Grubby Feet Make Me Smile
A love letter to dirty feet, cheap cameras, and slowing the hell down.
Grubby Feet Make Me Smile
A love letter to dirty feet, cheap cameras, and slowing the hell down.
Hiya fellow human,
Last week, I wrote to my younger self. A letter about ADHD, dyslexia, and how much we’ve had to unlearn to see ourselves clearly.
This week, I’m writing from the middle of it , inside the buzz, the body, the softening.
Two images for you this week: my feet, and a wee triptych of shots from California, back in March 2024.
Shot on a daft little Kodak half-frame camera. 72 shots per roll. It loves black-and-white film. Needs loads of light, but the wee flash helps.
Barefoot walking might be my favourite thing about summer. Sand, gravel, cold floorboards, even warm mud. Weird at first, yet oddly delightful.
Turns out I take a lot of photos of my feet. Maybe because they remind me I’m not just a head on a stick.
When life ramps up and my head starts buzzing, I take off my shoes. That simple contact tells my body: you’re safe. Something in me settles.
Right now, there’s a voice in my head going, “Mike, they’re going to think you’re a raging hippy.”
Which begs the question, why write it?
Maybe because I need the reminder myself.
The past month’s been full on. Packed schedule, lots to deal with and sit with personally. At times my mind has been so damn fast that sitting still felt like too much. I’d get this sort of fuzzy feeling in my head, then my ears would start to ring. A sign, in the Somatic Experiencing world, of dissociation.
Like I mentioned last week, Somatic Experiencing is a way of working with the nervous system, especially when your body taps out before your brain does. I’ll write more on that soon, but there are some links below if you're curious.
Now, I know we can't all go barefoot depending on where we live or what our schedule looks like. And somatic therapy isn’t about escape. It gives you tools that work anywhere , even in busy, urban, high-speed spaces.
What I’ve noticed is this: a lot of the buzziness was coming from finally getting productive again. After years of feeling stuck, it’s been energising to make, do, move.
But I’ve got a habit. When I find flow, I don’t cruise. I floor it. Fifth gear. Then burnout.
The trap is, it feels good at first. Getting things done becomes addictive. But eventually, I lose touch with the signals underneath. More to do. More than I can hold. I end up just feeling like a passenger, watching it all happen , vacant, slightly above myself, not quite in my body, not quite touching the ground.
Somatic work and support from Darius, the coach I mentioned last week, have helped me notice when I start to feel that edge, that acceleration in my system. I’m learning to feel the signals earlier.
One of the things that’s really helped is tracking energy by colour-coding my day. One colour for deep work, one for self-care, one for social things. Seeing the mix gives me a heads-up: am I actually in balance, or if somthing is out of wack
Fresh off a flight from New Zealand, head buzzing, ears ringing , I walked. Barefoot, camera in hand, something in me softened.
The ringing eased. I had more energy, less need to disappear into a sofa.
I think it’s a testament to how walking around with a camera and no phone helps me drop out of my head and into my body. It lets me switch lenses. I see more, take in more, but I’m not overwhelmed by it.
I’d totally forgotten about this roll of film. It held over four months of memories. Seeing them again was such a sweet surprise.
I’ve popped a link to the gallery below. It’s just a raw dump of shots (okay, I took out a few of the real stinkers).
Until next time, you lovely humans,
Big love,
Mike
Links & Resources
Half Frame photo gallery: Life on 1/2 frame
Workplace Strategy coaching (Darius): https://www.ivvi.app/ai-mindmapping
P.S.
Expect big ideas and small typos. This was sent with a wee smattering of dyslexia and a lot of heart.
Written by me, with a little help from AI to keep things clear.
So relatable!