“And forget not that the 
earth delights to feel 
your bare feet…” 
Kahlil Gibran

This quote, from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, may contain a valuable pearl of wisdom. How wonderful it is, for some folks, to walk through a forest, along a beach, or across a meadow with no shoes on their feet. I’m told that it is an experience which helps people to feel grounded. Walking barefoot can provide numerous physical and mental health benefits, primarily by strengthening foot muscles, improving balance, and reducing stress. Despite these benefits, however, walking barefoot can be downright painful.

My friend and colleague, Dan Pasini, coached the track & field team at Saint Augustine’s College in the Bahamas fifty years ago. One of his best runners ran barefoot. The track around the Saint Augustine’s field was not an all-weather surface made of the polyurethane and rubber. At SAC, runners ran on a surface that was a combination of grass, limestone, and sand. In fact, it was a stretch to even call it a track. How anyone could run barefoot on such a rough surface is beyond my comprehension.

Having grown up in San Francisco, I rarely, if ever, walked around outside without shoes on. One reason was the persistent cold and fog deterred anyone who might be inclined to do so. There were also social norms in The City which dictated that kids wear shoes to the park and to play around the neighborhood. No one I knew was in the habit of going barefoot.

Because of this, the bottoms of my feet are incredibly tender to this day. I’m okay walking around inside our home on carpet, tile, and laminate flooring. The thought of stepping outside into our front patio without shoes is something I would not consider. The aggregate concrete would be painful for my feet.   

So it was a bit strange for me to have a dream yesterday about walking in the sand at the beach. I took an afternoon nap. When Scarlett came by with her Dad to pick up Henry, she came up to my office where I was snoozing in the recliner. She was so gentle in waking me up. I was in the middle of a dream in which I was walking barefoot on warm, soft, white sand at a beach. It wasn’t the type of sand one would find at Ocean Beach in The City, or even at a beach in Santa Cruz. It was definitely an island beach, most likely in the Bahamas. 

When I was much younger, the beach was one of the only places I would go barefoot, but even then, it was not easy for me. If the sand was too hot or too grainy, it would hurt the bottoms of my feet. It’s been many years since I’ve walked around with my shoes off outdoors, even at beaches in Nassau. When I visit one of the scenic beaches there now, I prefer to find a place to sit in the shade, with my shoes on, where I can enjoy a view of the beach, rather than being on the beach itself. 

The earth may delight to feel my bare feet, as Gibran suggests in the quote above, but being barefoot is anything but a delight to me.