On April 8th, I spent a day without shoes. I was inspired by TOMS shoes.

In case you haven’t heard of them..

For every pair of their shoes they sell, they give a pair of their shoes to a child in a developing country who has no shoes.

So cool.

Well, on their website, they had a challenge that over 80,000 people around the world took on…

Can you do for one day, what millions of people do everyday?

Could you go without shoes? For a whole day?

I said yes, so I pledged to do it and spent the day barefoot.

I figured it’d be pretty easy since I love being barefoot and usually I wear flip flops everywhere anyway.

So it wouldn’t be all that different.

But it was.

12 Assorted Sharings & Learnings From My Day Without Shoes

1. Store floors are really cold.

I had never given it much thought. But brrrr. Very chilly. Made my whole body cold and wishing I had brought a sweatshirt with me. Carpeting in the clothing area of Target was a grateful discovery.

Paint is good.

2. Pavement is really hot.

No surprise here. I knew this from when I used to have Who Can Stand On The Pavement The Longest contests when I was in middle school. Stupid, silly game. I was grateful to scurry over to the white paint strips that delineate the parking spaces. Those are slightly cooler.

3. Shoes: Everyone had them.

I had never really paid attention to other people’s shoes when I was out before. Like really looked at people’s shoes. But everyone was wearing them (except me.) Some people were wearing plain shoes. Others were in fancier shoes.

When I saw the women in the fancy shoes – like strappy sandles that went up their ankles, I also knew that it was not the only pair that woman owned. She probably had a whole collection of them. Shoe abundance. And probably a bunch she owned that she didn’t even like. Some people have closet fulls. Other people have zero point zero zero pairs of shoes.

4. There Are Unused Shoes.

As I was walking on the hot pavement to get to the sidewalk, I walked past a Payless Shoe Source. A whole *building* full of shoes being unused. Just waiting for some feet to be put in them. Aisles of shoes! And why weren’t there lines out the door for them? Because most people where I live already have shoes. Tons of them.

I stubbed my toe on the cart about 4 minutes later.

5. It’s Easy to Hurt Your Feet.

Part of the reason it’s so important that people everywhere have shoes is that it’s dangerous to go without them. You can step on sharp things, cut yourself, burn your feet on hot surfaces, get splinters, get infections. Yuck. I stubbed my toe on the wheel of my shopping cart as I was pushing it around Henry’s Market. Fortunately I had trimmed my toenails recently so I didn’t jam it so hard that any damage was done. The potential for foot injury sure increases without shoes on.

6. Am I Missing Something?

When I’m being a passenger in a car, I often take my flip flops off and sit cross-legged in the seat. Might not be the best position to be in were an airbag to deploy, but it’s super comfortable, and on my barefoot day, my roommate was driving her VW Bug, which is super spacious. Anyway – the “am I missing something” part comes in because I kept putting my feet down thinking that I needed to put my shoes on. But there weren’t any there. So it was interesting to notice how habitually I look for shoes. Doesn’t even require conscious thought.

Look at my sign...

7. Talking With People About Being Shoeless

As I was going barefoot, I wore a sign on my hip. It was a 3×5 card safety-pinned to my shirt that said: OneDayWithoutShoes.com. I wore it to draw attention to my shoelessness and to (hopefully) invite people to ask me about what I was doing.

One guy noticed it at the grocery store check out lane. He said, “So what’s OneDayWithoutShoes all about?” I told him and he had heard of TOMS shoes and thought it was cool. (In hindsight I wished I had suggested to him that he take his shoes off and at least walk to his car thinking about what we had talked about.) The cashier then got in on the conversation and said that her mission group sends shoes to third-world countries too. She was excited.

8. No Shirt No Shoes No Service.

At this point of the day, while talking to the cashier and the guy who asked about the notecard on my shirt, I shared an insight I had with them.

It so happened that neither of the stores I went into noticed that I didn’t have shoes on. If they had noticed, I probably wouldn’t have been allowed in. Store policies and all.

So I told them that if I hadn’t been allowed in the stores without my shoes, that as part of the experience, I would NOT have asked my roommate to pick things up for me.

I would have instead opted for the experience that when you don’t have shoes, you don’t get to go grocery shopping. You don’t get to buy food. You don’t get to buy your medicine. You go without other things too.

So even though that didn’t happen to me, I was quite aware that it could have happened, and that it would have meant that I went without some of the things that I wanted and needed.

