I love going barefoot. There’s nothing like the feel of grass on my feet or digging my toes into sand at the beach or warm dirt in the garden. I can hardly wait until it warms up enough in the spring to take my shoes off.

Because I work from home the only time I wear shoes is if I have to go somewhere. I even drive barefoot. Yes, my feet get dirty, but I wash them every night.

Of course, there are some downsides to going barefoot. Sometimes you step on something sharp, occasionally you step in something your dog left on the lawn. 

On the Friday of Memorial Day weekend last year, I was going down the steps of our back deck. It was dark and I wasn’t paying attention, and I thought I was at the bottom of the stairs. Turns out there was actually two yet to go, and I stepped off into the air.

I fell, landing on my right foot and breaking three of my metatarsal bones. 

The doctor told me if I had been wearing shoes there was a good chance that they would have cushioned the fall and I might not have broken the bones, or at least not as badly. 

I was lucky in that I didn’t have to get a cast, I just had to wear a short boot for a while. The bones knitted back together, but today the last three toes are pulled down further than they used to be. A career as a foot model is off the table for me.

This spring I was joking that I was going to break my left foot so my feet would match again. I was only kidding but, once again just before Memorial Day, I took a misstep and this time smashed the second toe on my left foot. 

There’s not really anything that can be done when toes are damaged except for taping them, so that’s what the doctor did. It actually hurt more than without it so I took it off the next day. Today that toe hurts just as bad as when it happened and it’s now misshapen and twice as wide as it’s supposed to be. I don’t know if it will stay that way.

I was once again told that if I had been wearing shoes this likely wouldn’t have happened.

I’m stubborn however, and still haven’t learned my lesson. If you see me wearing shoes any time during the summer it will still be because I have no other choice.