May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Rather than drawing my foot, I would like to interview. Good morning, foot, are you right or left? I can’t tell who is responding; are you disguising your voice? Ok, whichever, let’s begin. It’s 7:30am, and you’ve already been in shoes and outdoors. The have-a-heart trap captured mouse #6 last night. You drove the car a couple of miles and let the mouse loose. Drove home for breakfast. Though you are not directly part of the digestive system, you say you benefit greatly from the nourishment provided. And you’re grateful for all the blood pumped by the heart to your distant location. So, tell me, do you like to travel? I gather from all that lively wiggling of toes that your answer is a resounding “yes”. And where have you been? Tea in Tokyo, hummus in Palestine, tapping to music on a mountain in Israel, riding a horse drawn taxi in Rome, climbed around the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, waited for a plane in Paris, climbed a mountain in Montana, kicked a potter’s wheel in New Mexico. Held onto a stirrup while riding horseback. Walked barefoot often when young. Gripped a waterski in Summer. Kicked a football, soccer ball, hopped here and there, leaped from boulder to boulder pretending to be a goat’s sturdy foot. Bathed in the ocean. Recently soaked in a warm bath of white vinegar and water. Often felt such relief when freed of shoe and sock. Climbed many stairs. Bumped into various objects, feeling “ouch”. Been kissed and caressed. Enjoy a cool breeze. Appreciate the support of a well-designed shoe. Am now growing impatient with this interview, eagerly awaiting a warm morning shower. So, thank you for taking this time, be away with you and enjoy the shower. Do you mind if I join you?🏮
Hard to pick a favorite line but this one wins: “Though you are not directly part of the digestive system, you say you benefit greatly from the nourishment provided.” 😂
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
The skin on the bottom of my foot is hard and leathered while the top is tanned from the years spent barefoot. Hot black sand has burnt it, cold snow has cooled it, rocks have shaped it, grass has stained it. My feet have seen the earth it all its glory.
Toes curve down like a wave about to break and my arch curls, stretching, readying itself to take the person attached to it on an adventure. The scar on the outer part curves towards me like a smile, reminding me of the day it appeared — a heavy curtain rail fell on it just as I was about to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid, oh the scramble for a hefty plaster to cover it up!
A faint jandal line remains from summer.
This right foot wants to feel the sand between its toes and the crunch of frost, it wants to know concrete and wood, dirt and snow, it yearns to return inside tap shoes and hopes to summit more mountains. But for now it is content to take the person attached to it wherever she wants to go. Just glad for weekly walks on the beach and swims in the sea. Glad for afternoons on grass watering the garden, and by the fire gently warming.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
I love dog feet. I have a husky and a schipperke. Rayder the schipperke has cute little feet with little black bean pads and black nails. Yesterday we were walking and he was favoring his back right foot. I checked and one pad looked enormous. I was thinking OMG! Truth was he stepped on a nut shell which stuck to the pad. It looked like his pad was swollen three times the normal size. I pulled off the shell and Voila! Normal! I was relieved. Rayder sleeps with his paws touching me. His feet are so warm against my skin,
Maisie the Husky has hobbit feet. Big furry feet with grey beans and light nails. I love touching her feet. She doesn’t mind having her feet touched. She will rest her paw on me and she’ll give shakes.
