Sand in my shoe

A friend came to Barbados on holiday and invited me to go walking with her at her favourite beach here - Browne’s Beach.  I happily agreed and showed up on that particular morning outfitted in a cap, rash guard and surf shoes.

The cap and rash guard were to protect me from the sun in addition to the sun protection lotion I had liberally applied, and the surf shoes were to protect my feet from broken bottles, bottle caps or sharp rocks.

The first half of the walk was done at a good pace as we chatted.  We paused about midway so that I could get some water, and then continued.  As we walked, I could feel something rubbing in my shoes, so I walked at the water’s edge hoping for relief.  As I walked, the discomfort grew into sharp pain and only then did I stop to take my shoes off, discovering not one but two friction cuts on one foot and a third on the other!

I felt silly as I finished the last quarter of the walk barefoot acknowledging that there had been no harm-causing litter on the beach nor sharp rocks.  I’d injured myself in my effort to protect myself from a non-existent threat.

 Later that night I also realised that I could have prevented the injuries if I had paid attention to the initial feeling that something was wrong.

How often do we harm ourselves by firing a pre-emptive strike waiting for an attack that never happens?  How often do we find ourselves recovering from hurt because we choose to ignore the early warning signs?

Today let’s resolve to learn from the past in order to do better going forward, to pay attention to our instincts, and not to spend life afraid of what could go wrong but to make decisions based on the actual conditions before us.