Going barefoot

[txim_asawl]

In the US, these signs still seem to be very common... nevertheless, there are people trying to educate the shod public, that there's neither health nor safety hazards to bare feet:

Head Over Heels for Barefooting | Wellness Lifestyle

And in Australia (one of the countries, where barefooting is a common thing), bare feet are used to show, how big one's carbon footprint and therefore one's impact on the Earth is, as this scan from a local newspaper about an eco festival shows in a merry and playful way:


(Both articles were referenced to me via the SBL mailing list)

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[txim_asawl]

This Sunday was forecast to be a very warm and nice summer day, even though there were possible thunderstorms predicted for the late afternoon, too. In the morning, though, I doubted that forecast, since the sky was at first hazy, then turning darker and darker and thunder was heard in the distance - it seemed that those thunderstorms were running early. My original plan to spend a few hours skyclad in sunny weather in my favourite park seemed to dissolve in the grey clouds looming over my place.

Well, at least I could enjoy a nice after-rain barefoot walk there, I thought. However, luck was on my side, as these grey clouds went past my place without dropping their watery load, and the sun came out after all. According to the radar pictures on a weather web site (modern technology at its best), the shower clouds had indeed passed the town I live in, and there were no radar echoes of more rain visible. So, I packed a little shoulder bag with a bottle of apple spritzer, a little box of fruit (a pear and some grapes), something to read, put on my Sunday barefooting outfit - red sarong and a black t-shirt with my namesake Ganesha printed on it - and went down to the park on my bare feet.

On entering the park and gazing over the duck pond with its fountain turned on, I could see that the sun had again created a picture postcard scenario. I took that view in, my bare feet standing on damp grass and having a great time, to be sure. That intensified a little, when I went a few steps further, now feeling damp and cool soil underfoot

These few steps already helped in making me a very happy Sunday barefooter, indeed.

Since it was around noon, it was quite warm already, and the sun promised to heat up the place even further later on. The dampness felt underfoot was everywhere, since all of the grass was still covered with dew, glistening in the sunlit spaces.
With that much moisture around, the air felt almost tropic, when walking through the park.
I was very much looking forward to feeling that delightful blend of cool dew mixed with warm sunlight on my bare feet. When walking on, I came to a spot, where something new was waiting for me. On a part of one of the lawn spaces, there was no grass but plain soil showing, with bits of round gravel strewn in. It looked like someone had dumped a large heap of topsoil onto the lawn and spread it around.

Since I am a huge fan of feeling Mother Earth's bare skin beneath my bare soles, I just had to step onto that and was delighted at the cool and damp sensation I felt immeditaly. However, even though it looked like not too wet or unstable, that surface was treacherously boggy in some places. Without warning, my right foot broke the surface and sank in a few inches, cold mud suddenly oozing up between my toes.

I was surprised, and then overjoyed, a childish grin on my face, as I wiggled my toes in the quite cold mud. And it took only a few steps to have my left foot sink into that soft and cool mud, too.

I then stepped off that stretch of soil, back onto the grass and observed my thoroughly Earth-colored toes, wiggling them and feeling the cool mud between them now warming up in the sunlight.

I looked back at that stretch of muddy soil and the tracks I had left there, grinned again (I must have looked quite silly to any onlooker who might have taken time to watch me closley, doing this), and stepped back in, now finding some really deep holes, where my feet sank in ankle-deep.

After getting my feet literally covered with Mother Earth up to my ankles, I took a few steps through the soft grass, wet with dew, and sat down on one of my favourite benches, to observe my feet as well the scenery, and sat there for a while, feeling already quite relaxed and energized at once, as it should be on a barefoot Sunday day-out.

But my plans for this Sunday went beyond that. I had in mind to use the sunny weather to spend some skyclad quality time there, too. So, after reclining on that bench for a while, I stood up and walked a bit more over dew-covered grass which had now warmed up in the sunlight, but still felt delightfully wet beneath my bare soles.

On reaching a nice place beneath a tree, with sunlight blinking through the canopy (it was too warm for my taste to sit directly in the sun), I squatted down, cross-legged, took off my t-shirt and unfastened my sarong, which now became the blanket to sit on and do a perfect naked Hindu God act. I opened the aforementioned box of fruit I brought with me and had a nice little frugal snack, while taking in the scenery and feeling a warm breeze wafting over my bare skin.

I know that people might think it "unmanly" for a man to wear a skirt or sarong, but those people certainly never tried wearing one in warm conditions. There's hardly any other piece of clothing more practical or liberating. Things can dangle freely and unconstricted, air flows around the lower body while being literally barefoot to the waist, and as I demonstrated today again, a sarong can be clothing as well as blanket to sit on - the ultimate naturist alternative to pants!
OK, there's also the kaftan, which can be worn nude underneath, thus making me barefoot up to my neck, without anyone noticing... I have worn that on hot days outdoors quite often, too (and also pulled it off when reaching the spot where I wanted to spend time in the nude).