The cashier with the mission group said she was going to meditate on this insight.

9. Pain Sets In Slowly

After getting back from both of my errands, I laid in the sun and thought about where else I might go to be shoeless.

I decided to stay in.

It was good that I did because my feet (and legs) got progressively more and more sore.

It felt great during the day (when I wasn’t on the hot pavement or stubbing my toe on the shopping cart) but soreness set in big time as the sun went down. Not from cuts or scrapes or anything. Just from standing and walking on my bare feet. I was surprised. It went up my calves too. Ouch.

10. Lovely Relief.

I was achey and sore and wanted to go to sleep early. I asked my roommate if she had any sugar or salt foot scrub. She didn’t, but she had an idea to make our own!

So we did.

Sugar, olive oil, juice from half an orange, and some epsom salt (which gave it an awesome gritty texture).

We sat on the edge of the tub and scrubbed our feet with our magnificent scrub and it felt sooo good. Just what my feet were ready for.

Thoughts during this part: The millions of people who go barefoot everyday don’t have this luxury. They may not even have soap. Or running water. Or any kind of water that they could afford to “waste” by pouring it over their feet. This was an awareness I had – not a guilt trip. I loved that I was able to help my feet feel better.

11. Reminded Me Of:

When I lived in Florida, our local mall had a Christmas tree each year with paper ornaments on it. Written on them was the name of child and a list of what the child needed and their sizes.

I would always look for one of the papers that said the child needed shoes.

Off I’d go to Target or Walmart looking for a pair of sneakers or durable looking outside type of shoes.

I put so much love and thought into it.

I’d imagine the kids getting the shoes and being so excited. Then putting them on and parading around wondering how they looked in them. Or just not even caring and then running straight out to play. <sigh>

12. Shoes are a big deal.

This weekend, even though there aren’t any Christmas trees around with paper ornaments on them, I’m going to buy some shoes and take them to Orangewood – the local shelter for abused and neglected children.

And I’m going to wear my shoes and be grateful for them.

Best friends under the age of 10 are awesome. I have 2 of them.

They’re a sister and brother duo and I went to visit them tonight on the way home from the health food store. (I bought a gallon of distilled water, some MSM powder, and some arnica pellets if you’re curious.)

I hadn’t seen my little friends in like a month because of this and that, so as far as I was concerned, we were WAY overdue for a visit.

“It’s Mona! Mona’s here!”

They came rushing to the glass door when I tapped on it.

We laughed about how long it had been since I came over and then I was taken by the hand into their room so I could see the changes they’d made to it. They’d pushed their twin beds together to make one big huge bed…

It looked super comfy, and because I was actually feeling tired, I plopped down on it and (as humans are apt to do around kids) I quickly pretended that I had fallen asleep. Never seems to get old.

When they woke me from my fake slumber, we giggled and then I listened to them intently as they told me about these amazing things:

• The audio book they were listening to about a boggart who traveled from Canada to Scotland in a desk.
• How one of their dogs likes to use his paws like hands to try to open doors.
• The difference between foils and sabres in fencing. (Not that I can tell you the difference right now…)
• How one of their babysitters had breast cancer and had both boobs removed and doesn’t have to wear a bra anymore.
• How their dad is so animated with his hands when he talks.
• How I missed one of their cello performances and there was a 4-year-old there playing Twinkle Twinkle.
• How one of their friends has an annoying younger brother with the same name as my beloved partner.
• How they wish I would be their babysitter and spend the night.
• How the orthodontist said that if she wants another retainer made for 50% off, she has to come tell him the totally honest truth about what happened to the first retainer, or she has to tell him a really great made up story about aliens or something crazy like that to explain how she lost the retainer.

I love these kids.

Then of course we read stories together – I laid down on my back with some pillows behind my head. He snuggled up in the pit of my shoulder and rested his head there with his arm across my stomach. She sat cross legged behind my head looking over into the picture books. And these are the stories they brought to me to read:

Like stories of fearless little girls who don't take crap from anyone? You'll dig this one. The part where she kicks the captain in his wooden leg? So good.

Ever heard of barbequed honeycomb? Yeah. Me neither. Apparently Brother and Sister bear are huge fans.

Bunny has a slight identity crisis and wishes he were other animals until he realizes how hard, boring, and gross the other animals' lives are. This was my favorite - and if the book were in front of me right now, I'd read it again.

Having best friends under the age of 10 is awesome.