Baggage

We all have baggage. I think it’s impossible to experience life without collecting baggage along the way. Some of our baggage is full of memories of holiday traditions and summer vacations. Some of our baggage holds first memories: our first kiss, our first love, our first day of school, our first airplane ride, our first heartbreak. We have baggage full of countless events we thought we’d never forget yet we can’t recall them when we want to. And we have baggage that we wish we could leave unclaimed with the hope that someone else will know what to do with it. With a little work, we can all take the baggage that we’ve crumpled into little balls and shoved into spaces that are too small out of hiding, examine it a little to see if it’s worth holding on to, and if it is, neatly fold it and store it away under the “lessons learned” section of the storage shed: that place too many of us are afraid to visit because it’s usually very disorganized and hard to navigate.

I have lots of baggage. A large chunk of my baggage is clumped together in somewhat neatly folded stacks still awaiting final categorization. I think I’ve at least examined most of the stuff that was just crumpled into balls and thrown into a heap. Every now and then, something decides to fall off the pile and I trip over it. I’m getting much better at catching myself before I fall to the ground with a skinned knee. It helps that I usually have someone who loves me standing by the door of my storage shed ready to catch me if I stumble and clean up my knees when I fall. I have at least figured out that sometimes visiting the storage shed alone is a very bad idea.

For the most part, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of organizing the piles. I’ve started to neatly pack my mental duffle bags of memories, mostly the painful ones that I finally realized are experiences that helped me become who I am today. Experiences that for years I wondered why they happened to me but have come to appreciate that without them, I would be a different person. Memories I think about now and again with pride that I finally figured out how to separate from the pain and suffering they caused to see them as positive moments that help define who I am.

I like who I am. I’m certainly not perfect, and have many more lessons to learn and much more baggage to collect. But, since I’ve spent so much time cleaning out my storage shed, I plan to organize as I go so that in another 30 years I can look back again with wonder at what I’ve achieved and laugh at all the colorful memories I’ve collected.

Life is a series of spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow forward naturally in whatever way they like.
Lao Tse