Best Foot Forward

Another nod to a fellow blogger.

I had to half laugh when I fed the title of Rosalind Joffe’s post, “You Can Live With Chronic Illness And Still Love Those Shoes”.

I’ve been thinking about shoes a lot lately. As of late, I have three types of shoes that I wear:

- Winter boots
(I live in Michigan, so these end up being warn about four months out of the year!)
- Gym/tennis shoes
- Flip flops
(I am not sure how great these are, but they feel pretty good to me)

Yes, these three types have become my shoe repertoire. Not very glamorous if you ask me.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not always so steady on my feet. Some of that is illness related, some of it is just the fact that I’m a total klutz.

But you’re probably wondering… Does the girl actually own more than three pairs of shoes? Of course I do. And I love them. And I want to buy more. But what used to be a concern for comfort is a lot more important now.

Shoes that are uncomfortable are just no good. A bad pair of shoes can throw an already off-kilter body severely out of balance.

I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes since the summer (last summer). Now all of you girly girls out there don’t go gasping at my fashion faux pas.

I think that buying clothes and shoes are related a lot to self-esteem. And as I talked about last week in my post, “Illness And Self-Esteem,” chronic illness and be a pretty big buzz kill in the self-esteem department.

I think that chronic illness makes you more realistic about a lot of things, shoes included. Maybe there are some of you out there who think, forget comfort, and are going to wear those stilettos forever. But for me, the heels only come out when absolutely necessary.

And maybe in some ways that’s better. The nice shoes only come out for special occasions. They’ll last longer that way. And so will my body, feet included.