flinch or cower, but returned his stare, and stared him in the eyes just as evenly, until I had passed him. No occasion to take a picture of that person, however.
The rest of the day went normally and smoothly. No hassles or loud-mouthed teenagers as before (at least, I did not hear any comments, when passing potential troublemakers thanks to my favourite Psytrance tunes coming from my MP3 player's earphones.)
As this Saturday was mild enough (for my personal taste, that is - around 5°C/40 F and dry weather) to leave my formal shoes at home, I decided to make it a completely barefoot Saturday, including barefoot office work.
So far, so good, as I have done that before. In the morning, when going to work, I had the usual examples of "The Look"® happening occasionally, while waiting for and sitting in the tram... nothing out of the ordinary. My colleagues at work do know about my barefooting, so nothing out of the ordinary there, either.
The weirdness started, as I was on my barefoot way back home, changing from a bus from near our office back to the tram I take to get to my apartment. As I got off the bus, my little device for blanking out the shoddist comments activated (MP3 player turned on, that is), I saw two guys standing at the tram stop, wearing that typically derelict and slightly shabby lower-class bum/riff-raff/bogan (whatever you prefer to call 'em) outfit, completed by an open beer bottle and a slight swagger indicating that it wasn't the first one they'd downed (I am not against a slight beer buzz, to be sure... however, such people - especially when being not alone - tend to be a potential nuisance to others who just wish to be themselves and to be left alone).
And just as the quick thought "Let them leave me alone" had left my brain, one of them decided to do otherwise. As I was listening to Psytrance music and checking something on my cell phone, he was stepping up to me, waving his hand in front of my face and asking in a loud voice (yet slurring his speech due to his beverage) something like "Hey! Why are you barefoot?" I did not get the sentence at first, since I hadn't my earphones out at first, trying to ignore him and giving him the chance to get that message and leave me alone. However, he wasn't the subtle kind of person. And, as it turned out, not the polite kind either. That was also very apparent in his style of addressing me.
To make that a bit clearer, here's a little lesson in German: we have two different pronouns for addressing a person, whereas English only knows "you". In German, there is the informal pronoun "du", when addressing someone you know on an informal level or an infant or youth. The pronoun "Sie" is used for a polite and formal way of addressing a fellow adult, especially when addressing someone unbeknownst. It's not something I pay much attention to, however it is part of this story, and therefore worthy of explanation. For this fellow certainly had no intention of being polite, as he constantly used the informal "du" on me.
So, as he ignored the broad hint I gave him, by looking at my cell phone and not taking the earphones out, he repeated his routine of waving his hand before my face and asking in a now even louder voice "Hey!! Why are you BAREFOOT?"
I decided to give him a standard answer in order to shut him up, and replied "I don't like wearing shoes".
He seemed not to have comprehended my reply as he went on asking "You don't have any?"
Me: "No. I have shoes, I just don't want to wear them!"
Him: "So, where'd your shoes go? Someone filched them...?"
(clearly, I did not meet him on his most comprehensive day...)
Him: "Do ya need a pair...?"
Me: (now indicating my black shoulder bag, which has an orange bare footprints logo on it) "I have shoes. I even carry a pair now, in case it gets colder..."
Here I made a little mistake, since I tried (in vain) to reason with that guy... however, his reason mechanism was running low on fuel... I even pulled the medieval-style sandals from my bag to show them to him, and he mumbled something along the lines of "those aren't good ones" or something, so that I jammed them back into the bag, and making sure that he saw the barefoot logo. By this time, a car had pulled up alongside (the tram stop was at a corner with traffic lights, which had turned red), and the people sitting in there were following this absurd conversation - to the point, even, that the guy in the back seet had rolled down his window to actually hear, what was going on...
Him: "What's that sign about...?"
Me: (rolling eyes) "It's about me preferring to walk barefoot!"
Him: "Oh... well... OK... I was just worried. Ya know, if someone is homeless, I think I'd ask, if he needs something..."
Me: (after a quizzical look at him ) "Well, I'm not homeless..."
And after that reply, I put my earphones back in, turned the MP3 player back on, volume tuned up, looking and turning away from him, thereby declaring the case closed.