I love this! I desire nothing more than to hold my cat’s feet in my hands for all of these reasons. They only barely tolerate it but for those few seconds it’s glorious. 😂
May 5·edited May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Synaesthesia! This is my current cross-creative training: To feel into the livingness of more-than- human creatures that I live with -- the redwood tree, camphor, gingko, white birch, apricot, pear, apple tree, roses and other flowers, and the budding vegetable starts -- in our small suburban tract home. To learn to be quiet and listen for the energetic communication from each one of them. This is what is calling me these days: to learn to see beyond human-centeredness.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Oh No, that’s too much to ask, or is it just too much to expect? What I want to do is have the courage to initiate a virtual conversation with someone who handed me the keys to a Zen inspired kingdom a year ago. I walked out the door and through a maze of effected family and friends, hoping to integrate my sister’s death into a family we’d continue to recognize. My brother’s birthday is a few days after mine. both this week. We’re in our 70s. Every effort fails and whiplashes back at me when I approach him. So, humor is all that is left to try. If he cannot resist upbraiding me, well, I always have the right to laugh at my own jokes at his expense, in a compassionately, amusing way. Let’s see if he’ll give me a laugh this week. I mailed my package/card yesterday. A new twist on a tried and true family recipe for reconciliation.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
This assignment makes me think of an assignment I have given to my middle school students in years past: where has your shoe been this summer? It is a twist on the “what I did over the summer” assignment. Feet and hands are challenging for middle schoolers to drawn (let’s be real, getting middle schoolers to draw anything without self-judgement is hard) but drawing their shoe is fun, and they can impress with the Converse, Nike, or Air Jordan. Then they tell the story through the point of view of the shoe. I haven’t done this for a few years, but this makes me think I might bring it back.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Thanks for the app suggestion! I was puzzled why I was no longer getting the Friday Note. I thought perhaps you were in New Orleans at Jazz Fest enjoying Jon’s phenomenal set or in Columbus (what a surprise to see his livestream, since the tickets vanished in a nanosecond). My right foot is my good foot. I fractured my left foot in Chicago in my 20s and it has given me trouble ever since. My right foot can wear heels, boots, hold my yoga poses, and remind me that I am strong and fit (ish). Some days, I need that to endure the left foot glitches.
My left foot is not happy either. I have neuropathy in both feet from chemo, but my left foot was inflamed when I had a DVT. It had a big toenail removed surgically, and the nerve still zings. There is a healed venous ulcer on the inside ankle. Enough of the left foot! The right foot remains at least somewhat capable and longs to teach the left foot to ride a bicycle again.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Oh it's so true, trying something new and different does so much for us. Apparently when we change our surroundings to the unfamiliar, time stretches - which makes it an ideal thing to do after a bad moment. Our brains will be busy with new info, so focus less on the painful emotions. So fascinating! And I love that we don't need to jump on a plane to do it, we can simply sit on the couch and examine our feet instead... I'm soon teaching a creativity container and now I'm determined to get everyone to do something they've never done before 😍 thanks for the inspiration!
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
I so much enjoy Suleika’s columns and look forward to them on Sunday mornings which is my time for peaceful reflection. I don’t pretend to have the talent she has but I do enjoy many types of creative journeys from knitting, crocheting, card making, painting, writing, etc. Suleika’s suggestion of taking a class is a wonderful idea to stretch beyond our comfort zones! We have a wonderful shop an hour away that does amazing classes. In addition, every Sunday at 1 pm Peggy, the shop owner, does an online class which you can easily follow along and take notes! If there was a way to do an attachment here I would post a picture of my recent project which I am very pleased with. But my point is that we don’t even have to leave the comfort of our home to expand our horizons!
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
“In order to arrive somewhere that feels fresh and new,” she’d told me, “you have to break down what feels expected.” I like this quote so much. It feels like a path for living as well as for creativity. Maybe it sort of gets at why creativity feeds life.
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Two suggestions for this week- cross joining something you have never done or draw a picture of your foot.
I was never much of a joiner--so that might be better or the foot.. don't appreciate it enough and i really should-- it has bee very good to me-- and as my friend Joh Mills says "Still Walking".
PS: hope you enjoy the Sunday shares of Isolation Journal, now this weekly gift I happily joined..
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
Reader: she signed up for the course! 😃 This afternoon will be the fourth session of the clay hand building course, and it’s been such FUN! Allowing myself permission to play has been healing and empowering. I’m so grateful for the serendipitous nudge from Suleika. 🤍
May 5Liked by Suleika Jaouad, Holly Huitt, Carmen Radley
I identify so much with this piece, today!
My entire month of April was about this — new and recovered ways of seeing the world and getting it down — with graphite and charcoal, which are not (or have not been, historically) mediums of strength for me. I’ve learned so much… about perspective, detail, language vs. visual brain, the way resistance (and flow!) feels in the body, and so much more than I can even say. It’s been powerful and transformative!
I have never liked my feet. They are long and very narrow which has made finding "cool" shoes challenging if not impossible. In high school, I had a shoe salesman laugh at the narrowness of my feet which certainly didn't help my own self judgement. Now, I'm 70 and I have huge bunions on both feet making them even more unglamorous. But the shoe industry has changed and over the years, I have found shoes I love that fit my feet and are comfortable. Last year, I even found cool boots so I bought three pairs. I regret hating my feet....they have walked, ran, hiked and swam for 70 years. They have done well by me.
