Family Faith by Selina Venier
TODAY I bought my first pair of Homypeds.
There, I’ve admitted it out loud.
What are they?
I suspect regular readers of this newspaper would likely know and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
I didn’t set out to buy the footwear.
They almost “found me” and were on sale even, bought when I ducked out for essentials with three milliseconds to spare.
Leisurely shopping trips are somewhat of a distant memory.
Actually that memory stretches into the former century.
At present, other priorities, namely people, like Master Three Months and Miss Twelve who’s home schooled, blissfully consume time and attention.
I write “blissful” because it is, for all involved.
As well as being busy and content, it’s fortunate we’ve moved to a rural area with only one decent shoe shop.
That means limited time and money is spent well or not at all.
Of course more than two years ago I wouldn’t have gone near purchasing Homypeds; they are a certain type of shoe for “older ladies”, I thought, and for good reason.
But Homypeds have gone through some kind of transformation; they aren’t altogether too bad.
I recollect our podiatrist, of my generation, saying so some years ago.
The footwear now comes in a range of colours and styles, yes mostly for the “older lady”, but certainly with choices for someone of my “younger” age.
Plus, and this is the thing that won me over, they’re comfortable.
Thanks be to God for comfortable shoes, especially during and post pregnancy.
I still like the bling of fancy shoes, don’t get me wrong, but give me a well-fitting, easy to walk in shoe any day nowadays.
Pondering my purchase I wondered if I’d turned some kind of corner.
I wondered something similar when I began enjoying and even looking forward to listening to the am radio dial as opposed to the fm alternative.
The latter, with the exception of the Christian radio station, just seemed so annoying.
What I really was wondering however was, “Am I getting older?”
Reality is we are all getting older, it happens every day whether we like it or not.
Some choose to accept it, some choose to continue to live in 1981.
I like to live in the present.
Thinking along those lines the perception “all women become their mothers” also reverberated.
While valid for others I don’t believe that’s the evolutionary case with me.
You see, I think I’ve always been my mother, or at the very least, been like her while still being me.
I have her smile, so I’m told, and her penchant to become teary at the drop of a hat.
They aren’t things that have evolved in me but are me, and have always been, as they are her.
I tell my daughters to make sure they “take a jumper” and “eat more vegetables” not because Mum did but because it’s good mothering.
There are things Mum does and says however that I will never likely become or have.
One of those is her taste in shoes.
Mum would never admittingly buy Homypeds.
She’d rather do penance in heels than wear anything that comfortable.
Having faith in God and being part of His Church is a little like buying Homypeds for the first time.
I didn’t set out to be a baptised Catholic as an infant, none of us can or do.
Fortunately, like my purchase at 30 percent off, that happened along the way because of the family I was born into.
The result is an immeasurable comfort I can’t live without.
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