I was at the Japanese American Museum in Los Angeles and they had an instillation called Common Ground: The Heart of Community. In that exhibition, there is a wall made of suitcases and trunks by Hirokazu Kosaka. Near it the inscription says “The importance of Hirokazu’s work is that he recognizes that the most important things are sometimes the simplest. The space between the heartbeats and the suitcases that carries more than people’s belongings”.
So, I know you are wondering what that has to do with the title. Well I started thinking that for those people who came to the United States all those years ago and who still continue to come, their suitcases also carry their hopes and dreams for a better life.
When I think of my suitcases, they also carry my hopes and dreams of adventure and seeing a new place through baby eyes where everything is new and it is not hard to see beauty around every corner and in everything. All the new smells, the feeling of new place, the actual tactile feel of a place like running your hands along the cool rocks in the inner sanctum of a pyramid tomb or the sound of complete silence only to notice the faint noise of the trickle of ground water running into the dead sea. I love to travel and with each new trip brings the hope of adventure, new beginnings and a different perspective.
When we hear the word baggage we think of emotional baggage or in some cases when it comes to relationship, a person’s children. Baggage generally has a negative connotation but what if we could change our perspective? What if we could make baggage a good thing?
So I ask – What is in your baggage? Could it be any of the following?
- Self esteem
- Body confidence
- Taking care of yourself without apology
- Self-love
- Knowing your worth
- Establishing healthy boundaries
- Eating well
- Hopes and dreams
- Smiles and laughter
- Humanity
If we were carrying these things around in our baggage, it would not be a heavy load to bear. Even if we have things in our lives that don’t feel positive, if we carry them with non-judgement while acknowledging them, our load would become lighter and we might find that we could even unpack those things.
Today is the day to change your perspective, look at baggage not as just a place to put your belongings or drag around your short comings, your story, your past but as a way to walk into your future fresh.