Two teenage girls (fashion-victim type) who had been standing at the tram stop as well, had vanished during this weird conversation. It turned out, that they had walked on to the next stop, roughly 300 metres down the road. As they got in at the next stop, they sat down near me, and made it their business of looking at me, poking each other and giggle all the time, until I reached my stop where I got off the tram.
"Definitely weird!", I thought after getting off and taking barefoot steps towards the apartment house where I live. However, one more encounter, as a man in his 40s, dressed in a normal and boring fashion was looking at me with "The Look". I thought "OK, just walk past, and be done with it for today". However, his were different plans, as he was definitely not stepping aside to let me pass, and said "Excuse me..." in a shy and (quite contrary to the bum before) polite way... With an inward sigh, I took my earphones out again... and he was, as it turns out, someone living in the same apartment house, and had seen me occasionally in the elevator - and on those occasions, always barefoot. His were the typical shoddist questions about cold feet and why I walked barefoot. And, also contrary to the bum before, he was happy with my standard (and truthful) replies, and went on his way, wishing me a nice day.
What left me thinking about the almost sloshed bum was the fact that he thought from my barefeet, I'd be homeless... however, I haven't seen any homeless person so far in his or her bare feet - not even in summer.
Aside from that moment of weirdness, it was a nice first fully-barefoot day walking the streets in 2009.
Wiggling toes in hope for more of those to come...
~*Ganesha*~
Since I am in the last week of my 3-week late summer vacation, I can already say, that this was the best occasion to live a 24/7 barefoot life. The dreaded re-entry into the world of working in shoes (or in case of the still mild season, in flip-flops) is creeping nearer... One positive barefoot experience was my visit to the 3-day Goa festival called Wonderland near Osnabrück, where I spent 3 days among like-minded people, as far as music (Psytrance and Alternative) and outfit (multi-colored and barefoot) are concerned. Best thing was, that I didn't even need to wear the "emergency flip-flops" I packed. (See below for details)
Definite plan for next time, when visiting that festival again: leave the flip-flops at home.
Other than in that reservation area for nicely freaky people, the barefooters' count for this summer around my place is very low... flip-flops being still fashionable are killers of barefooting in public. Sad, but true.
Greetings, fellow barefooters.
Yes, last weekend I was able to travel barefoot into Wonderland and back into the regular world again.
Actually, I was barefoot at Wonderland 12, as this year's three- day Goa party in Stemwede (near Osnabrück) is known.
Since Goa parties attract the hippie or "freak" type of people, bare feet are not uncommon there at all. That goes especially for open-air parties in summer. Since it was the first time I went to this particular event, I did not know whether both the location and possible security personnell were barefoot-friendly or not. I packed a pair of emergency flip-flops (or thongs, as they're called elsewhere... :o) ) only to find at the entrance to the camping area where the ticket booth was located, the guards were friendly, checked my ticket, gave me the typical green wristlet to identify me as a paying visitor and then wished me a great time. No words about barefeet, liability or the like.
On arriving at the camping grounds, I saw already quite many barefooters (male as well as female), and as I pitched my tent a rain shower fell. Some neighboring visitors offered me and a young woman who arrived together with me to sit in their tent and to wait until the shower was over.
After my temporary portable home was erected properly, I decided to take my first steps onto the party location and to check out its quality from a barefooter's point of view. The main path from the camping ground was a small concrete road, leading to the grassy areas, where the main dancefloor was located. The floor itself was made of hard-packed dirt, which turned to mud quite easily after the showers on the first day. Later in the evening, bales of straw were hauled onto the dancefloor by use of a tractor with a front-loading fork, making the floor a little less slippery. On the way up to the floor, however, there was still very slippery almost liquid mud. I was able to get through that patch of mud without slipping or falling, but felt quite insecure, as I was skidding and sliding around on bare soles. One seemingly concerned party visitor was stepping up to me, slightly intoxicated, asking "Hey, you OK??" and grabbed me at the shoulder. This well-meant gesture was almost toppling me over, and I said "Hey, everything's fine." His meaning to help almost made things worse, and I said something along the line of "Look, I'm barefoot, and it's hard to stay upright in this slippery stuff", to which he replied "That's why I hold you." Sweet idea, really, had he not been swaying with intoxication. I thanked him, none- theless, smiled at him, saying "I'll be just fine, enjoy the party", to which he smiled back, patted my shoulder and waved me goodbye. Maybe it was not the best idea to say "I'm barefoot" in connection to my unstable stance on that slippery liquid mud... But that thought came too late to take it back.