Hey my feet buddies you’ve blow up a bit with edema after our hernia surgery and I’m trying to support you with p/t, acupuncture, walking, my shaman giving us a healing. The swelling has gone down but you still let me know you’re around with some pain in my feet that causes me to get out of bed and walk and put on pressurized stockings. I take care of you guys like I would if you were my children. Because of this unexpected swelling I’m walking more, on treadmill more, and of course more dancing. I support you my amazing feet because you’re my feet, I love you, and you take me to amazing places
I have two feet that are fully operational. Not without flaws; they both tingle at times, courtesy of the Cisplatin and Docetaxel that did their business to fix a cancer but left troubled nerves in their wake.
I appreciate my feet for all they do for me, knowing that for some a disability means they must find other ways to get around.
Right Foot has never suffered the indignities of sprains like its mirror left twin, which was bruised and traumatized twice when its foolish owner/operator rushed on the stairs.
Right Foot is the most capable, the one used to kick balls as a child. It’s the most effective for stepping on a spider—though only when necessary--as it hates killing like the human it’s attached to.
It has worn baby shoes and Mary Janes, too-tight high heels that brought on bunions, floppy sandals and rugged hiking boots. Right now it’s ensconced in its favorite black socks and knock-off Birckenstocks, so warm and comfy, here at home where it most likes to be.
If I could draw Right Foot it would be as it was long ago; the skin smooth and delicate, with tiny button toes, back before time and a million miles of walking left it lumpy and wrinkled and streaked with blue veins. Or maybe I would draw it as it is now, with reverence for its mottled appearance, the result of decades of service to this grateful body.
Rather than drawing my foot, I would like to interview. Good morning, foot, are you right or left? I can’t tell who is responding; are you disguising your voice? Ok, whichever, let’s begin. It’s 7:30am, and you’ve already been in shoes and outdoors. The have-a-heart trap captured mouse #6 last night. You drove the car a couple of miles and let the mouse loose. Drove home for breakfast. Though you are not directly part of the digestive system, you say you benefit greatly from the nourishment provided. And you’re grateful for all the blood pumped by the heart to your distant location. So, tell me, do you like to travel? I gather from all that lively wiggling of toes that your answer is a resounding “yes”. And where have you been? Tea in Tokyo, hummus in Palestine, tapping to music on a mountain in Israel, riding a horse drawn taxi in Rome, climbed around the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, waited for a plane in Paris, climbed a mountain in Montana, kicked a potter’s wheel in New Mexico. Held onto a stirrup while riding horseback. Walked barefoot often when young. Gripped a waterski in Summer. Kicked a football, soccer ball, hopped here and there, leaped from boulder to boulder pretending to be a goat’s sturdy foot. Bathed in the ocean. Recently soaked in a warm bath of white vinegar and water. Often felt such relief when freed of shoe and sock. Climbed many stairs. Bumped into various objects, feeling “ouch”. Been kissed and caressed. Enjoy a cool breeze. Appreciate the support of a well-designed shoe. Am now growing impatient with this interview, eagerly awaiting a warm morning shower. So, thank you for taking this time, be away with you and enjoy the shower. Do you mind if I join you?🏮
Hard to pick a favorite line but this one wins: “Though you are not directly part of the digestive system, you say you benefit greatly from the nourishment provided.” 😂
Your foot has had great adventures!
I appreciate your humorous and loving relationship with your foot. Apparently it is a world traveler! Thanks for the lightness.
The skin on the bottom of my foot is hard and leathered while the top is tanned from the years spent barefoot. Hot black sand has burnt it, cold snow has cooled it, rocks have shaped it, grass has stained it. My feet have seen the earth it all its glory.
Toes curve down like a wave about to break and my arch curls, stretching, readying itself to take the person attached to it on an adventure. The scar on the outer part curves towards me like a smile, reminding me of the day it appeared — a heavy curtain rail fell on it just as I was about to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid, oh the scramble for a hefty plaster to cover it up!
A faint jandal line remains from summer.
