Put on Your Big Boy Boots

Put on Your Big Boy Boots

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

I have a love affair with boots, though perhaps you may have noticed this. They make me feel solid in a way that other shoes cannot. A sneaker says casual, a sandal says laid back, but a boot means business. These boots, however, are rather special for no reason other than I am in love with them.

You see, they have rather boyish attributes to them, providing the balance to my usual array of lace and soft layers. I can wear them with any dress I own. They are the yin to my lace yang. Soft enough to not create harsh lines against whispering skirts. They are responsible for nostalgic memories of forest adventures in years gone past. I remember my childhood.

When I was but a girl my brothers would get their yearly "big boy boots," which were really just work-boots that looked like my Dad's rustic soles he used for gardening, car repairs, and fieldwork. Tiny feet pattered around in these big boy boots. I can remember heaters and hot soups and flannel shirts. I remember sunny gardening days, the picking of plump, sweet blackberries, the splashing of rain against overgrown blades of grass.

The shoes often remind me of these days, though perhaps mine are a tad more fashionable than what my brothers wore. Either way, whenever I think to wear them, I look down at my darling toes and see big boy boots standing in the summer grass and somehow, there are always those memories.

Boots, even the work-boot type, are typically reserved for non-summer months unless one is doing, well, work, but I think boots are really an every time shoe. There is something about a good boot that a sandal or sneaker cannot replicate. And so I wear them all year - with tights, with knee socks, with lace anklets touching bare skin.

And so I put on my big boy boots whenever I want to get out into the world. Whenever I want to walk the busy downtown streets. Whenever I want to wander into the sunshine or waltz into the woods. Whenever there are crunchy leaves creating a rug in my driveway or little puddles glimmering in the road. Somehow, just that little touch of menswear, I feel powerful.

What insignificant thing takes you down memory lane?

Stay Beautiful,

XOXO Liz

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