Comfort Before Beauty

I give quite a bit of thought to what I put on my body. One of my rules of thumb is that “life is too short to wear uncomfortable shoes”!

I first came to embrace this when I had changed careers back in the early 90s–I had changed from education to business. I was involved in our family furniture store and began to wear more professional attire (which included nylons and heels.). After a few years, I was re-evaluating my career choice yet again and listing out the pros/cons of returning to teaching. At the top of the list was “wear comfortable shoes”.

You see, just weeks before, we had experienced a hail storm in Beaver Dam. I took my car to a drive-in tent that my insurance company set up to handle all of the claims. As I sat in a metal folding chair, a woman came and sat next to me. She sat down and took a book out of her purse. I sat and silently appraised her. Leggings and tunic sweater with fun hand-painted tennis shoes. The look screamed TEACHER!

I wanted so bad to talk to her. Instead, I envied her comfort and flair from afar. I was jealous of her casual style. I knew students would love her shoes and colleagues would compliment her. 

Clothing has always been an important expression of personal style for me. Back in High School, I loved the fact that mom and I shared clothes. I could mix and match tops/bottoms/sweaters/shoes to the degree that I rarely wore the same combination twice during a school year. 

Now, in this stage of my life,  I still give a  lot of thought to my clothing choices. Even though I’m retired and taking online classes, I still have a routine that I get dressed down to my shoes every morning. I love to wear dresses and leggings on a daily basis. Scarves help to change up my look and keep me warm.

As I think of warmth, it makes me think about exercising outdoors in Wisconsin in the winter. Recently, when I was talking to a friend in Texas, she related that it was too cold to take her dog for a walk. I noted that it was 30 degrees colder here and I had walked my dogs!

You see, a couple of years ago I was in Norway, I learned that there is no bad weather–only inappropriate clothing choices. So as I head out on my daily walk with Stella and Evie, I bundle up with fleece leggings, hiking pants, a long-sleeved t-shirt, jacket, Thinsulate vest, gloves, hat neck gather, and balaclava. I’m appropriate, warm, and vibin’.

The one item that I forgot to mention was my footwear–Columbia hiking boots. There were the most comfortable and most expensive boots when I bought them.

But it is the comfort that counts!

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