If you have normal feet, be grateful. If you can slip into a pair of sandals, flip flops, sexy, strappy, or platform shoes with no pain, pinch, or possible repercussions, consider yourself fortunate. Alas, I am on the other side of the footpath.
In my mid-thirties a podiatrist informed me that I had “hyper-mobile” feet and I would need to faithfully wear prescription orthotics for the rest of my life. My feet move too much. They shift, spread, and fan out into places where no bold foot should dare to venture. Shoes and orthotics stabilize the condition but I regularly experience discomfort, pain, and other issues.
If you pay attention to people’s shoes (I do), you can spot the orthotics wearers. Our footgear tends to look medicinal: closed toes and heels, sturdy, flat soles, industrial strength construction. Ugh. It’s hard to find an attractive women’s shoe you can fit an orthotic into. The one brand I’ve found is Beautifeel, for any women who are wondering.
There’s a barefoot running trend right now but I can’t go barefoot. Aficionados of the craze might challenge me, but here’s the awful truth. In the last three decades my shoe size has gone from a 6 to pushing a size 8. The width has increased, too.
Three years ago I got rebellious and wore sandals most of the summer and now I’m paying for my naughtiness. My hyper-mobile feet went on a rampage and my left foot has split. There’s now a sizable gap between my second and third toes that can only be corrected with surgery. Yuck. When I describe my “condition” friends often ask to see my deformity and I usually satisfy their curiosity.
So why am I writing about this? We tend to compare our imperfections with other people’s apparent assets, yet some who appear so “together” on the outside are struggling on the inside. We all have something, somewhere that pinches, pulls, causes pain or some kind of distress. Not all of our afflictions (physical or mental) are visible, but when we see those who don’t seem to suffer from whatever we have, we might feel a twinge. For me, it’s sandals in the summer (sigh).
Simple Action: Life is short; it’s important to spend less time being envious and more time being exuberant so we can appreciate what we have, compensate for what we don’t have, and take the next step in our journey in spite of it all.
