Tall Moc Love
This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.
I will sing a Valentine ballad now to feet and for the love of tall moccasins.
One of the stories in my upcoming book includes a woman who delivered firewood to us last autumn wearing high-heeled Doc Martin dress boots. Her savvy style struck me as unusual for a woodswoman. She said that was the blessing and the curse of her grandmother who had dressed her in high heels from a young age. Now, even though she lives in the countryside, fixes cars, and cuts firewood for a living, her footwear all has to sport heels to accommodate her shortened achilles tendon.
When I was ten years old, I was horrified to learn about the foot-binding of girls in Imperial China. How could that be ok? Later that year, I wobbled gleefully around in my first pair of pink heels.
Forty years later, I am fully aware that the vast majority of shoes shape our feet in ways that nature did not intend. Pointy-toed footwear alters our capacity to distribute weight and stride naturally. I’m not just talking about dress or “womens” shoes, either. Conventional running shoes, too, do not resemble or support the natural shape of our feet. They contribute to bunions which are, more accurately, the partial or complete dislocation of toes. The lift in these shoes affects the length of our tendons and muscles. Structural changes to our foundation impact how we use our ankles, knees, backs, and necks.
As uncomfortable as it has been to fully realize the impacts of inappropriate footwear on our individual and collective mobility and comfort (another learning spurred by my body’s crisis-awakening in 2018), I’m grateful now to know. I rehabbed my feet, spreading my toes with toe-spreaders and barefooting on earth and with minimalist footwear. Across years, I’ve traded in my conventional shoes for their wide-toed counterparts. (If you want to know more, hit reply and let me know; I can include more in discoveries next week.)
Amongst my favorite are the custom-made tall moccasins above (see below for details on those). In February, I’m enjoying every minute of wearing these beauties before they go up on the shelf for summer. Shoes don’t have to be boring or unattractive to help you naturally align and make the most of your body.
This Valentines Day, I am celebrating my feet with so much love. Whether in shoes or out, my feet are strong, beautiful, and carry me to the most amazing places. I dearly hope you feel the same about yours.