The simple act of going barefoot changes the world. It changed my world, and on the whole, the change has been for the good.
One of the changes that often happens in the world around me is a spontaneous eruption of compassion. Perfect strangers will raise their eyes to me, beholding before them a person walking without shoes on a chilly fall day, and express their concern about the welfare of my feet. "Aren't your feet cold?" they ask, with various degrees of sincerity. Of course, there may be scorn and disapproval, even shock at the sight of such discomfort. It is sometimes sympathy, mostly curiousity, that drives the question and perhaps not a heart-felt compassion. Nonetheless, the act of reaching out to me, another perfect stranger, with words, at least in the outward sense, of concern for another human being, may be a step in the right direction: toward connection, wonder, and surprise.
One of the changes that often happens in the world around me is a spontaneous eruption of compassion. Perfect strangers will raise their eyes to me, beholding before them a person walking without shoes on a chilly fall day, and express their concern about the welfare of my feet. "Aren't your feet cold?" they ask, with various degrees of sincerity. Of course, there may be scorn and disapproval, even shock at the sight of such discomfort. It is sometimes sympathy, mostly curiousity, that drives the question and perhaps not a heart-felt compassion. Nonetheless, the act of reaching out to me, another perfect stranger, with words, at least in the outward sense, of concern for another human being, may be a step in the right direction: toward connection, wonder, and surprise.
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