After spending several hours of relaxing, while listening to some chillout tunes, the sun began to disappear behind clouds beginning to form - the billowy sort, which portends thunderstorms later. I put by sarong and t-shirt back on, and went over the grass to the exit of the park, ready to board a bus, taking me back to near my place. As it was now rather hot and humid, I did the lazy thing, but also wanted to show other people my delight in having played with Mother Earth.
I am hoping for more sunny and warm Sundays to come and thus more occasions to spend lots of time outdoors, barefoot all over.

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

(Pictures I took on this day are in my barefoot diary)

[auroraglacialis]

Nice. Yes, the weather is really almost so hot that it makes no sense at all to wear shoes for anyone really - But I have to say the best is moss. We went to the forest and collected some mushrooms and berries the weekend. And to walk barefoot on moss and forest grass and decomposing wood is really the best feeling for the feet. . And we also got a few mushrooms - not much, but enough for a mushroom omelette. I hope they were not too radioactive... Sadly mostpaths through the forests are actually gravel roads and they are not as nice as the real forest floor to walk on barefooted. But moss is great - and fir tree needles are also good.

[txim_asawl]

Moss is like Mother Earth's self-made fuzzy carpet... a true barefoot delight, indeed. Forest floor is among the nicest surfaces to walk barefoot on, really. So many different textures to explore by means of my bare soles.



Fir needles... Yes, indeed, I know what you mean. The mushroom season is just about to start over here, after the rather wet summer. But I bet I will happen upon lots of those soon, and perhaps in abundance just as last year:



I'm looking forward to the fall season... even though most people wouldn't think of it as a barefoot season, it's still mild enough and the different textures to walk on are a treat for feet (fallen leaves, for instance, too).

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[Human No More]

Forests are good, but I actually find them a little harder than other surfaces, probably because they vary so much more.

As for seasons, well, I aim to continue barefoot this winter

[txim_asawl]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Forests are good, but I actually find them a little harder than other surfaces, probably because they vary so much more.

And that's because forest floor is the best workout for the more than 26 bones, 33 joints and more than a hundred muscles, tendons and ligaments we have in each foot.

Walking on such varying textures will get bare feet strong enough to put up with anything - even vile monsters like these:





Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[iron_jones]

I stepped on a sharp twig the other day and it hurt!!

[txim_asawl]

Originally Posted by iron_jones

I stepped on a sharp twig the other day and it hurt!!

Sorry to hear that. I hope the pain subsided quickly. If something like that happens to me, I look for some cooler and wet ground to step on, which will make the pain disappear very quickly. Yes, I feel pain from such things, too, at times. Tough soles aren't insensitive... they're just tougher than the average. Such prickly or sharp things won't puncture my bare soles, but they still can hurt.

I had to evade lots of prickly and unpleasant small objects on the sidewalks after work, since a violent shower front hit our place about two hours before my office day was over. The strong rain and hail, with icy grains of about an inch in size, had pelted twigs, leaves and seeds from trees and bushes... and some bushes next to the sidewalk have thorny twigs, too. So, on Friday I had two things to look forward to: the time, when I could drop the pen, turn off the computer, head out of the office building and shed my footwear until Monday morning plus the cooler conditions (temperatures had dropped from near 30°C to just below 20°C within a few minutes), offering my bare feet the treat of cool pavement and puddles...

Apocalyptic-looking clouds and happy feet at the bus stop after work:





Next treat on the barefoot menu: my Sunday barefoot walk, where I certainly will encounter more puddles and mud than the week before! Yum!


Wiggling bare toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[auroraglacialis]

I just had a full week 100% barefoot. It was really cool, but on the last 2 days, it hurt quite a bit as my soles lost some skin. I guess I did too much. Some of the surfaces on the festival area were not easy really. A lot was grass or forest floor, but there was also some gravel and really rough gravel and asphalt

So after 6 days, my big toe lost some big flakes of skin and that really hurt.

[Pa'li Makto]

Oww..I hope it's better now. I'm wearing socks because my feet are getting really dirty from the pavement but I hope I can go barefoot this summer.

[auroraglacialis]

Yeah it is, but I am not barefooting a lot the past days and use a lot of skin care cream. But socks on asphalt - that does somehow sound weird, too
But admittedly - I could not get the greyish color away from my feet after that weeklong. I think it just was sitting too deep. Even soap end brush did get rid of only part of it. Any tips how to clean them (or keep the feet clean) when barefooting for a longer time, especially with a longer time without a chance to walk on clean surfaces for some time? Like during camping (I could wash my feet but the moment I step outside the wash house, I was on bare soil again).

