Sweeping someone's feet
If someone sweeps your feet, you were probably sitting in the broom's path, and lifting your heels is a small courtesy between people who share a floor. In the old South, African American lore warned against a broom passed over the body.
What it may mean
A broom that brushes your toes is a tiny collision of two plans. One person is trying to finish a chore; the other is sitting exactly where the crumbs are. Most of us react the same way: we lift our feet, tuck them under the chair and let the bristles pass. That reflex deserves a second look. Shared homes run on dozens of small adjustments like it, mostly unspoken, and they work best when they go both ways. It is worth noticing who in your household steps aside, and who keeps on sweeping.
Depending on how you saw it
While you sit at the kitchen table
Crumbs gather under chairs, so whoever sweeps has to work around anyone still sitting there. Lifting your feet takes a second; getting up and helping takes a few minutes. Which household job could you join in on instead of only making room for it?
Sweeping your own feet by accident
Pushing the broom over your own shoes happens when you sweep fast and look ahead instead of down. The bristles leave a little grit on your toes and nothing more. Where are you rushing a task so hard that you end up getting in your own way?
Someone sweeping near you in a cafe or a store
A worker sweeping between the tables often has to ask customers to move their feet. Someone is doing a job in the middle of other people's free time. Do you notice the people who clean up around you, and do you make their work a little easier?
Why it happens in nature
Brooms sweep low and wide, and dirt under tables and chairs collects right where people sit, so feet often end up in the way. Stiff bristles flick dust and crumbs onto shoes on the way past. In small kitchens and busy apartments, sweeping around people is hard to avoid.
What folk beliefs say
African American lore, US South
Among African Americans in the South, many dreaded having a broom pointed at them or passed over their bodies, convinced that it shortened life.
Source: Cora Linn Daniels; C. M. Stevans (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Superstitions, Folklore, and the Occult Sciences of the World, vol. 1 (1903), vol. 1, p. 502. View the page
To reflect on
In your home, who makes room for the chores, and who actually does them?