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Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

Sunflower Seeds

Celebrating Everyday Spirituality

The Spiritual Practice of Going Barefoot

(As I wrote last week, I’m taking a little vacation from my blog. So this week I’m running an earlier reflection from August 26, 2013. I will resume writing my regular blog on Monday September 5.)

barefoot womanrelax-1437160__180Someone has said that going barefoot can be a spiritual practice. There’s a scriptural basis for this assertion. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, God told him to take off his shoes, for he was standing on holy ground (Ex. 3:5). But isn’t all ground holy? If so, then shouldn’t we take off our shoes regularly so we can be one with our sacred earth?

As kids, many of us went barefoot in summer. I know I did. Right after school ended, we kids celebrated this happy event by kicking off our shoes and socks and running around our farm barefoot. At first the gravel in the driveway hurt our feet. As we walked crossed the driveway in early June, we’d grimace and say, “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” But by August, after we had built up some callouses, we’d cross the driveway with ease. Before going to bed each night, our mother scrubbed our dirty feet so vigorously it hurt. But that was a small price to pay for the freedom of no shoes.

When I spent a month in Korea a while back, I was impressed with their practice of Barefoot children-1439382__180removing shoes when entering a house. At our provincial center in Inchon, there are little cubby holes by the entrance where the sisters deposit their shoes when coming in off the street. Even when we visited a kindergarten there, we were asked to remove our shoes and were given slippers to wear during our visit.

In India I was taking off my shoes every time we visited a shrine or a temple. There would be hundreds of shoes at the entrance to these places—even the Taj Mahal. At first I was reluctant to remove my shoes. I feared picking up some horrible parasite. I also feared I would never see my shoes again! But I quickly learned that some people make a living at the entrances to these shrines by offering to guard your shoes for you while you’re inside—for a few shekels, of course. I never lost a pair of shoes the whole time I was in India—although every evening I scrubbed my feet vigorously.

When I lived alone in an apartment in Detroit, I noticed something about myself. Every time I’d come home from work, I’d automatically kick off my shoes. I usually stayed barefoot or in my stocking feet until I crawled into bed at night. When I visited my relatives in the Czech Republic, I saw that the Czechs (like the Koreans) remove their shoes before entering their homes. If you look down the hall in an apartment building, for example, you’ll see a half dozen shoes stacked outside every door. My propensity for bare feet must be a genetic thing!

barefoot grass-1394846__180I’m not advocating going barefoot all the time, of course. Even as a child in summer, we had to put on our shoes to go inside the coop or barn. In Uganda, I saw many children without shoes—not because they were doing a spiritual practice, but because they couldn’t afford shoes. There are many organizations that provide new or gently used shoes for kids in developing countries, for example, Soles4Souls, Walk in My Shoes Global Project, and www.yesshoesinc.org.

The night before Jesus died, he washed the feet of his disciples, performing a servant’s task. For sure, those feet weren’t very pretty. They were probably rough, dirty, smelly, with broken nails, bunions, and bent toes. Yet he washed them tenderly, bestowing a dignity upon all feet, including our own. Yes, our feet are beautiful no matter what they look like, for they bear the weight of our entire body. They also bear the wear and tear of our comings and goings as we do good to others.

Go barefoot, then—before summer comes to an end. (For those of you living in the southern hemisphere, your summer will be coming soon!) Thank God for your feet today and for the privilege of walking on earth, this holy ground.

Today’s song is “Holy Ground”:

 

What do you think of going barefoot? Has it ever been a spiritual practice for you?

11 Responses

  1. Hurray for going barefoot in the ocean sands at the Marie Joseph Spiritual Center during the Conference, Everyday Epiphanies, with Sister Melannie.

  2. How beautiful the music is !! Your meditation is a memory jogger for me. I am 87 years old and remember the days clearly when summer meant barefoot, especially when it rained and we donned our little swim suits and stood under the rain spout !

  3. Sister Melanie, thank you! I am 67 years old and I have loved going barefoot since I was a child growing up in rural Pennsylvania. I, too, believe that to do so is sacred act. God bless you for articulating the history of the practice and sharing your own experience.

  4. Thanks for the reflection on being barefoot today. I love taking my shoes as soon as I can when I come home from work. I had foot surgery this summer and can’t wait for the day when my foot is healwd and I can enjoy putting both feet back on the ground!
    Have a blessed day and enjoy got time off! Marty

  5. Thanks Sr. Melannie for such a wonderful retreat week at Maria Joseph Spiritual Center and yes, I have gone barefoot as much as possible wherever I could. Touching earth is sacred!

  6. I really enjoy your weekly reflections. I use to love to go barefoot in the summer and still do at home. Hope you are enjoy your much deserved vacation.

  7. My mother was a clean freak and you better believe that nobody came into the house with shoes on. No matter how cold or wet our shoes were left outside.

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Hi and welcome to my blog! I’m Sister Melannie, a Sister of Notre Dame residing in Chardon, Ohio, USA. I’ve been very lucky! I was raised in a loving family on a small farm in northeast Ohio. I also entered the SNDs right after high school. Over the years, my ministries have included high school and college teaching, novice director, congregational leadership, spiritual direction, retreat facilitating, and writing. I hope you enjoy “Sunflower Seeds” and will consider subscribing below. I’d love to have you in our “sunflower community.” Thank you!

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