A World without Shoes
It's a wonderful life!
So enjoy it with all your senses. Modern media flood us with vision and
sounds, but these only address a fraction of our potential. Experiencing
life to the full means smelling, tasting and feeling too. Without this,
we could not begin to savour nature's offerings.
The neglected sensory organ
It's probably not very often that you think about your feet as sensory
organs, but beside your mouth and hands, your feet are one of the most
important centres of your sense of touch. However, since our feet are
now imprisoned in shoes, we can do no more than feel blisters and
tightspots. Even worse, we have lost our connection to the earth.
Set your feet free!
Walking barefoot means sensing nature intensively as the widely varying
surfaces demand your full feeling attention and at the same time you
will find that all your other senses are sharpened. This is as much a
part of a rich and active life as the pleasure of unrestricted movement.
So give your feet some quality time and you will feel the effects with
your whole body.
Full sensory ground contact
The highly developed sense of touch in the soles of our feet allows us to
achieve an astonishing intimacy with nature. Together with animals and
plants we sense feelings of softness and harshness, of heat and cold,
of brittle and dried up ground and fresh, stimulating dampness.
Feeling the many varied materials of nature opens up a whole new dimension of experiences. Each material has a special character, which the sense of touch reveals in far more detail than the eyes alone ever could. Without stooping we can play with everything at our feet. Our toes can delve into moss, foliage or soil, they can grasp pebbles and fir cones, pick them up and even throw them into the air.
In touch with nature
The soft step of the soles of our feet neither damages vegetation nor ground,
nor does it frighten other creatures with noise. Walking without shoes
awakes long forgotten feelings, the native instinct for our environment which
permeated other, now forgotten cultures.
- A barefoot walker watches the ground and is therefore much more aware of its nature. He notices plants and animals long before he runs the danger of harming them.
- Without shoes everybody learns to respect thorns and sharp edges of leaves, with which sensitive biotopes defend themselves against unwelcome guests.
- Barefoot walkers would never dream of defiling the ground with rubbish or glass.
- We experience the sealed surfaces of concrete and asphalt as unappealing and have a good reason to plead for unpaved ground in housing areas, near schools, playgrounds, etc.
- A feeling for the beauty of our Barefoot Trail comes from the varied experience of direct contact with nature.
On common ground
Walking as a group can add to the fun as you experience varied natural
surfaces together. There are a range of fun games for the "hands on your legs"
which are not just for children. Walking barefoot can be a marvelous goup
event.
The Barefoot Trail
Townsfolk often have difficulties in finding unpaved, natural ground.
Our passion for nature gave us the idea of founding a Barefoot Trail in
the middle of Lienen, starting at the village pond and taking people
on a 2.5 km (1.6 mile) tour on different terrains.