I was watching a reality TV show during this pandemic and noticing how different people travel with matching or mix matched luggage. Some travel heavy and others lite.
As I’ve been watching other people’s lives on reality TV through this pandemic I’ve also been faced with my own behemoth project of packing to move to Maui. We started by moving our storage to our garage to save on costs. Now sorting through all those boxes that we haven’t peered into in years has caused us to say out loud many times – why were we saving this? After sorting through 17 (yes 17) boxes of old paperwork and tax returns going as far back as the early 90s we’ve finally gotten to a another layer of baggage. The best was a box of delicately wrapped collectibles that I hadn’t opened since my sister died 18 years ago / it was one of several boxes of her belongings. As I opened the box and started unwrapping the items within – my 11 year old daughter watching intently to see what treasure we might uncover. The first item was revealed. A Murano Glass clown. My daughter shrieked, “that’s ugly, why do we have that?” I explained that my half sister’s biological mom had collected these glass clowns and when she died my sister inherited them and now they are ours.
We keep things because they have sentimental value, because they are portals to our memories. Because we can’t fathom the idea of throwing out the items that our dearly departed collected and treasured.
I’m noticing too that we have over the years collected multiples of the same item. I actually counted 37 iced tea spoons in my possession. I realize that very often, I’ll be manifesting something I want – like sterling silver iced tea spoons and once I get what I’ve been wishing for – it’s like the faucet never gets turned off and I keep receiving that which flows in – until I’m overflowing with iced tea spoons. I’m now aware that when manifesting it’s also important to stop manifesting. It’s ok to say, “no thank you- I already have one of those.”
When we carry this stuff around, from home to home, generation to generation. Racking up storage bills and filling up every closet drawer and cranny of our homes with items that hold energy for us. Either energy of memories, past relationships or flows that we forgot to turn off until we are flooded. We actually create weight in our lives. We weigh ourselves down. We hinder our ability to move about freely. We become over weight energetically. Sometimes physically too. It’s an as within so without situation.
For all of us skinny people who have a storage unit and a garage full of stuff. I say we’re not skinny. We’re fat. Not Phat. Just fat. We walk around like we’re not fat but in reality we have stepped outside our house of fat and are pretending not to have baggage when in fact we have boxes and boxes and years and years of paperwork, iced tea spoons and scary glass clowns wrapped in paper and delicately stored in our love handles.
I’m starting a new diet. Fasting on purchases during the pandemic and dropping pounds at the thrift store donation center weekly. Making hard decisions about what to keep and getting rid of everything that no longer serves me. It’s a family affair. We’re all having to sort through our emotional attachments and regulate our weight.
I’m traveling lighter from now on. I’m noticing my neighbors are also cleaning out their garages – household items are starting to show up on the curbs in my neighborhood. The drop off line at the only open donation center in town has gone from ghost town to a line around the block. Maybe this pandemic was all about shedding our baggage. Like energetically we hit a baggage tipping point as a collective – we had to take a 3 month break to purge. Thankful for the opportunity to stay home and reevaluate the load I’ve been carrying, saving, storing and hoarding. I feel much lighter already.
