Let the cobbler stick to his last

While walking in a popular street of Seville, I suddenly passed near a small shoes repair shop… This modern shop has nothing to do with the one in my old memories, when my sister and I, both holding my mother´s hands, were accompanying her to take some shoes to be fixed. “Get a bag, we are taking all these shoes to have their soles and heels replaced”. The shoemaker, we are talking about, was a man of few words, nevertheless his face was that of a nice and honest person or at least this is how my very young mind recalls him…he was wearing a dirty apron, sitting on a small wooden chair, very low, almost on the floor, surrounded by piles of shoes… of different styles…all MIXED UP…

I clearly remember that every time we visited him, I used to think…” How can he possibly manage to find the right pair of shoes in that mess…? It is very simple and the same happens to all of us, because our mind has the powerful ability to PUT ORDER WHERE APPARENTLY THERE IS ONLY CHAOS… each one of us has ORDER AND STRUCTURE…as the one who is apparently ORGANIZED …as much as the one who is apparently DISORGANISED.

It is very true, that the space in which we live, says a lot about our MENTAL SPACE…and this are not my words; as a matter of fact the best example can be found in the millennian Taoist principle of the FENG SHUI: the ORDER in a place is vital, this allows the ENERGY to flow freely. It is exactly this order, that moves and recycles energy and gives us the access, through our senses, to that HARMONY and WELLBEING, we are often unable to explain, but they definitely invade us completely…At the end of the day… it does not make any difference…we do not know either how the television works…it is all so practical that we just need to press a button and it switches on …more or less like a COSMIC REQUEST, instantly satisfied through the MAGIC LAMP with three wishes…and in these modern days the equivalent of AMAZON…where things need to be really bad if you search for something and AMAZON is unable to fulfill your request in a blink…

Feng shui

Going back to the FENG SHUI, which I find very interesting, it is not a matter of having the house almost empty or only with the essentials…it works in the same way if you like houses with a more baroque style…let us go for it…plenty of other choices…shoes, people and furniture too!

The whole idea is about placing the objects in ORDER AND IN CONCRETE POSITIONS, so that everything is in EQUILIBRIUM, THE YIN AND THE YANG, THE MASCULINE AND THE FEMININE, THE GOOD AND THE EVIL…as always, we go back to the PRINCIPLE OF POLARITY…we live in the WORLD OF DUALISM, WE LEARN AND BECOME AWARE THROUGH OPPOSITES…it is impossible to know the concept of night without the day …or to know I like more potatoes than sweet potatoes, if I had not tried their taste before…

Marvellous variety

I focus my eyes on the image of that shoemaker, of my childhood, on that large amount of shoes, high heels…flat soles…for gentlemen…for ladies…for children…buttoned shoes…summer shoes, winter shoes… A MARVELLOUS VARIETY…AN AMAZING ORDER AND CHAOS OF EACH ONE OF THEM.

Analyzing the proverb I love, which gives title to the present post, LET THE COBBLER STICK TO HIS LAST or better EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND ME FOR MYSELF…we should stop putting ourselves in trouble by JUDGING and looking with a magnifying glass what other people do or do not do…we have enough already with WEARING OUR OWN SHOES DAILY. Instead, we should dedicate a moment to FEEL IF THEY ARE TIGHT and avoid tormenting ourselves by wearing those high heels and pointed shoes despite being aware, they only hurt our feet…but very careful with the situation of THOSE TIGHT SHOES…they are clearly telling us, how we TREAT OURSELVES…I do not know anything about you, but I have reached a point in which I DO WHAT I LIKE NO MATTER WHAT PEOPLE SAY. Even though I still love wearing beautiful shoes I go with my flow and I wear my home slippers without shame when I use the car to take my son somewhere …anyway…I do not need to get out of the car…and if I had to…who cares!

You have chosen better shoes for your feet

Well…this post has been a bit chaotic…as it contains many contradictions…this is me… I really wish that you are now very comfortable in your FENG SHUI´S CHOICES OR NOT, THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN BETTER SHOES FOR YOUR FEET… BUT MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL…LET THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU MAKE HER/HIS OWN CHOICES.

At the end of the story…what IS RIGHT OR WHAT IS WRONG…IS IT NOT ONLY DICTATED BY OUR OWN CONSCIENCE?

Let the cobbler stick to his last