More than new shoes

Deity is everywhere. Blessedness is everywhere. Seeing goodness in everyday life, drawing it into where we are, calling it by name is one way we can be part of healing the world.  

A couple of days ago I was at REI, trying on hiking boots. My current shoes - well, they have a big X cut on both shoes, to give space to my bunions and my aging feet. Cut out with a big knife by Perry, our Navajo guide in Canyon de Chelle a couple summers ago. He cut right through the leather and mesh when our group stopped for a water break. Better to cut out the shoes, I figure than cut off my bones with surgery. So my feet feel better now, except in a rain storm. And of course, plenty of dust makes its way inside too - tough on socks when washing is at a minimum on long hikes. 

So I was on the hunt for new shoes with an extra-wide toe box. I laced on the Salomons - ahhhhhhh. I walked up and down the climbing rock to check the fit on downhill. Feeling the spaciousness, not just of my feet, but of everything -- the beauty of the shoe makers, the spaciousness of the places I might go in these shoes, the skies I would walk under, the ground I would touch. I was supremely thankful.

I guess I was staring across the room. A young man, a clerk in the shoe department, looked up at me, standing there on the rock. He had been busy all the while, helping folks get the right shoes. 
What inspired him to call out to me, is another beautiful mystery.

He said "What are you thinking about?"
I looked down at him - what a funny thing to say to someone trying on shoes!
"You are looking so far away," he said.
It was true. I wasn't looking at anything, just taking in the gestalt of the moment.
"I was watching all the people here being tended to, being cared for. People like you helping them, tending to them, and the people being cared for. 
It is so beautiful."