In March of this year I took a trip to a far away magical place. I took a jet plane, well actually 2 of them. I changed planes once. The airlines all have guidelines for how many bags you can drag with you and what their dimensions are.
There are guidelines to the size of your luggage and the size of your carryon. Everything is limited. You can’t take 20 bags with you. You can’t carryon an elephant and try to hoist it overhead in the storage compartment. You can’t! It’s against the rules and those rules are pretty much standard across the board, for all the different airline companies. They all agree that you can have 2 big huge bags that are subject to possible permanent loss and one small compact carryon that you can keep with you at all times. Those are the rules.
On my trip, I wanted to take everything with me that I possibly could, everything that I might need, everything that was valuable to me. I took sunscreen, 3 different colored flip flops and about 5 other pair of shoes, 3 bathing suits, a cover-up that cost me a fortune because it was not on sale in March, about 5 inspirational books, one fictional novel that was hot and sexy, makeup to help me look 10 years younger, and jewelry that was silver and not gold!
I checked on the website and found the exact dimensions allowable for my luggage and I measured it with a tape measure. Then I packed it so incredibly tight that I could not lift it. Now, I had 3 bags, 2 really huge monsters and one little carryon with rollers on the bottom. I hooked them all together because there was no way I could move forward and take all 3 of them with me without hooking them together like some kind of an awkward train. It was very very cumbersome and difficult, but I managed. I managed to get this ridiculous ensemble in the car and out of the car and into the airport and gladly to the check-in counter! Whew!!!
This was my junk. I found it to be essential, every single item inside of those bags was considered essential or I would have left them behind. I put my name on the outside of the bags and labeled them as mine. If they were lost, then I could claim them. They were mine. I decided what was shoved inside and I made those decisions based on my preferences and my experiences and my own set of values.
If on the way to the check-in counter, if I had bothered to take anybody else’s trash with me, I wouldn’t have gotten on the plane because I didn’t have room even in my pocket for another item, not a single tiny item could be fit into my ensemble. My ensemble was full!
In my life, I have many problems that I drag with me. These things are being worked on in my heart and in my spirit. They are works in progress. I can’t take your junk with me. I don’t have room. I can only handle so much. And so, if you have preferences, likes, dislikes, pet peeves, or conclusions that you need to store with me, I have to say no. I am sorry. But one more item is going to prevent me from moving forward. And I do not want to stop and sit down and admit that I can’t keep going because I have too much to carry.
I am now bogged down with very heavy issues in my personal life. And it takes almost 100 percent of my energy to deal with those things in a positive manner. I am sorry that I can’t take on more. But the weight of this world is too much and I want to get on that plane and I want to arrive in that magical place where I feel safe.
I feel like I’m running down some long long long concourse, Concourse S or Z or something really far away. And I’m late and this plane might leave me on the ground and I can’t take on your trash.
For some reason, people have always tried to get me to accept their conclusions, their opinions, their loves, their hates, their ideologies, their noble causes and their preferences. Ya know, it takes a long time to learn how to say no, but eventually you have to do it for your own good and for your own peace of mind. Besides, if you’re gonna catch the plane today, you need to limit what you’re dragging around with you. And this town/ this country / this world that I am in right now, is wearing me down. I really really want to catch that plane!!!
