You wouldn’t think that household chores would lead to philosophical revelations, but here we are. The other day I was cleaning out my closet (literally) when I started to think about cleaning out my closet (metaphorically). Stick with me on this one.
The philosophical closet.
I’ve been marathoning since 2007. I can’t even begin to calculate the number of miles I’ve walked, but safe to say it’s a lot. While I have eleven beautiful medals to show for my efforts, I also have a recurring leg injury that makes it difficult to train hard and fast. And then I went and took a major fall while on vacation last October, and the sprained ankle that resulted from that spill plagues me all these months later. All of which is to say: The days of high heels are now officially behind me.
This photo may be just an excuse to show off my new tattoo.
I have never been very good at wearing heels, so this isn’t a complete tragedy. I had, for whatever reason, been hanging on to some heels for awhile now, in the hopes that all that painful physical therapy would help me get back to normal. But flats are my friends now (and, thankfully, there are a lot of cute flats in the world!). And, truth be told, the few pairs of stilettos I owned were never going to be comfortable for me. That robin’s-egg blue pair up there? I wore them once, for about three hours, the day I bought them. In 2009. (Not an exaggeration.)
Ah, those are much more my speed.
Okay, so what do shoes have to do with Big Fit Deal? Here are the philosophical notions that came to mind when I was bagging up all my heels for the donation bin.
We often hold on to things we shouldn’t.
Beautiful but deadly.
Be honest: Do you have a pair of “skinny” jeans hanging in your closet? I don’t mean the cut of the pants, I mean the jeans that you haven’t been able to zip up in months, maybe years, but that are supposed to serve to inspire you to get in shape and lose those “extra” pounds? Get rid of them. Really. My bet is that, more often than not, they make you feel lousy instead of inspired. If – for whatever reason – you do some day fit back into the same size jeans, go out and buy a new pair. And if you can’t ever wear that size again, guess what? You’re still kind and smart and funny and absolutely lovely. Those things have nothing to do with the size you wear. I know I’m never going to wear those shoes again, or the sky-high Steve Madden pumps, or the pointy-toed shiny red pair, or… You get the picture. So, what’s the point of hanging on to them? They are just taking up space in my closet. How much space are your “someday” things taking up? What would you put in your closet if you had more room?
We don’t have to wear what’s expected of us.
What woman can’t wear heels? This woman, for one. And no, practice doesn’t help. I’ve never been able to wear heels with any grace. And I certainly haven’t been able to wear them without pain (no, not even platforms). I don’t care if women are “expected” to wear them, or if they make my legs look amazing. They just don’t work for me. And the bottom line is, each of us gets to decide how we want to dress, how we choose to present ourselves to the world. There are tons of “rules” that we are supposed to follow, and you can refer back to this post if you need a refresher on how I feel about rules! So, regardless of what anyone thinks or says, I choose to not wear heels. And that leads me to…
Life is too short to wear painful shoes.
Some days, life seems like an eternity (meetings where someone reads PowerPoint slides out loud, I’m looking at you!), but of course we know our time here is fleeting. How do you want to spend it? I want to fill up my days with love and laughter, with marathon miles and laps in the pool, with sunrise walks on the beach and winter evenings curled up on the couch. And through it all, I want to be comfortable. The world can be full of pain and discomfort, but those things don’t have to live in my closet. They don’t have to live in yours, either.
Sometimes you just want to wear zombie flip flops.
No? Just me?
Give this a try: Take inventory of your closets. Take inventory of your life. What makes you happy, what gives you pleasure? Keep those things (and people, and ideas). What makes you feel bad, what gives you pain? Work on getting rid of those things (and people, and ideas). Trust me, it feels really, really good. And not just on your feet!
