Whoever said, “Take care of your feet and you take care of the world” has me nodding in agreement and even more so after an episode of wearing a pair of shoes that do not suit, then suffering the leg pain, backache, stiffness, sinus congestion. And realizing these were all caused by the shoes. A day or so back into footwear that pleases my body and the symptoms disappear. It has been a roundabout journey (as most of life travelling is – it seldom seems direct!) to come to this awareness and to find shoes that do make walking and standing effortless as they are meant to be. My first epiphany was trying on a pair of Birkenstock sandals many years ago and having the clerk refer to the ‘footbed’ and having to have it fit properly. I’d never heard of such a thing. I’ve kept the idea of a footbed in mind ever since and it is a useful tool when choosing shoes. If the heel of a shoe is narrower than the heel of my foot – well, that constant need to balance is going to cause discomfort. I had orhtotics for awhile and they were a wonderful crutch until, finally! – I found a chiropractor who really listened and then used his knowledge and experience to diagnose the problem as being in the hip, not the feet. As the hip was corrected (and he is one of those chiropractors who listens anew each visit and adjusts the treatment accordingly, bless the man!) the orthotics could be given up. (The problem with the hip arose from falling on ice and breaking ribs and then adjusting my stance over the months to compensate for this.) The shoes that do make me forget I am wearing them are not cheap. I have come up with a way of trying out shoes before making that investment. Let’s face it -you pay big bucks for shoes and you are going to wear them even if they prove to not be just right because you can’t take shoes back after a week or so of wear and that is usually what it takes to really test them. A few steps back and forth in a shoe store is a bit of a farce. I keep my eye out in the large thrift stores and walk around when I come across a pair of shoes that appeal. They also have a week return policy and since the shoes are used to begin with a few more steps are not going to be detrimental to their final sale. Actually the store benefits from my ‘borrowing’ of them as I clean up the shoes if they need it and make them look really spiffy. And when they do suit – oh, yippee. Either for those then and there or future purchase, brand new. It’s quite a delightful, if rather – roundabout! – method of commerce, if you think about it.