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Before I start this one I need to make the confession that I am a brief case and luggage freak. I can’t tell you how many times the clerk at Tumi has had to deal with me just visiting my set of burnt orange bags that are close to my heart but well out of my budgetary ability. And if you look in my storage closet you will find at least ten computer bags or briefcases I have collected over the years. Of course I just can’t bear to get rid of them.

Ok so I’m standing in baggage claim watching the carousel bring luggage from the magic hole in the wall. As the bags go by I am noticing the vast array represented and try to guess who goes with which one before they grasp the handle and lug it away.

There are cases that look like this is definitely their first trip. They are still shiny and all but have a price tag left on them. I assume they were a wedding gift to the honeymoon couple who just can’t stop giggling and kissing. And there ya go, the third time around they realize theirs have arrived.  

There are also bags that you can tell are holding on to their last thread of hope, depending solely on the strips of grey tape wrapped round and round them for survival. I think about how whoever they belong to worried more about spending more money on a good vacation than taking a short trip with fabulous luggage.

Then there is the Louis Vuitton (I know, sad that I know that) coming around and I figure the chauffer standing to the side was looking for them and…wait for it…wait for it….yup I was right!! Man I’m good

About half way through I get my bag but this is too fun and I have the time so I watch till the last bag is gone. It’s then I notice the obligatory lost luggage lady complaining and asking what she was going to do with no clothes to wear on her four day stay. I can sympathize as I have had this happen one time before. It’s not a good feeling.

As I am leaving the thought crosses my mind that no matter what kind of bag it was, new, old, cheap or indulgently expensive they all had one thing in common. They were all full of stuff. All different kinds of stuff, but still just stuff.

I don’t know if you re like me but when I pack for a trip I start with the best of intentions to pack light. However without fail I find myself having to scale back so as not to be over the weight limit for the airlines. There are always things I think I “need” to take with me. Things I just “can’t live without.” Looking at it now I realize these things are all MY stuff.

All of this got me to thinking about the baggage we all carry in our lives. I know I have plenty and no it’s not Tumi. Everyone takes the stuff in or lives and continuously shoves it into baggage that we insist on dragging along as we try to make our way.  

Some people manage to make their bags look really nice and well put together like say LV. But they are still heavy, loaded with stuff. Some have pain and destruction in their life that is more visible. Using everything they can find to try and hold together the pieces of their lives….grey tape?? Even little children carry hurts; they are just hidden by youth and seeming innocence. They, like new luggage merely do not show obvious damage.

What if we could or would reverse the luggage carousel? Take the things we drag through life, lay them on the machine and breathe deeply in relief as they disappear through the “magic whole.” Well here’s the deal, WE CAN.

We don’t have to maintain that death grip on the baggage that is our past. It’s sad because most people including myself take far too long to learn how much easier and sweeter it is to live in forgiveness and mercy. A place where one lets go of the past and learns to forgive others as well as themselves. Where each new day is just that and not merely another number of waking hours filled with reminders of our failures or shame.

How do we let go??? Forgive and be forgiven. As humans, forgiving is a process no matter how much we would like it to be otherwise. But once we truly experience the immediateness and fullness of God’s forgiveness, we want to forgive others and let go of the hurt of our past that is our stuff, our baggage. 

Like I said in the beginning I have a bad habit of collecting baggage. This has been true on an emotional and spiritual level for me as well. The last few years have been a real time of learning, healing and letting go for me. Life would have been a whole lot easier if I would have learned long ago to pack light, carry only the essentials and let all the unnecessary and unimportant STUFF go.