This right foot wants to feel the sand between its toes and the crunch of frost, it wants to know concrete and wood, dirt and snow, it yearns to return inside tap shoes and hopes to summit more mountains. But for now it is content to take the person attached to it wherever she wants to go. Just glad for weekly walks on the beach and swims in the sea. Glad for afternoons on grass watering the garden, and by the fire gently warming.
I love dog feet. I have a husky and a schipperke. Rayder the schipperke has cute little feet with little black bean pads and black nails. Yesterday we were walking and he was favoring his back right foot. I checked and one pad looked enormous. I was thinking OMG! Truth was he stepped on a nut shell which stuck to the pad. It looked like his pad was swollen three times the normal size. I pulled off the shell and Voila! Normal! I was relieved. Rayder sleeps with his paws touching me. His feet are so warm against my skin,
Maisie the Husky has hobbit feet. Big furry feet with grey beans and light nails. I love touching her feet. She doesn’t mind having her feet touched. She will rest her paw on me and she’ll give shakes.
I love this! I desire nothing more than to hold my cat’s feet in my hands for all of these reasons. They only barely tolerate it but for those few seconds it’s glorious. 😂
I love the Hobbit Feet.
Synaesthesia! This is my current cross-creative training: To feel into the livingness of more-than- human creatures that I live with -- the redwood tree, camphor, gingko, white birch, apricot, pear, apple tree, roses and other flowers, and the budding vegetable starts -- in our small suburban tract home. To learn to be quiet and listen for the energetic communication from each one of them. This is what is calling me these days: to learn to see beyond human-centeredness.
Lovely. ❤️
Oh No, that’s too much to ask, or is it just too much to expect? What I want to do is have the courage to initiate a virtual conversation with someone who handed me the keys to a Zen inspired kingdom a year ago. I walked out the door and through a maze of effected family and friends, hoping to integrate my sister’s death into a family we’d continue to recognize. My brother’s birthday is a few days after mine. both this week. We’re in our 70s. Every effort fails and whiplashes back at me when I approach him. So, humor is all that is left to try. If he cannot resist upbraiding me, well, I always have the right to laugh at my own jokes at his expense, in a compassionately, amusing way. Let’s see if he’ll give me a laugh this week. I mailed my package/card yesterday. A new twist on a tried and true family recipe for reconciliation.
This assignment makes me think of an assignment I have given to my middle school students in years past: where has your shoe been this summer? It is a twist on the “what I did over the summer” assignment. Feet and hands are challenging for middle schoolers to drawn (let’s be real, getting middle schoolers to draw anything without self-judgement is hard) but drawing their shoe is fun, and they can impress with the Converse, Nike, or Air Jordan. Then they tell the story through the point of view of the shoe. I haven’t done this for a few years, but this makes me think I might bring it back.
This is wonderful!
I love this! What a terrific prompt.
I love this.
Thanks for the app suggestion! I was puzzled why I was no longer getting the Friday Note. I thought perhaps you were in New Orleans at Jazz Fest enjoying Jon’s phenomenal set or in Columbus (what a surprise to see his livestream, since the tickets vanished in a nanosecond). My right foot is my good foot. I fractured my left foot in Chicago in my 20s and it has given me trouble ever since. My right foot can wear heels, boots, hold my yoga poses, and remind me that I am strong and fit (ish). Some days, I need that to endure the left foot glitches.
My left foot is not happy either. I have neuropathy in both feet from chemo, but my left foot was inflamed when I had a DVT. It had a big toenail removed surgically, and the nerve still zings. There is a healed venous ulcer on the inside ankle. Enough of the left foot! The right foot remains at least somewhat capable and longs to teach the left foot to ride a bicycle again.
Oh it's so true, trying something new and different does so much for us. Apparently when we change our surroundings to the unfamiliar, time stretches - which makes it an ideal thing to do after a bad moment. Our brains will be busy with new info, so focus less on the painful emotions. So fascinating! And I love that we don't need to jump on a plane to do it, we can simply sit on the couch and examine our feet instead... I'm soon teaching a creativity container and now I'm determined to get everyone to do something they've never done before 😍 thanks for the inspiration!
