My One Day Without Shoes...

7am

I've never ever been a morning person, waking up on the best of days is always a struggle. It's not that I don't want to get my day started, it's that I love my sleep... a lot! So trying to wake myself up on a cloudy and cold morning (especially when it's not my turn to wake up with my baby boy at 6am) is like trying to get our municipality to collect our garbage!
After downing my cup of coffee in the hope that it will make my other eye open, I suddenly remember what I have committed myself to do... On the coldest day of the year so far I have made the decision to go barefoot as part of the "One Day Without Shoes" campaign... Do I have second thoughts about doing it? Not a chance! 
Feeling very excited about taking part in this amazing global initiative, I get myself ready to go on my daily family walk to the park with our new puppy. As I put on my beanie, hoodie, tracksuit pants and leg-warmers I can't help but appreciate the fact that I am so fortunate to be able to protect myself from the cold; I might be going out barefoot but at least I have warm clothes for the rest of my body. 
We walk down to the park which is about 1km away. Now I have always been quite a little hippie, you'll never catch me in shoes at home and if I have the opportunity to take my shoes off you don't have to ask twice. But... walking barefoot for 1km on a graveled tar road in the cold is not fun at all! By the time we arrive at the park my feet are numb and tingly from the cold and the pain. My feet get some sweet respite on the soft grass of the park but soon enough it is time for us to make the trek back home... This is not how I expected my fun day of 'foot freedom' to be starting out!

9.30am

After someone shouting "What the hell are you doing??" at me from their car, I go and change into my outfit for the day, making sure to wear the loudest red lipstick possible to hopefully distract people from looking down at my bare feet. As I'm leaving the house I start to feel a little nervous, I'm not just going for a walk to the park, I am now going to a meeting at Tasha's in Rosebank... This should be interesting! I park my car and a moment after I get out I have this sudden urge to get straight back into my car and return home to get my shoes. But I don't... I make my way to Tasha's with my head held high (well trying to at least!). Needless to say, every single person I walk past looks straight at my feet as if I have two massive arrows on either side of me pointing at them. I wonder why it is that a person will not look twice at a homeless child standing barefoot in the street, but will turn to look back at a person wearing normal clothing with no shoes... Is it socially unacceptable for a person like me to go barefoot?... Or is it 'socially acceptable' to see kids on the street without so much as a pair of shoes on their feet? If that is the case, there is a huge problem with this picture!

12noon

I have a meeting at the 5FM studios at the SABC. Many people ask me about my bare feet and I get told quite a few times that I am very brave... Isn't it incredible that even though we don't usually make much of wearing shoes, we refuse to part with them for one day in the name of awareness? I start to realize how important shoes really are for most of us and how sad it is that so many children don't have access to them. Ironic that the people who need them the most, the children who walk miles every day, are the ones who don't have them.
I leave the SABC feeling very proud that I have taken part in this day, it feels so good knowing that I may have planted a seed in someone's mind just by them seeing my bare feet.


The rest of my day is pretty much the same as the first half... Sore, cold feet and many strange looks at my toes. I am more than grateful when I've finished my outings for the day!


As I sit here on my couch, covered by a blanket and kitties warming my feet, I realize how big this day has actually been for me. I am so fortunate that I can come home to warmth and comfort after just one day of going barefoot... If a child's family can't even afford to buy them shoes, just think of how much else they are deprived of. Shoes are a basic necessity, no one should go without such a bare essential. 


Please take the time to visit www.onedaywithoutshoes.com to see how you can help...


If you took part in this day, you have done a great thing! And if not, hopefully next year you will join us! 


(Consider this too... Why not keep a pair of shoes you don't wear in your boot so you can give them to someone who isn't lucky enough to have a pair of their own)


And lastly... Love your shoes!


XXX