[Advent]

My feet hardly hurt from constant bare footing, strangely enough. Apart from unnecessarily-sharp objects, such as glass or thorns. That always hurts.

[Pa'li Makto]

Haha nah I wear slippers or sneakers when I go outside now..Socks on asphalt is a bad mix.

[txim_asawl]

Originally Posted by auroraglacialis

Yeah it is, but I am not barefooting a lot the past days and use a lot of skin care cream. But socks on asphalt - that does somehow sound weird, too
But admittedly - I could not get the greyish color away from my feet after that weeklong. I think it just was sitting too deep. Even soap end brush did get rid of only part of it. Any tips how to clean them (or keep the feet clean) when barefooting for a longer time, especially with a longer time without a chance to walk on clean surfaces for some time? Like during camping (I could wash my feet but the moment I step outside the wash house, I was on bare soil again).

I'm glad to hear, that your poor big toe is getting better, now. As for cleaning your soles, one way of getting them clean is to wash them with hair shampoo - weird as it may sound, the soapy ingredients in that tend to clean the skin of bare soles in an instant. If you wish to get them clean even faster, there are these small brushes normally used for washing hands and nails - who says that they're made for hands alone?


Scrubbing my soles with one of those gets them back to natural living leather color very swiftly. With the current weather turning from summerly to early fall - typical, slightly rainy September weather with temperatures around 13°C/55F in the morning and high temperatures around 20°C/just under 70F - will keep my soles from getting too dark when walking in puddles and over grass. Urban surfaces, though, will get my feet city-colored very quickly (see below):



However, when walking on natural surfaces, I really like my soles being "Earth-colored" (I won't call that "dirty"). Especially walking in mud, playing with it by wiggling my toes in it and seeing my bare feet afterwards make me feel even closer to the Earth I walk on...





Wiggling bare, and often Earth-colored toes,

~*Txim Asawl*~

[txim_asawl]

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 - A Sunday walk in the park with a rain bath...

Since the Saturday was already full of barefoot errands (a five-hour barefoot shift at the office, visiting a street café for a barefoot cappucino, barefoot grocery shopping and a barefoot visit at the laundromat), I planned to take my barefoot walk in the park even though the weather was forecast to be less sunny. Actually, the rain showers coming down on that day were brought from the former hurricane Irene, which had become a regular cyclone, moving via the northern route from the US east coast to Europe.

While the morning started hazy, the sky became dark grey just before noon, and the first shower began, with occasional thunder to be heard. After about fifteen minuts, the shower was over, the sun came out shining brightly, while thunder could be heard from the east, where the shower was exiting the stage.

During that sunny break, I decided that this would be the right moment to get out and into the park. I put on the same outfit I had worn on Saturday - my red sarong and a black T-shirt with the hindu God Ganesha (resembling me quite a lot) printed on it, and went down. Just as I stepped out of the door, the sun had vanished again, and light rain had begun. I thought that this would be only a short and weak drizzle, and got on my way. About halfway to the park, the rain suddenly became stronger, turning into a real downpour. I decided not to let the rain drench my t-shirt, quickly took it off and stuffed it into my shoulder bag, continuing my walk barefoot and shirtless, enjoying the feeling of the raindrops on my bare chest and belly. Since I still was walking next to a road and by houses, taking off my sarong, too, was unfortunately out of the question. It would have been a perfect skyclad rain bath, otherwise.

On arriving near the park entrance, I turned towards the main entrance of the adjacent theater building, waiting under the roof at the door for the shower to stop. After a few minutes, it was over, and the sun came out again, immediately warming up the air and the quite large puddles created by that shower. I went on my way into the park, still bare-bellied, splashing my bare feet in the puddles, and enjoying the feeling of the different wet surfaces and textures underfoot...

Someone had spread flower petals in one spot - perhaps using the theater building adjacent to the park as a scenic backdrop for a wedding, or something...

I spent more than two-and-a-half hours in the park, staying shirtless, taking rests on different benches, spreading out my shirt to dry. Since the park was almost deserted, I had the opportunity to get fully skyclad at times, enjoying the ultimate barefoot freedom (nope, I'm not gonna post pictures of that here!!)


After returning home, I saw on the news, that right after noon two people were injured by a stroke of lightning, only about three kilometers from my place. That was during the first shower mentioned initially, when only occasional thunder was heard outside my apartment. Of the two injured, one died in hospital on Monday morning. That incident somewhat curbed my enthusiasm about a very energizing barefoot afternoon, for sure.

Wiggling bare toes, warning about being outdoors in thunderstorms,

~*Txim Asawl*~