I so much enjoy Suleika’s columns and look forward to them on Sunday mornings which is my time for peaceful reflection. I don’t pretend to have the talent she has but I do enjoy many types of creative journeys from knitting, crocheting, card making, painting, writing, etc. Suleika’s suggestion of taking a class is a wonderful idea to stretch beyond our comfort zones! We have a wonderful shop an hour away that does amazing classes. In addition, every Sunday at 1 pm Peggy, the shop owner, does an online class which you can easily follow along and take notes! If there was a way to do an attachment here I would post a picture of my recent project which I am very pleased with. But my point is that we don’t even have to leave the comfort of our home to expand our horizons!
A very excellent point.
I'd love to see your pictures in our Small Joy chat thread! You can post photos there: https://substack.com/chat/322264/post/f11837f0-6b34-41c5-94d5-89df4f75c59c
“In order to arrive somewhere that feels fresh and new,” she’d told me, “you have to break down what feels expected.” I like this quote so much. It feels like a path for living as well as for creativity. Maybe it sort of gets at why creativity feeds life.
I love it, too! ❤️
Two suggestions for this week- cross joining something you have never done or draw a picture of your foot.
I was never much of a joiner--so that might be better or the foot.. don't appreciate it enough and i really should-- it has bee very good to me-- and as my friend Joh Mills says "Still Walking".
PS: hope you enjoy the Sunday shares of Isolation Journal, now this weekly gift I happily joined..
Still walking! ❤️
Reader: she signed up for the course! 😃 This afternoon will be the fourth session of the clay hand building course, and it’s been such FUN! Allowing myself permission to play has been healing and empowering. I’m so grateful for the serendipitous nudge from Suleika. 🤍
Yay yay yay!
Yes! So happy to hear it. ❤️
I identify so much with this piece, today!
My entire month of April was about this — new and recovered ways of seeing the world and getting it down — with graphite and charcoal, which are not (or have not been, historically) mediums of strength for me. I’ve learned so much… about perspective, detail, language vs. visual brain, the way resistance (and flow!) feels in the body, and so much more than I can even say. It’s been powerful and transformative!
❤️❤️❤️
I have never liked my feet. They are long and very narrow which has made finding "cool" shoes challenging if not impossible. In high school, I had a shoe salesman laugh at the narrowness of my feet which certainly didn't help my own self judgement. Now, I'm 70 and I have huge bunions on both feet making them even more unglamorous. But the shoe industry has changed and over the years, I have found shoes I love that fit my feet and are comfortable. Last year, I even found cool boots so I bought three pairs. I regret hating my feet....they have walked, ran, hiked and swam for 70 years. They have done well by me.
❤️❤️❤️
Hey my feet buddies you’ve blow up a bit with edema after our hernia surgery and I’m trying to support you with p/t, acupuncture, walking, my shaman giving us a healing. The swelling has gone down but you still let me know you’re around with some pain in my feet that causes me to get out of bed and walk and put on pressurized stockings. I take care of you guys like I would if you were my children. Because of this unexpected swelling I’m walking more, on treadmill more, and of course more dancing. I support you my amazing feet because you’re my feet, I love you, and you take me to amazing places
Oh, I hope your feet continue to mend, Sherri!
Thanks for your kindness Carmen
I have two feet that are fully operational. Not without flaws; they both tingle at times, courtesy of the Cisplatin and Docetaxel that did their business to fix a cancer but left troubled nerves in their wake.
I appreciate my feet for all they do for me, knowing that for some a disability means they must find other ways to get around.
Right Foot has never suffered the indignities of sprains like its mirror left twin, which was bruised and traumatized twice when its foolish owner/operator rushed on the stairs.
Right Foot is the most capable, the one used to kick balls as a child. It’s the most effective for stepping on a spider—though only when necessary--as it hates killing like the human it’s attached to.
It has worn baby shoes and Mary Janes, too-tight high heels that brought on bunions, floppy sandals and rugged hiking boots. Right now it’s ensconced in its favorite black socks and knock-off Birckenstocks, so warm and comfy, here at home where it most likes to be.
If I could draw Right Foot it would be as it was long ago; the skin smooth and delicate, with tiny button toes, back before time and a million miles of walking left it lumpy and wrinkled and streaked with blue veins. Or maybe I would draw it as it is now, with reverence for its mottled appearance, the result of decades of service to this grateful body.
Love this appreciate for both the youthful foot and the one that has a bit of a patina :)