Embrace, Encompass, Encounter, Encourage -All Fine Words For Life Elita Sohmer Clayman

All of us dancers need to take care of our feet. When dancing, we may get bunions or hammertoes or just plain soreness. I have been taking care of my feet for all the thirty-five years I have been dancing. I have been to various podiatrists in my time and my best adventure into foot care has been at the office of Dr. Maurice W.Aiken and his associate Dr. Sharon Siebold.The care there is caring, competent and considerate.

Dr. Aiken has a gorgeous office and each room is designated a room of a country. He has many countries represented and a particular one I admire is the African room where displays of sculpture and paintings show off the different aspects of the nation. His reception room is beautiful and the podiatry assistants Taryn, Fran and Amy are lovely young women.Juli is the competent office manager. You may think what does this have to do with the care given? If you go to an office that looks lovely, it makes you feel more comfortable and at ease. Dr. Aiken and Dr. Siebold are both full of charm and personality and that insures a pleasanter time for your office visit. Of course, their competency in their vocation is the most important part and both of them have great knowledge and are young and keep up to date on the profession’s new ideas and happenings.

I use to know a dancer, we shall call her Marge, when she walked across the floor, she wobbled; when she got up to dance, she floated across the floor with her teacher or her husband. It was amazing to me in those days of about  1985, the difference in her anatomy, that let her dance with great posture and let her walk bent over a bit. I once asked her if she went to a podiatrist for care, I asked it nonchalantly          and she said why? I told her I did and maybe he could ease up some of her ‘pain.’ I had to be quite reserved when I mentioned it, because she and I were only acquaintances by taking a dance lesson at the same time period.

I let it go at that and one day a few months later, she told me she had taken my advice and been to the doctor and he helped her with insertions in her shoes and that made her walk more upright and with more ease.
 

I heard the Orioles manager Buck Showalter say after the Orioles had won last night the following words “the player was waiting to embrace himself.” A good slogan, we should all embrace anything that pleases us, helps us and entices us. I have met many interesting people on my internet journey and I heard an expression that said “the biggest risks bring the biggest rewards.” Sometimes taking a risk is risk enough to stop and think about it; yet not to take the risk sometimes can be losing out on something great. I took a risk when over fifty-five years ago, I went out on a blind date with a young fellow and who now has been my husband for fifty-two years. Some people take risks in relocating for a new job, for traveling to a new vacation spot they know little about and even taking a risk getting a medical procedure done that they are not sure will help them or could hinder them.

We all think when we are young, we are invincible. We feel mighty and powerful because we have youth on our side and we also hope there is an angel looking over us. When we get older, we hesitate to try new things and we think twice about it. Thinking is excellent and trying can be equally advantageous.

When we first started to dance, I thought perhaps I will take a few lessons and stop. I did not stop and even until now, I am eager to learn and to perfect what I knew and can still learn.

There is power in learning something new and newness is powerful. I had gone to several different podiatrists in my thirty-five year dancing career. Each one had a different spin on my feet which are not the prettiest in the world. I always give credit to my dear Dad, since he had ugly feet and I feel that I inherited that from him. My toes are somewhat deformed and now from dancing I have corns, bunions, hammertoes and etc. However, it did not stop me from winning fifty-eight trophies, medals and certificates in my dancing competition days. I did not let the aching feet deter me and I continued on.

Now of course, I no longer wear fancy and sparkly high heeled dance shoes. I wear “old lady” tie shoes, but that does not stop me from doing well. Of course, now I am an old lady who is wearing old lady dance shoes and that is OK and perfectly fine.

Dr. Aiken has a slogan “my Aiken feet.” Sure, that is cute, but it is correct. You can have aching feet, toes and all that, but you can still excel, perform and have fun dancing. My solution is do not let your aching feet stop you if you want to dance, try some podiatric assistance or some orthotics in your shoes and do what you feel you can do and let fine podiatrists like Dr.Aiken and Dr. Siebold assist you in your journey to dance, to have fun, to feel good about yourself and most of all, embrace yourself because you took a risk and learned to dance and as the song says “I Could Have Danced All Night.” I can no longer dance all night, but I can dance for a great amount of time and that is delightful. Listen to your mind and do whatever you yearn to do, whether it be dancing, golfing, vacationing in faraway places, learning to play the piano at an advanced age, tennis, even learning the computer or a reading book like the Nook or any brand of it. Embrace your abilities and embrace your life. Life is all about comprehending and incorporating new ideas, thoughts and adventures into your heart, soul and mind.

Your feet will not ache, your heart will feel good and most of all, you will have encompassed, encountered and encouraged your whole being to be more complete.