Aside from that, the largest part of the area was grassy, really pleasant to walk on. One bit of a challenge was the slope of the grassy areas, since the party area is surrounded by trees standing on a hill. On rainy days, the wet grass was a bit tricky to walk on, especially going downhill.
Other areas around the indoor areas (A former pub located at the margin of a small forest, now owned and run by people who organize regular party events there) were paved in concrete, and some places, where sales stands (with the typical hippie- esque clothing, incense, jewelry, accessories, etc.) were located, were hard-packed dirt with occasional patches of gravel. The gravel was no challenge, really, since it was laid out in small beds, thereby providing a massage effect and also since the moist earth allowed gravel bits to sink in, rather than spiky bits sinking into my sole.
So, after exploring the party areas, I decided, that my flips would be just dead weight, and they remained in my tent unused.
As I wrote above, Goa parties are a place to spot a lot of barefooters, and most of the dancers on the muddy main floor shed their shoes (if they came there with shoes on) to enjoy the music in their bare feet. On the second day, the weather was dry, not too hot, and again, hundreds of bare feet walked the grass, danced on the floors and happily hopped to and from the bar and food stands.
The people one can meet there are quite colorful, some even outright weird (in a nice and sweet way) and very friendly and gentle. No one said anything about my barefeet, but I was among one of the most-photographed persons on the festival, since some visitors saw me as being some resident Buddha... which is no wonder due to my outfit: ankle-length multicolored skirt, black knee-length skirt over it (the other one is quite torn around the hip, so I use the black one to cover that. :o) ) and a tie-dye shirt with a smiling sun symbol on it. Since I wear my summer hairdo (meaning: head shorn bald), the Buddha impression came almost automatically, slightly reinforced by my constantly bare feet and rather strongly reinforced by my big belly *grin*.
It was a great time, alright, and a wonderful place to have a party. I am surely returning there in the future. And then, I won't pack any shoes.
Wiggling delighted toes,
Andreas a.k.a. ~*Ganesha*~
Greetings, fellow barefooters,
Lorry wrote:
> I enjoy these types of encounters. When people are genuinely
> interested in learning about barefooting, it's a pleasure to provide
> information. I'm beginning to think I should print business cards
> with SBL's URL on them to hand out during such occasions!
>
> -Lorry
> Herlev, Denmark
I had similar thoughts today, when riding the tram on my way home from work. My usual way of deflecting "the look"® and the grins and giggles plus possible comments from teenagers was having my earphones plugged in, my MP3 player providing me with a musical surrounding blanking out surrounding sounds and reading a volume of one of my favourite manga series.
One stop later, a woman in her twenties entered the tram, her outfit (including dreadlocks), the book she carried in her hand and her book bag she had with her indicating she was a college student on her way to the university. She sat down in a row next to me, reading her book. After a short while, she leaned over, and with a smile asked me politely, if my feet weren't cold, and why I am barefoot. She said that she likes to walk barefoot in summer as well, but never tried it on cooler days. She was quite open to the idea of barefooting for its health benefits and for general wellness. She even concurred, that the idea of having special shoes, which simulate a brefoot gait (Barefoot Massai Technology was mentioned) is quite ridiculuous, since it requires spending quite a large sum of money, whereas walking barefoot is free.
Unfortunately, our conversation was stopped by my having to get off the tram at the stop near my apartment.
I hope that she will try out barefooting in fall, since the days over here at the moment still provide us with nicely mild temperatures of 15 C and above - together with sunny, slightly cloudy skies. A nice encounter on a nice Indian summer day.
There is a saying in German: "Man trifft sich immer zweimal", meaning that people always meet twice (at least). I hope that on the next meeting, she'll be barefoot as well. :o)
A business card with the SBL URL on it would have come in handy, for sure.
