Friday, October 1, 2010

Luggage

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Although luggage is mostly referred to as the suitcases we carry to our vacation destinations, in more general terms it is literally the ‘stuff’ we are lugging around with us.

Question is, how much of that which we are lugging around with us is actually useful to us?

This question holds true for material possessions we may have as well as for things that take up less space, like attitudes, perspectives, life-styles ~ and even the things we were taught; the things we learned along the way are not automatically things we want to stick with...

The rule of thumb that says that when you haven’t used an item for a year, it has lost its usefulness to you and is now just taking up space works for many people who seek to determine what possessions to keep, and which to get rid of. Of course there are certain seasonal items for which you may want to extend that time frame. On the other hand, there are also things that were nice at the time ~ but never had a real use...
This makes it relatively easy to see which of our possessions are essential to our (quality of) life, and which are not ~ what things we need on a day to day basis, and what items we are lugging around with us.

It is much harder to determine what is helping us and what is hindering us when we look at things like values (which we often inherit from our parents), our attitudes, perspectives, life-styles etc. ~ yet it is looking at these things that is all the more interesting!

What are the attitudes we have? Where did they come from? Were we taught the things that have become our attitudes? Are these attitudes helping us or hindering us? Do they lift us up, or weigh us down? And if they are weighing us down; then why are we lugging them around with us?

The reality is that all of us are lugging ‘stuff’ around with us ~ some more than others ~ but no-one seems to be exempt. And most of it is there because we haven’t taken the time to really take a look at whether an attitude is realistic, is helping us or is getting in our way.

The luggage we take along on our vacations, whether it is a lot of luggage or only hand luggage, gets unpacked after we get back from our trip ~ after it has served its purpose...
It would serve us to do the same thing with the non-physical luggage we are lugging around with us ~ to, every once in a while, take some time to unpack and see if it is something we want to keep, or is there is a chance we rather get rid of it...
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