Today is the day when all of the American students arrive, the ones whom I look after for the next 18 weeks.
They come with their spirit, the one that they’ve known for their whole lives. They also come with their baggage….two suitcases stuffed with ‘the most important things’ in their lives.
It got me thinking. When we are plowing through life we often talk about baggage. Most importantly how can and does baggage hold me back and help me move forward. I inherently don’t think that baggage is holistically bad.
I was laying on my floor last night with this song running through my head. Thinking about the preach I heard last night
“We all have times in our lives, when we want a MIRACLE RIGHT NOW! But life/God doesn’t work that way. It comes in stages. Sprouts, buds, blossoms, fruits. How many times have we given up on nurturing the sprouts cause we want the fruits. How many times have we stopped before we blossomed?”
As I was thinking about this, with the song on repeat, I was looking through old photos from my time in Australia.
I was looking at them, not wanting my ‘body’ back. Not thinking about that I was so much this or that. Instead it got me to start blending the two experiences this weekend together:
Is the baggage that I am carrying around now….stopping me from seeing the sprouts, buds, blossoms…FRUITS in my life?
I ask this, because that care-free, farm girl, with the world on fire in her mind…has been bogged down by the acceptance, in recent times, of identity defining baggage that has zapped that spirit. If I choose to let it…If I continue to choose to let it…that is the key.
When my students walk through the doors today they’ve condensed their lives down to two suitcases and the values/beliefs/morals that can transcend a new environment, no parents, and a different culture.
They’ve downsized.
What it left me thinking about was…what do I actually want to pack around with me in my life?
What sort of baggage do I actually need and what…wouldn’t make it…if I had two ‘suitcases’?
Thoughts?
~Mish
eatingjourney.wordpress.com 
I so love this post. It makes me want to think about my own life, about what I’d condense things down to. If I had to pack just two bags, what would come with me? Probably not many clothes, since I’d have to make room for memory boxes and baby toys… 🙂
Interesting analogy! I think I carry around a lot of baggage because I’m too impatient. It’s just like you said…I’m so anxious to see the fruits that I ignore the sprouts. My load would be much lighter if I just relaxed and trusted that things will come together in the end.
it’s all about relaxing..isn’t it?
I’m not sure when it happened, but in general, “things” don’t mean much to me any more. I had boxes and bags of mementos and stuff and every year I let more and more of it go. And these are things that at one time I didn’t think I could live without. But if I had to boil it all down to two suitcases?? hmmmm…