Well Worn (An Older Fiction Story I Wrote)

         Mr. Morton needed a new pair of shoes. Looking over these well worn shoes he reflected on the stories they told in their broken state. The long walks with his wife before she passed. The marathon run with his brother to help him raise money and awareness for a debilitating disease he carried that needed treatment. The times he traveled to his children and grandchildren's homes, running around the backyards (and various other places) with his grandchildren. The many times he invested in his children with each visit to their homes, and the long walks they would take on occasion around their neighborhoods; stories of moments that spoke loudly to him.

         He thought about those in his neighborhood, like his neighbor Steve that he was able to help with his vehicle when it had to be pushed to his house down the street after it had died (that was a hard task). He considered the many times he traveled to the senior center to simply enjoy a game night with his other friends his age (those were good times that left him smiling for many steps and many years after; even in the present age he lived now). He looked over the old shoes again, the well worn shoes that spoke so many memories through their now painful existence and near demise. "How many times had the shoes brought him so many places, helped him to be a help in so many ways, and invest in so many lives?", he thought to himself as he looked down at these battered shoes again. He paused for a moment in these questions, smiling as he considered how long they had lasted. It would have been easy for him to focus on how much a new pair of much needed shoes would be (and this was a struggle on his fixed income), to look ONLY at what challenges he'd have to adjust to in taking new ways in new shoes that would have to be broken in would be present past the comfortable, but instead his photo album of memories (both of actual pictures in a binder and living pictures of his family and friends around him) still came to his mind. Suddenly he considered these lifeless things that brought such life to him and those around him and a new surprising perspective entered his mind: maybe they needed "rest" too, as he looked once more at their wear and they decided what next steps he'd take.

           The smile soon following after that emerged on his face never left as he transitioned in the purchase of a new pair of shoes. For the joy of new memories, adventures, and stories he would enter into was worth the price he had to pay for a new pair of shoes, ones that would bring about new memories he was excited for, and grow a gratitude for well worn shoes that brought him many places.

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