My mother is a Shaman.  In New Zealand she is a Matakite or Seer, in other words she is psychic with all sorts of other super powers which are completely true, I shit you not, I have seen all of them in action.  
She became a proper Shaman (I guess she was one all the time but it was given another name) when she started working in Europe with other such similar folk from around the world.  Now Shaman are usually men and sometimes they have no earthly gender.  That is a fact.  And Shaman use various methods to reach a state of euphoria where they can reach the plain on which they can commune with all the esoteric levels of the natural and super-natural world.  Now I am floundering here, as this is as much as I know about the rest of them.
My mother, however, doesn't need to do any of that stuff to be able to reach any sort of bridge etc to the 'other' place.  She doesn't have to drink sugar alcohol, smoke peyote, munch on hash, magic mushroom, snort fungus...she doesn't have to because is connected to all levels of conciousness and existence all the time.
I suppose its like being able to simultaneously exist in all the multiverses as the same person.  Because in one Universe she is a billion different people.
Anyway, this isn't a discussion about my mother it is about her partner Dave, well one of the aspects of Dave that we, he and I, share.  Our aversion to shoes.

Dave doesn't wear shoes.  And he has been all over the world not wearing shoes.  
Much to my mothers chagrin.
I really don't know why Dave doesnt want to wear shoes, I imagine its because he likes having the soles of his feet touch the skin of Papatuanuku.   Which is a wonderful idea if your feet have the ability to harden up underneath enough to endure the wear and tear of a all the crap her children, our fellow humans, leave all over the motu.
That's probably where we differ.  
I HATE wearing shoes as they never EVER fit properly because my feet are wide, short and fat which, where I come from, is called Pacific Sizing as opposed to European sizing or more to the point Chinese sizings which are made for a whole OTHER species of people.  
The problem I have is that my trotter like pudgy feet are softer than a ducklings behind and they don't toughen up over time, because that requires being upright and wandering around a lot, which I don't really do being a writer and everything. Oh and being outside.  I don't do that often.
I hate wearing shoes to such an extent that sometimes I don't know what I am wearing down there and I have ended up in places wearing odd shoes, once I wore a sneaker and a slipper, and had to pretend to have injured myself so as to have the right to wear a slipper on one foot, so people wouldn't think I was crazy.  (Well, if you read any of my blog, you have probably noticed that I am crazy and spend most of my time trying to hide it.) 
Hence I don't go anywhere.
Today, I have to wear shoes as I am going to the hospital to have parts of me shaken and prodded.  
Oh yey.  
So I am wearing Jandals (flip flops) the closest I can get to bare feet, which I used to try to bedazzle up a bit with beads, crystals and silk butterflies or other crapola like that...but now I can't be arsed (I also can't reach down that far anymore either)



As for my Mum being a Shaman Psychic Matakite person all my life.  It is amazing, but she has been the same multi dimensional person all my life.  You tend to stop seeing how amazing people are after a while, especially the ones that give birth to you.  But from my point of view, as a child, try being 9 and sitting in a living room watching Kenny Everett when a load of strangers begin to arrive for readings and Dad, shyest man in the world turns off the TV and has to interact with these people, now that's love - not that I noticed at the time I was just annoyed he turned off Kenny Everett.


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