Lessons from the Road: Packing Light!

I made an observation while we were travelling last month.  You see it concerns our luggage of all things! Now before you skip over to the next post, hear me out…there is a gem in here somehow like there is all things and especially ones that seem mundane!

At the start of this month long trip my husband and I thought we did pretty well in terms of packing.  In fact we were pretty proud of ourselves!  We had 1 large and 2 medium size suitcases as well as 2 small knap sacks to hold “everything” we would need for 28 days for 4 people!  Now bear in mind we needed clothing for visiting countries with cooler climates to scorching hot summers and 2 out of our 4 tended to change more often due to food accidents and other such things that mostly seem to “happen” to children!

A few days into our trip we realized that our 2^nd airline carrier to get us to our main destination would not allow us to have as much to carry so we left a suitcase behind with family.  Once we arrived at our main destination we needed to take a ferry out to the islands and after a bit of research we realized that we did not want to be wheeling around large suitcases so that we could safely ensure that we weren’t at risk of being wheeled around by our kids in trying to keep up with them in the midst of crowds and confusion.  So what did we do?  We left our remaining two suitcases behind and fit what we could in the 2 knap sacks and a small empty duffle bag we had thoughtfully stuffed in at the last minute.  And you know what? We did fine! We survived the entire part of that trip without having access to washing machines!  And unless someone tells me otherwise we did not smell or run out of clean underwear!

So how much luggage did we really need?

A lot less than we packed for sure!

Being back home, and unpacking, washing, folding and ironing all that “stuff” was not fun!  But, it did give me time to think and ponder about all the other “stuff” we carry around without realizing.  You know, the physically weightless but emotionally burdensome “emotional stuff”  like stress, sadness,  anger, rage, jealousy, resentment, hatred, fear …a list if we were to make one could be quite extensive.

I was teaching Mindfulness to a group of grade 10 boys recently and to illustrate this point, I had them walk around the room we were in paying particular attention to their body and how their back and shoulders and legs and arms etc. felt during this experience.  I then had them carry a knapsack which unbeknown to them, I had filled with cans of food which I had labelled as fear, resentment, anger and so on, and again pay attention to how their body felt moving this time with this heavy pack on their back. They pretty quickly got the point!

However, when we are caught in the “everydayness of every day”, it is very easy to miss!  Most of the time, we fail to see that we are doing just that!  We carry around an enormous amount of “baggage” or “luggage” that we have accumulated over the years without even realizing it! If we could physically feel the weight like we could with the knapsack activity, I am sure we would pretty soon find ourselves dropping or leaving behind what we don’t need. But, since the emotional “stuff” comes with invisible weight of another kind, we carry on not only with what was perhaps given to us during childhood but also accumulating more along the way.

So when do we stop and take notice?  What makes us takes notice?

Just about anything really!  There are numerous portals that can bring us to “here” and jolt us into taking notice. Some trips like the unexpected arrival of death, illness or other types of extreme suffering can immediately beam us to the present moment. In the face of such reality we can choose to drop some of what has been unnecessary and holding us down and back. Or perhaps not, and we carry on oblivious and unaware until the end.  Other times, it is a gradual seeing that takes place.  Perhaps as we get older, our lives get less busier and there is more space…then we might pay attention and decide to do some shedding of the accumulated layers.

There is no one path that leads to the sweet spot found in living life fully embodied and free of all the unnecessary “stuff” that weighs us down and shuts us out even from ourselves!   You can carry on as normal if you wish…until the yearning and the thirst or even the pain becomes unbearable.

So fellow travellers on this road called life… if like me you happen to notice you are carrying around a bit more “stuff” than you need, feel free to drop it off somewhere!  You know it will be waiting should you decide to go back…in the meanwhile you will feel lighter and you will thank me for it!  Believe me!