CONVERSATION WITH…A Used Shoe…Struggling with her sparkles

/ overthehillontheyellowbrickroad

Over the Hill on the Yellow Brick Road, I passed a consignment store. I love looking at classic, off beat clothing so I went in. Off in a corner, I noticed a pair of shoes covered with sparkles shoved in a shoe bag. Why were those gorgeous shoes stuffed in the back of the store?  I started a conversation…

sparkle shoes

Hey sparkly shoes, I totally love you! You’d look amazing with a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. Why are you sitting back here by yourself?

SPARKLY SHOES: Well, since we’re Over the Hill on the Yellow Brick Road, all the customers who come in here are growing older. They’re figuring out where they belong in the world.

Right. I’m one of them. So?

SPARKLY SHOES: So everybody thinks they’re too old to wear sparkles. People who come in the store say sparkles make them look like they’re trying to look younger in a tasteless way, even though they wish they could wear me.

To be honest, I’m struggling with the same thing. I mean, for example, I’d love to wear sparkle eye shadow, but I’m afraid the glitter will get stuck in my wrinkles.

SPARKLY SHOES: Interesting…

And I’d love to wear sparkle nail polish, but I feel on some level I’d be trying to look like a teenager. Or a four year old.

SPARKLY SHOES: Even if you put sparkles on one finger and a solid nail polish color on the other four?

Tried it. There’s still something that doesn’t feel quite right about it.

SPARKLY SHOES: It’s going to be hard for me to hear this, but, what’s your problem with sparkly shoes?

As I grow older, my feet are more particular. It’s much harder to find shoes that are comfortable. So, the thought of trying to find shoes that don’t hurt AND have sparkles seems like an impossible dream.

SPARKLY SHOES: This is depressing me.

Don’t get me wrong. I love sparkles. They tap right into my playful, elegant, side. I just can’t figure out when, where and how to wear them. I’m in the middle of the process.

SPARKLY SHOES: So then let me ask you a question. While you’re trying to find your comfort level with sparkles, what am I supposed to do with my life? I still want to bring joy into the world. I’m not getting any younger either.

How about this? You could sit by a window.

SPARKLY SHOES:  Sit by a window? Why? What would I do there?

Make rainbows. 

SPARKLY SHOES: Are you serious?

Yes. Go ahead. Try. it. 

rainbow shoe 1

rainbow shoe 2

SPARKLY SHOES: Wow!!!!  Omg! Awesome!

I know!

SPARKLY SHOES: I never knew I had it in me! I guess no matter how old we get, we can find inner beauty and bring it into the world.

For a shoe, you’re impressively cerebral.

Copyrightoverthehillontheyellowbrickroad2018

How do you wear sparkles?

99 thoughts on “CONVERSATION WITH…A Used Shoe…Struggling with her sparkles”

  1. 😂😂😂 I love this. And I love sparkles. I went through this face where I thought I was outgrowing sparkly things but then I thought, what rule book is that in?! I love sparklies and I’ll be wearing them when I’m 73. Love those shoes!

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  6. It is far better to light the world with sparkles than to fear the darkness! Now, go put on those shoes and do a sparkle dance…they will thank you. I do too, Thank-you!

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  15. I think I have a lot to write here, Cathi 🙂
    Loved those shoes. Sparkles plus those beautiful googly eyes. I just fell for them.
    It sometimes takes another person to actually tell us our worth. Look at the beautiful rainbow made by the shoe. It was so unaware of it’s capabilities while sitting in that pouch in the corner of a shop.
    And most importantly, the material of the show might get older and wither out, but those sparkles and the rainbows will remain intact for a much longer time. Once we discover those inner sparkles, the rainbows that we create using those sparkles will touch many lives and will linger on much after we are gone. May all of us find those inner sparkles and if we are ourselves not able to do that, may we find that one person who can actually get us out of the bag and put us on a window pane so that we discover those sparkles through the rainbows we create.
    I don’t have a sparkly shoe and it has made into my shopping list already.
    Love, Deepa.

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  18. I love a happy ending, Cathi. I have a sparkly scarf I love to wear. And I have some shoes that are very comfortable that have a metallic sheen – does that count? Anyway, what I really want are sneakers that light up when I walk and I don’t even care if someone thinks I’m trying to look like a four year old. Why don’t they make these for adults?

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  19. Ooh! This is soooo lovely! Totally love this conversation! And you know what? Just wear those sparkles whenever you feel like it, I´ve learned that those who wrinkle their noses at you for that actually are totally jealous because you have the guts to dot it! 😀 😉

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  23. Cathi, this one really made me smile! I love how you take such meaningful, thought-provoking topics and weave them into light-hearted stories…Kudos!
    So, I say convention should be avoided at all costs! Let’s wear those sparkles well into our 90s lol….Well, it may be even more accepted in our 90s because society may deem us too crazy to know better at that stage. I just thought of how awesome that would be: having the absolute freedom to act, dress, as we please and no one would think twice of it.
    I digress, as I tend to do….In all seriousness, I think we should wear whatever we damn well please. My mother recently tried on a knee-length skirt (Knee-length, you heard me right??!?) and claimed it was too short for someone of her “age”!!! Oh boy, that made me laugh hard. And this is a woman who has an exceptionally fit body for, dare I say it….”someone of her age” lol….but such is the societal conditioning which she too has absorbed. “It would not be deemed appropriate for an elderly woman to parade about in such a scandalous skirt!!! Too funny.
    The only way we are ever going to break through these imposed barriers to our personal expression is by well, breaking through them and just simply disregarding them. I think like many social constraint, we are our own worst enemies as we help perpetuate and maintain the “status quo” of containment.
    I say “wear those sparkly shoes with pride and pomp”…
    ~Wilde

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    • I have gone through so many phases related to “what I’m too old to wear.” It would be incredibly freeing to dump all those thoughts in the garbage. I went through the “too short skirt” phase and got past it. I went through the “too old for black sequins” phase and got past it. I went through the “weird eye glasses” phase and got through it. Now I’m in the sparkle phase–and three pairs of sparkle shoes in my closet are begging me to wear them. How will I get past this one? I live in the suburbs where people tend to dress somewhat conservatively. Maybe I need to move to a city where “anything goes.” It would be an expensive move just to get over my sparkle obsession, but maybe it’s worth it. LOL (Although… maybe there’s a less complicated way to solve this problem. ) 🙂

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  31. My kids love sparkle shoes because they’re pretty and they, too, discovered they can make rainbows. I like sparkles, too, but like you said it seems it may be hard to find comfortable shoes that are sparkly. Or that you’re trying to hard to look young. But I think subtle sparkle is okay!

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  33. Lol, good morning Cathi! This read made my morning. I love the lashes on Sparkly Shoes, and how each shoe has it own individual personality. Making a rainbow by the window is a good use of time. Thanks for the smiles. 🙂 🙂 🙂 :)…

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  35. I had to come back to this one because it something I so often struggle with. I have clothes that I love that are super comfortable, but Wonder if they make me look silly , like they are for a younger person. I struggle with that concept of what is appropriate for my age a lot. But I find that things have changed so much since I was a young person. The delineation seems to be gone. Everyone wears leggings for example. When I was in my 20s I would not want my mom to wear the same thing I did. My daughter and I both wear leggings for instance. And I wonder where do I fit in?

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    • I wonder where I fit in with that sort of thing too. A few days ago, I noticed someone wearing silver sparkle sneakers–all sparkles. I thought they were cool. They I looked upward and noticed the woman wearing them looked in her late sixties. It didn’t sit right with me–though I’m not proud to say this. Maybe sparkles are cool for “older” women, but not on overload.

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