A Tale of Two (pair of) Shoes and a Prince

Once upon a time, there was a single young, beautiful, vibrant middle aged mother who lived with her teenage daughter & four superior beings cats. She worked very hard at her day job, her art and keeping their home neat and tidy. She had been struggling for many months with ongoing health issues and some days it was simply all she could do to make it home; get the dinner done; take a warm shower and curl up with a good book to relax. Sadly, that type of relaxation is not condusive to maintaining any sort of waistline unless you consider resembeling the Pilates ball an acceptable shape.

Oh, She tried to be kind to her big fat toucas her middle aged body by following yogi but was disillusioned to find out that instead of follwing a stretching program; she was mistakenly following the ramblings of a friendlier than average bear who was enamoured with picnic baskets.

She finally decided to make a concerted effort to clean up her act and clear off her treadmill and start using it again (as something other than a place to rest her feet while doing hand sewing work at the card table).

She remembered why she placed it in front of her windows to the backyard. She remembered planting things specifically with her viewing pleasure in mind from the height of the running pad. Watching the birds backlit from the sun with their wings laced with gold flitting to and from the loquat tree and bird feeder was something she could watch for hours with a smile on her face. And this year; a pair of bush tits had decided to think so much of her unwillingness to rip out a wandering vine beautiful landscaping they have made a lovely hanging nest in it.


These tiny imps of birds only measure 3 to 4 inches from the tip of their 1/4 inch beak to the end of their tiny tails. The are darling & travel the neighborhood in small groups leap frogging from plant to plant; tree to tree; to glean tiny insects and building materials. They are not quiet and their chirps sound more like tiny ray gun bursts and with each chirp the tail and wings snap. How adorable is this tiny ball of fluff? She has been head over heels in love for many weeks now.

Photo courtesy of Carl Schmidt

With the advent of Spring; it seemed to her the right time to get started on improving her overall health now that her chemical levels were, well, level. With renewed determination she vowed to start at the beginning doing what she really liked, just walking on her treadmill and losing herself in the meanderings of her mind while watching the bird tv in her yard. She told herself that she need only walk for 15 to 20 minutes per day to start but as she always knew; this reeled into at least an hour she found such enjoyment in it. "The trick" she told herself "is getting on to just do the 20 minutes first."

After a week or so of being on target and walking 3 miles each day; her legs were starting to give her some pings. Not because they were sore from lack of excersize (though there certainly was some of that) but as she thought; she probably needed new shoes. She'd been wearing the same pair for so long she'd lost track of how long she'd actually had them. They were pretty sad indeed.



It had been at least 4 years since she last was devout in her daily treadmill worship. But alas; our heroine (like so many others in the kingdom) were seriously suffering economic hardship and new shoes were not on any horizon. Then she remembered something: a Prince, who lived in a far off and dusty hot land was himself a fellow runner had mentioned one time to her that he and his friends donate their old shoes; owing to the fact that as many runners know; you only get about 3 months of serious running out of a new pair if you are running daily. So she had an idea and texted him about where this place might be that she could go and see if they might have a pair with some use left in them (until she herself got back up to speed) and she wouldn't have to ransom her firstborn. The Prince wrote back right away that the shoes were donated but as far as he knew they all went over seas. But he had 'contacts' and he would 'see what he could do'. He enquired as to what size she wore; width & so on. Later that evening she got a text saying that her shoes would be delivered in 2 to 9 days.

You can imagine her surprise when she wrote back how astonished she was that he could locate a used pair of shoes in her size & width on such short notice but he simply said he had gone online and bought her a brand new pair!

Even greater still her amazement when they arrived by post and she put them on the first time. Ahhhh, pure bliss.



It's amazing what a new pair of shoes can do for you, even more amazing when they are athletic shoes. But nothing is so amazing as having a friend who appears so ordinary, so everyday but in reality is a everything a Prince should be. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Rich Owings for being that Prince!