Barefoot Goddess Blog, day 55, 9/2/10
To hark back to the idea of cultural confinement. Until my mid thirties I didn’t fit in anywhere and the gap was so great, I didn’t try. Around that time, I found a community in which I could make a home and that’s when I began to trade away my ways of being in return for belonging. As I write this, I see I don’t regret it. It felt wonderful to belong.
Now, as I practice my barefoot meditation I have stepped out again. I frequently experience subtle and not so subtle disapproval, and unfriendliness. On Tuesday, my yoga teacher dismissed me as “special.” She asked me how it was to walk barefoot in the rain. When I answered it was fantastic, she waved dismissively and said “But you think everything is fantastic, you’re just special.” I felt diminished for a moment. It makes no difference in my choice to remain barefoot, but it makes me think, “What is going on in the minds of those who treat me unkindly for going barefoot?”