Happy Birthday, Dear Toes

Spring, at last, after the long winter / monsoon – wild flowers emerge, and the campus abounds with youthful leg – and I am light as an elf in my newfound ‘barefoot’ shoes, minimal clothing liberating me from winter wrappings. I skim the surface of the pavement, a light breeze carries me on, I am unencumbered, freed from ‘elevator sneakers’, floating.

The grass by the clock tower is damp, and feels soft beneath the thin soles of my Vibram Five Fingers, and I sense the long green blades curling over my feet, their soft touch holding, then letting go. I deliberately plant my feet on a twig, and it’s rough hew is warm to my touch as I push off, leaving it unbroken.

Three miles into the run, my calves – left leg, only, actually – come alive. Aha! A complaint from long unused muscles! There has been only the slightest jarring as I pound the pavement on virtually bare feet. The feel of every crack, the edge of the sidewalk, tar, cement and stone. These sensations are so new, pleasant, so real beneath my liberated soles.

There is not only the joy of discovery – but of pleasant release from Reebok’s overbearing presence, too!!!!