A mile in her shoes

How does that quote go?  Something like..

"You can tell a lot about a man by the condition of his shoes"

I looked down at my very raggedy boots and a bit of shame sorta crept up my neck.

Over shoes.

I've only had them a few years and they are seriously trashed. The heel is peeling and worn down, leather scratched, toes scuffed.

(Shouldn't a woman of a certain age take care of her shoes)

(or herself?)

(don't tell me it didn't cross your mind)

I do a little flashback in my mind..

Climbing through bushes, down banks, through fields, water, rocks, train tracks, churches and city streets doing what I love the very best.. walking along side the people I'm blessed to call friends, family and clients.

I have literally walked through the bottom of my paint splattered Birkenstocks.  This makes me think of summer, the very best of seasons.. the paint, of a much harder time.. the selling of our sweet little house.

Bitter sweet.

Just like life.. a little bit of sugar and a little bit of sadness.

Now when certain people see these shoes they don't know all of this.. your story, my story.. some just think.. "Jeez, Amber really needs a new pair of boots."

I do this to others as well.

A rush to judgement. No respect for their story, past.. heck even a bad morning.

We see the outside, the drive-by, the dirty shoes..

Humans can be so utterly cruel over funny little things like scruffy shoes, broken hearts, limping marriages, brands of purses, wayward kiddos... quick to judge, quick to distance.

It's hard, I know.

Sometimes the person with scruffy shoes really IS a horrible person, an easy target.

While it feels (temporarily) oh-soooooo good to be horrible right back..

(I mean heck maybe even they said something about your shoes first.. THE NERVE!!!)

I would dare to venture that the horrible scruffy shoe wearer is nursing some pretty deep pain and desperately trying to hide a major case of insecurity, longing for acceptance in a nasty cold world.

(or even just in Snohomish)

It's hard. I know. Because sometimes people are just mean.

It could also be the opposite.. maybe we are taken with a pair of fancy boots or some strategic name dropping. Smitten by a college degree, big parties and "my kid runs a heck of a fast 40..." type person.

Maybe we did a drive by judgement of their personality ALSO based on the wrong traits.. only to find out that just like the guy with the scruffy boots everyone loves to hate.. they too are ugly underneath all that Gucci.

It's hard. I know. It's easy to become fixated on the fancy, flashy things.. the tickling of the ears, ego boost that feeds all the wrong parts of our souls and regardless of the price tag, can be equally as nasty.

Our shoes, cars, and yes, even those social media post that make you want to punch a brother in the face are not always a true reflection of what is on the inside, what the heart begs for, what hurts we are trying to overcome and don't even get me started on how increasingly hard it is to find our true north in the rapidly changing landscape of 2017. (how is that for a run on sentence?!)

In my experience, regardless if they wear Prada or Payless there is always a little something more to the story.