Barefootedness

OK - 20 years ago i ripped hell out of my right foot (being right biased) and was 'banned' by my then doctor from all sport.  At 22 i was fit active and the idea seemed silly!  However, as i soon discovered this was no laughing matter.  If i went to kick a ball back to kids in the park,  as a consequence, i may not be able to walk properly for a week - let alone climb a tree!  So reluctantly had to be a spectator at all but swimming.

At 25 i went to University in Hull, and consequently changed doctors etc.  Mentioning my foot problem to Dr Jones, he simply asked if i ever used to walk barefooted.  I replied i grew up 10 minutes from a beach in Cornwall - of course!  Apparently, as there was no operation available for my condition (at least on the NHS), if i went barefoot as much as possible, that would strengthen the muscle in my foot, which would then support the tendon, which could conceivably then allow me to participate in sport once more!

I don't think he ever envisaged me taking it as far as i did (6 months a year) but his advice paid off and could at least climb trees and have a kick about with friends (though my best position by far was always in goal!).  

Then 10 years ago, at 32, i managed to have an altercation with a motorbike; i got hit between the legs by a motorcycle courier,  then carried down the road on the front wheel, before he hit a car and i sailed over it!  Bike - cracked front fairing;  Me - broken pelvis, broken collar bone, contusions on my brain, slackened right eye muscle, numb mouth! Think that means it won!


I returned to Hull, (somewhere flat and cheap!), and within 6 months, breakages knit but I was left with double vision and a mouth that felt like the dentists injection was just about to wear off!  The Consultants answer: my bottom right eye muscle had slackened, so, as they couldn't tighten eye muscles (at least on the NHS), they would operate on my good left eye to make it as bad as my right eye!

To me this was like taking a car into the garage with steering issues and the mechanic saying, " You have a loose and a tight wheel, so what we're going to do is loosen off the tight wheel, to make it as slack as the other one to balance the steering!  Think you'd go to a different garage?


A second opinion revealed that the consultant was one of Europe's leading eye specialists, and that 95% of people with my condition had the operation.  To his surprise i asked about the other 5%?  He seemed confused.  I wanted to know about the 5% that didn't have the operation because i'd decided to become one of them!  We talked about the lazy eye patch that kids had at school - you remember - NHS specs with a plaster stuck over one eye?  It was specifically the lower part of my right eye that needed the exercise. Eye muscles are also intrinsically 'lazy' - you have to 'force' them to work! 

Having thought about it - of course - go barefooted again. i already knew how to do it - i just had to re-learn within my current constraints!  And if i stuck to it - no matter what! - then it might just be worth a try!  So, double vision when looking directly down, but not at about 1.5m ahead; so all i needed to do was check ahead ad adjust my footwork accordingly.  Yes i cut my feet several times.  But no i didn't have the operation.  In fact my eyesight is better now then when i was when i hurt my foot initially!

So, whilst these days i do use barefootedness as part of my spiritual practice in mindfulness, and Being Here Now!, it was fundamentally a GP, Dr Jones from Cottingham Road, Hull who lead me to the Barefoot Path and to whom my health, and 'Groundedness' will be forever indebted! Thank You once more, and may Blessings be showered upon thee and thy patients!