HER OLD SHOES

 

Of all the things he loves about her…of those he can and cannot see…he loves how emotional…how nostalgic…how sentimental she can be.

He loves how in the big and in the small things in life her sentimentality is infused…which is why he understood her tears…as she gazed at her new shoes.

Her old shoes were showing their age…from all those years of being worn…they were weathered around the edges…and the toe of one was torn.

But her new shoes still sat in the closet…she hadn’t worn them yet….it seems her old shoes were full of memories she was not yet ready to forget.

But it was time…she knew it…and she knew the reason why…her old shoes were ready to be retired…it was time to say goodbye.

She looked at her new shoes then to her old shoes….and thought of all the times lived in between…all the places those old shoes had taken her…all the things, together, they had seen.

“My old shoes are like old friends.” She said. “They’ve earned a place in my affection.   And just like a pair of old friends…I’ve learned to look past their flaws and imperfections.”

“There is a comfort you develop with old friends…an enjoyment you never want to lose.”

She said…a tear dropping to her cheek as she held up her old shoes.

I imagine she was thinking how one pair marks the end of a journey…the other where a new one begins…when suddenly a thought crossed her mind…and her face evolved into a grin.

“I bet these old shoes have one memory left.” She smiled. “One more walk, one more run, one more climb.” Then she slipped then on and laced them up for what would be their one last time.

Yes, this os one of the things he loves about her he thought…as off the beaten path they traversed…

how the last walk in a pair of old shoes can make her as happy as the first.