#604 Walking on grass with bare feet

Neil Pasricha

Good grass is hard to find.

Yes, if you’ve paid a visit to your local playground or backyard recently, you know those fresh, clean, silky smooth greens are a rare breed. Broken glass, dog doo, and crumpled fast food bags can coat the shaggy green carpets around your home.

It’s tough out there but don’t worry: According to our egghead pals, grass is the most common plant in the whole wide world. Yup, thousands of species cover mountaintops, swamp bogs, prairie plains, and Wimbledon courts all over our swirling, twirling planet.

We just gotta find it.

So grab your binoculars, toss on a backpack, and head into the wilderness to scope those fresh patches of soft grassy greens blowing quietly in the warm wind. When you get there, drop the pack, peel off the stinky socks, and get walking, brother. After all:

1. Exotic toe massage. How often do your pita-bread cracked heels, broken soles, and little toe elbows score some rubby loving? We’re gonna bet not too often. Honestly, speak up if you’re getting this action somewhere else because we’re all ears. For most of us the blades-of-grass rubdown is the only foot action we get. We’ll take it!

2. Slick n’ slidin’. Sometimes there’s fresh morning dew out, sometimes you slide your screen door open after a summer shower, sometimes the backyard sprinkler’s raining down on everything. On all these magic moments the cool wet blades massage your foot’s wrinkly nooks and crannies and calm your soul. We’ll take it!

3. Do the doo. Hey, we’ve all stepped in dog crap before and there’s nothing pretty about it. All we’re gonna say is if your six-year-old steps in it while running around in bare feet, well that’s a lot easier to clean than if they step in it wearing brand new bright white sneakers. We’ll take it!

Yes, if you’re with us you know grass is a nice escape from the scalding sand, burning driveway, or pebbly pavement scratching at our feet.

We’ll take it!

AWESOME!

Photos from: here, here, and here

55 thoughts to “#604 Walking on grass with bare feet”

  2. This is also like having a “small pebble area detector” in your soles. Ouch.

    But, for those lush green surfaces, not a bad feeling.

  4. I loved cool, soft grass as a kid. I remember one time, though, walking home from the community pool. I started out walking along a long stretch of grass to avoid the burning hot feel of macadam. I don’t know where my shoes were. I stepped right on a bee and got stung in the foot. OUCH! But some nice stranger lifted me on her back and carried me most of the way home. AWESOME!

    1. ouch! In summer, my family would sometimes go to this local lake. Between the beach and parking lot was a large grassy hill with a wooden fence at the top. The top rail of the fence was usually festooned with wailing kids who had paid the price for not obeying their mothers’ pleas to put on shoes before climbing the hill. I was one of those kids more than once! The lure of fresh grass is just too stong!

    2. I was once walking in the garden while mum and her partner were planting potatoes, and i stepped on a wasp… It CAINED! But at least the pain subsided after a great lot of tears. I remember bee stings stay pretty painful, for a long time :/

  5. I had never considered that it is better to step in dog doo with your bare feet than with white running shoes. Good point though.

  8. i love walking in grass barefoot. too bad there’s about 2 feet of snow covering my lovely grass right now.

    this is one of the most awesome awesome things yet :]

  9. Playing badminton barefoot as a kid, I hit a bumble bee with my racket by mistake. The poor bee got its payback when I stepped on it — it stung the bottom of my foot. Not pleasant at all!

  10. The one and only perk that came with my husband working at a lawn service was this. I had the best grass around for four years. Plus, dogs seem to skip right past my yard. Love it!

  11. This is by far one of my most favorite things in the world. I use to walk barefoot in the grass during college a lot which generally was nice, cool, clean grass, and I got to class a lot quicker without my flip flops on!

  13. I love walking in the grass in my bare feet. And on pavement. And in the sand. And… well, just about anywhere. But the best part about grass is feeling it creep up between your toes. It’s like the Earth’s awesome plush carpet, and it is amazing. I like to have picnics in the summer and take off my shoes and just wiggle my toes around in the grass as I eat, read, or lay down to relax. It’s so soothing.
    And the grass does not judge my feet. I don’t need a pedicure to walk in the grass… I get to come as I am, and that in itself is AWESOME.
    Peace and Love,
    Meagan
    PonchoMeg: The Modern Bohemian

  14. not so much the grass in texas :/ st augustine grass is not meant to be touched at all, it seems

    but whenever i go up to ohio to visit relatives i spend some time just enjoying their grass

  16. I really hate the feeling of walking on grass with bare feet. Not sure why in particular, I just always have. But this makes me feel like I’m missing out :(

  17. what a great post for those of us up here in the tundra of Wisconsin, for whom green grass is a pleasure to look forward to at this time of year

  18. There is one thing better than walking barefoot on grass. Walking barefoot through a puddle and feeling the mud squish between your toes is just awesome.

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  21. I LOVE going barefoot but when i was a kid my mom did not let me because she thought the pavement would hurt me 20 years later i moved, right when i got there i took my socks and shoes off and i ran out of the house and ran around in my barefeet. i still do, now i have kids and i let them go in there barefeet all the time like in shopping centers anywhere. they love goin barefoot i do to

  23. I’ve spent the last few hours poking around your archives, and this post, for some reason, hit me hard. I live in West Africa, on a ship off the coast of Togo, and my husband and I are trying to decide whether we’re going to do this forever or not. I’ve just realized that, if we decide not to head back to Canada, that I’m giving up walking barefoot in soft, green grass for the forseeable future. Oh dear. Not awesome.

  24. I miss doing this. In new Jersey I used to walk in the grass and lay down and just enjoy the cool sensation of the grass and earth beneath me. I moved to Florida and found out the grass is full of things that stick you and all kinds of insects which make it very uncomfortable.

    1. Agreed. I’ve also been transplanted to Florida and I now have a permanent injury to one of my toes where I got a nasty sand spur stuck in it. Grass here is to be avoided at all costs!

  27. I love walking in anything soft bare foot. But you forgot prickles. That is the main reason i never ever walk in grass bare foot. Because wherever i go, there always seems to be prickles in the grass! And id there arent prickles, the grass blades are really hard and sharp and stick out at all angles.

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  33. I miss doing this. Not sure why in particular, I just always have. But this makes me feel like I’m missing out .There is one thing better than walking barefoot on grass. Walking barefoot through a puddle and feeling the mud squish between your toes is just awesome.

  34. It’s like the Earth’s awesome plush carpet, and it is amazing. I like to have picnics in the summer and take off my shoes and just wiggle my toes around in the grass as I eat, read, or lay down to relax. It’s so soothing.

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  43. Well, personally I love walking in the grass barefoot, but because of my allergies, I sometimes sneeze a lot!! So, I prefer walking in the nice, clean, soft sand barefoot, hopefully not after I come out of walking barefoot in the ocean because, I would have sand stuck to my feet! xD Either way, AWESOME post!

    Cool bananas!

  44. This is my favorite thing to do when summer comes around!! Toes in deep grass! AWSOME!

  46. YES, Sometimes you find the grass really is greener on the other side.
    http://youtu.be/VjxY7xmhJ6o
    “The green, green grass of home.”

    *Hope you’re having a great time at your “Rite of Passage”~ the 1st. Annual World Domination Summit, Neil:)
    Sincerely, Wendy

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