Steph Abbott Says

I like ugly shoes. Don’t judge me.

I like ugly shoes. Not simply the big, clonking hippie sandal but the whole genre of the ugly shoe. I always have liked them but my courage to wear them rarely stands up. Today that changed, and I’m a bit scared.

Seriously…err…seriously?

Sure. I sound materialistic and self-involved—traits I barely tolerate from my friends or the local espresso jockey. However, I’m being honest. How can you blame a girl for standing up and standing proud in flowered Mary-Janes.

At least I wouldn’t. Why not?

Why chew my nails to the nub, fretting over the big ugly world like the state of affairs in the Middle East or skyrocketing unemployment here at home?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not diminishing their importance on my daily life or their global impact. Both of these issues frighten the cheese whiz out of me! They are as ugly as ugly gets with global ramifications that involve economic and emotional instability, terror and violence. And those are only two of many extremely scary things that do that.

However, those big ugly and scary things are simply beyond my singular and immediate control.

Right now, I’m a working wife and mother. On a daily basis, I witness economic and emotional instability—and occasionally—a terror or two.

During all this local, dirty, laundry-filled ugliness, I rarely find the time for myself. Why not find some individuality when and how I can? Battling ugliness in ugly shoes is quite fitting, no?!

Today, I came to terms with a scary thing…

I realized that I like ugly shoes.

© 2011 Steph Abbott. All rights reserved.

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It is day seven in my March challenge to post daily as part of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). The theme for the month is “In a Word.” I picked “ugly” and then followed the writing prompt, “What’s one thing that scares you right now, and why should you make a real effort to face that fear and do it anyway?”

I took the photo of my new shoes. It’s kind of a boring photo, as finding decent light in my house can be an issue. I was going to dress it up with fancy Photoshop filters. However, I thought, “Why deny the world of the true appearance of these fabulous shoes?”