What is on your feet?

 Ok, so here’s the deal, I am not a girl who gets excited about shoes.  Actually, I would go so far as to say I really do not like shoes at all…well, except Chacos. I do love my Chacos!  I would much rather live in a world where I could roam around barefoot without fear of stepping on broken glass, having frost bitten feet or getting weird looks from people. I often joke that I am pretty sure my feet are claustrophobic.  So when some genius decided to make five-finger barefoot shoes, I was ecstatic. About the same time research was coming out that for some people with foot and ankle problems running barefoot could be beneficial.  So in summer 2010 got my first pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes and immediately fell in love:

For the past year, they kept my feet company.  I wore them running.  I wore them to work.  I wore them walking around.  They often got weird looks, and sometimes people would stop and ask me about them.  What are you wearing? Are they comfortable?  Don’t your feet hurt? I was always quick to explain that they were five finger shoes.  Yes, they are incredibly comfortable.  They only hurt if I stepped on a rocks or rough surfaces. 

However, when it came time to move to Palestine, they didn’t quite make the cut.  After all, I didn’t want to be the strange foreigner with weird shoes.  Not wanting to be the strange foreigner also meant that for the first four months I was here, I stopped running.

But as January rolled around, I had already realized that I was always going to be the strange foreigner, no matter how hard I tried to fit in.  So I decided to embrace that strange-ness by putting on my running shoes again.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have my five-fingers with me, but I did have my New Balance Minimalist shoes with me:

Not that much different right?  Well…yes not that much different, but my feet missed their five finger-ed running friends. So off went the e-mail begging my mom to please send the running shoes, PLEASE! So being a wonderful mother, she did.  On Wednesday, they arrived safe and sound to be re-united with my feet.

Now, at this point, I can hear most of you saying to yourselves, “This is great Alma.  We are excited that you got your shoes, but what does this have to do with YAGM?”

Well, let me tell you.  I had forgotten two really important things when I decided to leave my five fingered shoes at home.  The first was the role that running played in my care for my mental and emotional health.  It is when I am running that I sort through the events of the past days, take some time to focus on my breathing and reflect on how I am really doing. It is during this time that I find the space to deal with the stress,  find some space to relax and clear my head all which allow me to approach struggles and challenges of the day from a new, and likely more healthy angle.  Plus there is the added benefit of the endorphin boast.  

The second, and perhaps most important thing, I had forgotten was that running is how I learn about and familiarize myself with a community and the geography of an area.  So when I decided not to run while I was here, I also decided to forfeit this understanding.  When I decided to start running again, also decided to start working for this understanding.  About three weeks into my running again, and it is working.  I am gaining a better idea of how things are situated, where things are in relation to one another and new ways to get to places. 

The thing that I surprised me about starting to run again was not only that I was learning to recognize the what and who of the area around me but also that “the who” of the area around me were learning to recognize me.  

I am a creature of habit, so I run about the same route at about the same time of day every time I run. About half way through my run, I run past the Catholic Shepherd’s field (yes the Catholic is an important distinction because there is also an Orthodox Shepherd’s Field), which is surrounded by several souvenir shops. As I run past these shops, I pass the same group of people, ok same group of men, every day.  The other day as I ran past one particular group and waved, they yelled after me, asking me where I was from.  So I stopped to talk and we had a lovely conversation.  As I turned to run off again, one of the men commented that they see me run past every day, and would see me again soon.

By embracing the strange-ness of my running and, yes, the strange-ness of my running shoes, I was also embracing the way that I get to know a community.   And in doing so, helping myself become more than just another tourist and actually becoming a recognized face in the community, even if it is as the “strange foreigner with strange shoes.”

As a side note, here is a great TED talk by Christopher McDougall about the benefits of barefoot running, and running in general: