In His Shoes

As a child, I had the pleasure of running to the foyer to shine my father’s shoes before he left for work every morning. Since I had many siblings, I guarded this chore very carefully, as he smiled and gave me all the change in his pocket for the day. While waiting, I would slip my feet into his shoes, wondering about the future. Shoes are magical. “Being in someone else’s shoes” can transform you, take you out of yourself.

The image of large shoes that cannot fit me comfortably anymore provokes a sense of longing for past realities.  A woman who dreamed in her father’s shoes is now grown, standing in the river of time wrapped around her, reminiscing about the past, but with a reverence for the potent life of the future.