You're Carrying Too Much Luggage...

One of my greatest treats in life is traveling.  I love the adventure of getting on a plane, taking a road trip, and the whole experience of seeing a new place and all it has to offer.  For years I had a problem with packing…  I always seemed to over pack which in so many ways made the trip a little frustrating…   When over packing you have to go through baggage claim, tip the shuttle driver for lifting all the heavy luggage, unpack all the suitcases in the hotel, repack them to go back home, and once making it home you have to unpack them all over again…  It’s like, “Eeeesh, I’m tired just thinking about it”…

Over the past few years, I feel I’ve mastered packing…  Now when traveling, I only take ONE BAG which is filled to the max with what I’m going to need.  Here’s my packing list…  1 pair of jeans, slacks, 1 dress shirt, and 1 pair of dress shoes.   For each day I’m there, I pack 2 sets of underwear (Shower once in the morning and evening), and depending on how many days I’m there, determines how many Graphic T-Shirts I will carry along.  I’ve realized I don’t need a different pair of jeans per day, just a different shirt.  If I go to a nice restaurant for dinner, I’ll wear the slacks with the dress shirt or a Graphic T.  By doing this, I’ve cut out going through baggage claim and hanging up clothes in the closet.   I carry everything in a backpack to save myself the burden of carrying all the baggage.

Many of you are similar to me when traveling…  You over pack, but I’m not talking about traveling to a different city or country, but the journey of life.  You’re carrying baggage you don’t need from relationship to relationship, job to job, marriage to marriage, and any other life experience you face.  You haven’t figured out what to leave behind and what to take along on your journey.  Because of this you’re suffering from the heaviness of your baggage.  Mentally you’re overloaded and over packed…  You’re carrying tons of hurt, pain, brokenness, mistrust, and abuse, and every encounter you have suffers because of it…   Sadly, you can’t see you’re the one whose carrying all this unneeded stuff…  You blame everyone else, except for the person checking in all the bags…

The truth is…  When traveling, we should only take what we need…  Each stop (experience) in life we pick up souvenirs (lessons) to remind us of where we’ve been, and some of the souvenirs are beautiful, while others are ugly.  When preparing ourselves for the journey we call life, it’s good to go through the things we’ve learned over the years.  We should access these things and decide whether or not it will be needed for the continuation of our trip (life).  The things you need, pack them…  The things you don’t, discard them…  Going on a trip with too much luggage is only going to make your miserable and everyone whose traveling with you….  Are you packing too much luggage?????