Pieces of Us 2021 | Day One

This week, for the second year, I am participating in a self-portrait challenge extended by Ali Edwards called Pieces of Us. The goal is to get in front of the camera and take at least one self-portrait per day following a prompt. You can learn all about it over on Ali’s blog. I loved this project last year and enjoyed the challenge of taking creative self-portraits each day and I am very excited to tackle it again this year.

Each day I hope to share my words and photo(s) from the previous day’s prompt here on my blog. I hope you will follow along and consider joining in the challenge yourself, if you’re not already participating.

---

Pieces of Us | Feet

Today my feet are taking me on my longest walk in 54 days, 1.32 miles. This is the longest I’ve gone without walking or running since my 1 mile a day practice in March of 2018. My feet feel good in these new trainers that I bought back in January for my runs and haven’t gotten a chance to wear. As my feet pound the pavement and carry my out-of-practice body through the neighborhood I am grateful for a sunny day and finally being able to cover some distance and walk on my own after recovering from my gallbladder surgery a few weeks ago. I am beginning to trust my feet to carry me through the world safely after many years of clumsy movement and sprained ankles. Today they knew exactly the route to take, exactly how much movement and intensity I could handle, and to take it easy. 

My feet are quite accustomed to being propped up here in this position on the ottoman after two months of basically living in this spot during my illness and subsequent recovery. This morning my feet are happy to be wrapped up in a pair of the best socks I’ve ever owned, Bombas. My feet have never felt as pampered as they do in these socks and I am currently working to replace all my socks with Bombas brand socks. My toes are a little chilly as the cool air blows in through the open windows. I’m increasingly grateful for the ability to work from home, with my feet propped up, in my coziest socks, with my sleeping pup in view – especially in this particular season of my life when my health has been challenging.

My feet are happiest when they are unencumbered by shoes and socks. When they can feel the warmth of the sun beating down on them. When they have deep tan lines from either my Birkenstock or Chaco sandals. My feet are happy to greet sandal weather this week even if we have sort of forgotten how to walk in sandals – there’s always an adjustment period. 

I am 41 years old and just bought my very first pair of Vans. I saw someone on Instagram wearing a similar pair and they looked so cute that I took the plunge and ordered them online. They just arrived and I already love them a lot. These will replace an older pair of Converse that I have had for a while, but no longer love. I may or may not have also bought a few new pairs of Bombas no-show socks to go with these cuties!

Happy Pieces of Us week! Come back tomorrow to check out my words and photo(s) for the next prompt!