So Many Shoes

Flip flops.

Tennis shoes.

Knee-high boots.

More tennis shoes.

Strewn across my front entryway.

There are only three of us who live here (technically 2.5 now with Ryder off to college).

But the pile of shoes might make you think otherwise.

I feel like I'm constantly picking them up and putting them away.

Or trying to not trip over them. And not always successfully.

My shoes have been pretty much the same size for the last 30ish years.

But the boys...that's a different story.

It doesn't feel like that long ago when there were tiny little shoes in the pile.

I look at the giant man-sized shoes in it now and my heart is both happy and sad.

Like their feet, these boys have grown so much in the last 19 years.

So many shoes they've worn on their journey.

Baby booties, tiny little shoes that lit up when they ran, baseball and football cleats, hiking boots and tennis shoes, flip flops and slippers and rainboots too.

Each pair of shoes worn on a different adventure.

Some of them worn so many times that the soles came apart or the big toe stuck out through the hole in the top.

You can tell which shoes are their favorite by how worn out they are.

One day, not that far away from now, that pile in the entryway will be much smaller.

There will be fewer shoes to trip over, straighten, or put away.

Less dirt tracked in from the garage. Less mess and clutter.

Less teenage laughter coming up through the vents from the basement.

Less.

But also more.

More life. More experiences.

More shoes that they'll buy after they are out on their own.

Shoes that will create piles in their own entryways. Shoes that will take them on new adventures.

So many shoes.

So many memories.

I'm grateful for all of them.

Every single pair.

Visit my author page on Amazon

Check out my new book that came out in September!

Or find my book at Barnes and Noble

And at our local Oconomowoc Bookstore - Books & Company