How do you prepare for a journey?

What is a journey?

Baggage. We all have it. We all struggle with how to organize it. Do we get rid of it? Do we throw it in the closet and ignore it? Do we fold it neatly and make neat little piles with it?

Organizing the baggage we all have – be it emotional, physical or spiritual – is like packing for a long trip. What items do I need to ensure my trip is successful? If each of those items is like the emotional baggage from childhood – then my suitcase would be empty. I don’t need any of that but I have held on to it. What else is there to write in a journal? Good things? Helpful things? Things I will look pretty in? Ha!

Yet, letting go of that emotional baggage – of realizing I am enough, despite what my German father said, and I am lovable despite feeling ignored by him – is the best thing I can take on this journey. Letting go…

Of course, letting go sounds so cliché. Thank you Frozen. I roll my eyes whenever my husband tells me to “let it go” when I share a new revelation about the emotional trauma I endured as a child of immigrants. Can I let something go and still hold onto the memory of it? I am a writer – don’t I need to write about it? Analyze it? Share the scenes of those moments my father made me feel not German enough, too American, never being than – only less than…

I thought I was talking about packing for a journey too. Baggage, though, surrounds me, maybe you too. It doesn’t surround my husband though…. Are there exceptional people like him everywhere? I want to meet them. Please – he needs someone to talk to. But if you are conscious of your baggage – I want to know you. Well…. Only if your baggage is similar to my baggage. We can commiserate, share ideas for healing, have yelling sessions, drink tea, cry, or just listen to each other. Hold space.

My suitcase is holding space for a four-week journey. It is tough figuring out what to wear on a day that hasn’t arrived. It is tough to know the weather or my mood, to then determine what shoes or if I need a coat. I don’t travel light and I don’t travel heavy. Although, Rick Steves may challenge me on the latter. I like to think I travel in the middle. If I were to use an analogy – I’m a middle-weight fighter…. Sort of like the pounds of flesh that cover my skeleton – not overweight, not underweight, just middleweight…. Yes, Goldilocks!!!

In all seriousness, this trip is big, huge, epic. I’m going places that will stir up taste buds, awe, and wonder. My baggage will assist me in being warm enough, cool enough and stylish enough – oh and comfortable enough – so I can focus on the moments to come. Sometimes baggage is good. As long as it doesn’t interfere with enjoying the moment.