With barefoot greetings,
Andreas
a.k.a. ~*Ganesha*~
Editorial note: for such purposes and genuine interest and the wish to get more information on barefooting, I have some printouts of a German information flyer on walking barefoot to hand out to people, provided by the hobby-barfuss.de web site.
Greetings, fellow barefooters.
Yesterday was the first "official" day of my 2-week vacation (during which I'll make sure to never wear shoes). Since yesterday was Monday, it can be called the first official day of my vacation. Luckily, Saturdays don't count as work days over here. :)
With predicted high temperatures of around 90 F (32 C), I decided to spend most of the day at my favourite lake, being barefoot all over, so to speak. The only flaw that has evolved around that lake is, that two years ago the municipal officials decided, that the previously nice and earthen paths around the lake had become too muddy, and so they had put sharp-edged gravel onto the paths to stabilize them. Had they just used the nice, round pea-sized gravel, it'd have become a nice path for a free foot massage. But in this condition, walking the paths is an unnerving thing, even for well-trained soles. Furthermore, after swimming in the lake (which I did often yesterday, and enjoyed it greatly!), my soles were softening up, so that on the way back to the train stop in the village nearby, I donned the emergency flip-flops I had packed, in order to make an easier exit from there. As soon as I had left the lake area, they came off again, to disappear into my bag.
Even though it was a perfect summer day, I did spot only one (!) barefooter on my way back, as I stopped at the Duisburg train station, decided to get some coffee (actually I bought a latte and a small bottle of peach iced tea), and saw two young men, having a coffee there. One was barefoot, the other one was shod. As I was taking my cup and bottle to a table to sit down, the shod guy asked me in English, if this were still the Netherlands. Clearly, they were not from around here, so I told them no, they had left the Netherlands a short while ago (actually, the border is not too far away... from here, a local transport bus is going to Venlo... by train it's about an hour away). They were planning to go to Berlin, asking me how long it'd take to get there by train. I gave them my best guess, and they thanked me, took their baggage, and went off. Neither of them commented on my barefeet. Also, the woman behind the counter, serving out the drinks didn't say anything.
All in all, a very nice summer day. Currently, the weather has become a bit worse (as far as he definition of a nice summer day goes), with an overcast sky, and temperatures around 68 F (20 C). The temperatures are still more than OK for barefooting, and if the sun decides to come out again on one of the next days, I will certainly make my way to the lake again. Barefoot (at least most of the way), that is.
Happy barefoot days,
Andreas B@rfuß Spring (a.k.a. ~*Ganesha*~)
Greetings, fellow barefooters,
yesterday, my team leader at work took me aside to tell me, that a representative in charge of the German equivalent of OSHA (in Germany referred to as "Amt für Arbeitsschutz") had come to know that I am a barefooter (he did use the English term, interestingly), and that they did object generally to be barefoot in the call center where I work, due to the hidden dangers, that dropped paper clips (???) and thumb-tacks might pose to bare soles.
Furthermore, they also objected to my wearing the roman-sandal style shoes, these being too thin-soled as well as lacking the traction when it should come to slippery surfaces.
He admitted, that I might have more problems wearing too-closed and clumsy shoes, and that my footing and traction would be safer and better barefoot (seems like he knows, or at least did some research on the plain facts of barefooting). He then concurred, that this is another example of red tape all the way rather than a sensible regulation, since the "dangers" mentioned are of no substance whatsoever, really (paper clips??? oh, please!! - and no one uses thumb-tacks in our offices). However, the company has to follow the OSHA (or its equivalent) rules, in order not to get into trouble... I am just waiting for summer to come, and to see, if they are going to ban flip-flops, too... After all, when it comes to the thickness and texture of flop soles, I have a pair which could easily pick up a dozen of thumb-tacks without my bare soles even noticing it, and also with a nice profile underneath. ;o)
So, it will come now to carrying a clumsier pair of shoes in my bag, when going to work (barefoot on the way, that is).
Let's wait and see, how this will evolve.
barefoot Greetings (from central western Germany, with perfect barefoot temps between 40 & 50 F),
Andreas Barfuß Spring
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