Swish, swish, swish….

Everything has to start somewhere, sometime; otherwise it never started, and never was. So with the words of swish, swish, swish I begin my description of the sequence of events, of thoughts that I’ve had. I get amazed on how words can communicate what we have in our thoughts, and how we feel.

I was in Sao Paulo last week, went to a concrete conference to see what is going on in the concrete market of South America. The day after, I went to a Bourbon Festival at Sao Paulos “Central Park.” I was accompanied by Ryan, a Californian born American. As we were going through the park., I notice that one of my air bubbles from my shoes had popped., I felt uneven. As I walked, I felt that my left leg was way lower than my right one, I had an unnatural, unconscious strut. Not mentioning the amount of pain that it was causing my hips, I decided to POP the air pocket from my right shoe. Who in Sao Paulos “Central Park” would have a knife with them?

Ryan and I approached this outside vendor, and after 4 minutes of trying to explain that we need a knife, she asked us for what. There was not a second, that she lost sight of either Ryan or I. I moved, her eyes moved. Ryan moved, and she moved her head.....

Nevertheless we got the knife. As I holded the knife in my hand, it was difficult for me to make the decision to stab my shoes air bubble. Who in the world would willingly ruin their shoes?

Would you pop your shoes air bubble, just to make it even with the other shoe?

The more I thought of it, the more I did not want to do it. But I knew it had to be done. I took the knife in my hand, I took my shoe off, I placed the tip of the knife on top of the air bubble and I pressed. To make things worst the damn knife would not go through, the rubber was to strong.

I pressed.
I pressed.

It went through. It was finished.

Not believing what I had done, I put my shoes back on and walked. Two minutes later I realized that I had made the right decision. I was now walking even again; I no longer had an unnatural strut.

This even made me think of how things may be in life., and how at times it maybe required that we do something that we don’t want to do to balance our lives - giving something up for our benefit, our comfort, so it may not hinder our growth.

Swish, swish, swish, swish…as I walk around Curitiba, I get reminded of the decision I made last week.