Sole Searching

Have you ever felt like you were walking on nails?

My feet have been moving constantly since I got here. I commend those people without a car. I have been walking city blocks between bus stops and up to the top of King Albert Park Hill daily. I trek the hot asphalt hill from the Thai Embassy on Orchard Rd to the American Club, for more of a work out and a coffee. I have been dancing down at Clark Quay to live Cuban music. Hiking the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and Macritchie Resevoir and strolling through the tree shaded park of Fort Canning. I have been getting lost among the bustling urban Singapore sidewalks crowded with anxious vendors and shoppers.

During Thaipusam festival, I even made the sacred journey barefoot from Sri Veeramakaliammam Temple in Little India, to Sri Thendayuthapani Temple on Tank Rd with the hindu devotees as they carried kavadis (offerings) as little as a jug of milk atop their head, to some as tormenting as walking on shoes made of nails, and/or piercing spears through their arms, foreheads, cheeks, tongues and backs.

The soles of my feet have been beaten by the street and then reconditioned, ready for anything, thanks to a few reflexology treatments at Holland Village. The first two weeks here in Singapore my skin became very soft from the humidity and I suffered through stinging blisters. Now calloused and used to the heat I am walking around like a local, venturing into chinatowns, buddhist temples and traditional hutongs (narrow alleys) where people selling local produce and Chinese New Year decoration hardly speak english and try their hardest to make a dollar. One Indian woman stooped as low to tell me that my ankles looked boring in order for me to buy a jingling anklet. Despite shallow selling tactics to boring ankled tourists, there is an evident respectable tight knit community that take care of each other and you can see and feel it when you are there.

Walking is good for the soul. Whether we are walking in nature, or the concrete jungle it gives us a chance to turn on our awareness and be an observer of the world around us. While we are walking we can also be mindfully idle, simply not thinking at all, in a moving meditation, advancing through space and time peacefully. Occasionally we bump into each other which reminds us we are not alone, and this gives us a chance to be apologetic and grateful for one another and the gift we have been given, life.