{"id":9017,"date":"2010-05-15T06:36:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-15T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=9017"},"modified":"2013-11-26T06:46:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T11:46:18","slug":"my-ever-present-hiking-boots-and-the-freedom-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/my-ever-present-hiking-boots-and-the-freedom-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"My Ever-Present Hiking Boots and the Freedom Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hiking<\/a>Last week I gave myself a pedicure, although I don’t know why I bother since I wear hiking shoes all the time. I figure, that way if I’m kidnapped and made to walk long miles over rough terrain, I’m prepared. I wouldn’t want to to do it in flip flops. I’ve been there, done that.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Well, not the kidnappped part, but the walking a long way unexpectedly part I’ve done way too often.\u00a0 I’m one of those people who like to do things, rather than just watch things. I like to walk around and investigate nature stuff, what kind of bird is that?\u00a0 What’s around the corner of this winding trail?<\/p>\n

I find that even in my yard, it’s easy to wander off from what I originally came out for, and to wind up waist deep in palmettos and tangled grapevine.\u00a0 That’s fine, unless I’m dressed in a swimsuit and sandals.\u00a0 Then I emerge with dozens of cuts and scrapes and bug bites.\u00a0 So I’ve learned if I’m stepping outside to have good sturdy shoes on.<\/p>\n

About the time I turned 40, I got that lesson.\u00a0 I’d always been a barefoot gal, but up to that time I’d also been an in-an-office-every-day gal.\u00a0 My forays into nature consisted of me sitting outside or watering a bush someone else planted for me.\u00a0 Nothing that would hurt the manicure or make me sweat.\u00a0 Boy, did that change.\u00a0 When I began getting hands-on involved with the land, I learned it was best to come prepared.\u00a0 The main thing was: sturdy footgear.<\/p>\n

I began a collection of yard boots and hiking boots. I wanted my feet to be protected and comfortable.\u00a0 I wanted to be able to walk around and keep my attention on whatever I was seeing or whatever my hands were doing, rather than on every step I took.\u00a0 If I had stable footing, the rest of me was free to enjoy the task at hand.\u00a0 And freedom is the most important thing to me.<\/p>\n

A lot of people would say security is more important to them, but for me it’s freedom.\u00a0 To me, freedom includes security.\u00a0 Not the freedom that has me driving all over the country living in a van with no obligations, doing day labor to have food to get me to the next day.\u00a0 Freedom like, being free to work a job that provides me income that provides me with all my material possessions.<\/p>\n

It’s only when I don’t have to struggle to be able to eat and keep a roof over my head that I have the leisure time to sit and ponder and reflect on my life.\u00a0 Some folks work 2-3 jobs just to keep their family fed, and the little free time they have is spent sleeping.\u00a0 They don’t have the luxury of free minutes every day to sit quietly and ponder their life and what is important to them, and what they really want out of it.<\/p>\n

And when the mind is free of worry over getting material needs met, we feel stable and grounded.\u00a0 And when we feel stable and grounded, we more easily aspire and dream of having more and being more.\u00a0 That’s why it’s important to me to have many skills and many ways of earning income. So I can be stable enough to dream my dreams.\u00a0 If one avenue of income closes to me, I know there are 10 more waiting to be discovered and I’d find them.\u00a0 I’d find a new interest and get the education to go after it. A galpal went to law school at 55!<\/p>\n

And that’s what sturdy walking shoes do for me.\u00a0 They give me the feeling of being on solid ground, so I can walk about here and there without being concerned with stubbing a pedicured toe or stepping on a thorn.\u00a0 I figure I can either be prepared for life, or I can sit on the sidelines and wish I’d done it. \u00a0Tell me, who wants to look back on the years and wonder where their life has gone?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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