Why do we carry so many bags?
I think back to the song “Bag Lady” by the talented Erykah Badu and relate it to realistic situations. For myself, I often feel like a bag lady. I find myself carrying so many bags that I often “miss my bus”. Bags can be a representation for many aspects of our life……mental, physical, spiritual, emotional and financial.
Mentally, we do carry many bags. In this day in time, our minds are so bogged down with unnecessary foolery. We are worrying about this and that in additional to other people’s this and that. And all of the this and that is on top of our normal day-to-day responsibilities. We have our careers. Then we have our families. Then our livelihoods. What happens is that we begin to accumulate more bags when we focus on things that should have no place or space in our lives. We waste mental energy and capacity on the foolery, the pettiness, the drama, other people’s problems and so on……
Emotional baggage is the same. We carry along emotions and feelings that are no good to us such as anger, sadness, hopelessness, bitterness, hate, strife, etc. Those types of feelings are toxic and only weigh us down. Think about how much lighter we would feel if we chose to eliminate the negativity from our lives and most importantly, our hearts. Then there is financial baggage that carries that same weight. What if we chose to stop accumulating debt in effort to compete with someone else? What if we stopped trying to “live like the Joneses” and live like ourselves? Hence, living within our means. Embrace the term “thrifting”. Make the very best out of what we have been blessed with. Then the term “financial baggage” will have a completely different meaning.
What about the spiritual baggage, chile! This is especially so when it’s tied to religion. The rituals and the traditions of religion take away from us having a deep and profound relationship with our Father. If we focus more on that relationship with Him, then we will realize that it’s not about religion at all. God is more concerned with our hearts and our prayer life than religious rituals that we all so often get caught up in.
Physical baggage can be a representation of each of the four aspects that I mentioned above. Think of the saying…. “the way you keep your car, is the way you keep your house”. Or your house is a representation of how things are in your life. I believe this to be true in many situations. With physical baggage, it is often indicative to what’s going with us mentally, emotionally, financially, and spiritually. I take myself for instance….when I’m stressed, I physically drag so many bags with me from place to place. When I go to work and especially when I travel, there are so many bags. Oftentimes the items in these bags are useless. But yet, I waste so much of my time and energy packing and dragging them around with me. Not only do those bags feel heavy on my back and arms, but the baggage is heavy on my mind and heart as well. I feel restricted and no longer free. My peace is compromised. And I then have the answer to why I’m exhausted and drained when I get to me destination. Can you relate? The next time you are in an airport and are people watching, pay attention to how people with little to no bags seem less irritated, less stressed and more peaceful and happy…..there’s definitely some truth to it!
I write this to encourage us all to stop being the “bag lady”. Let’s downsize, purge, eliminate and get rid of all of things unnecessary that we carry around. Let’s all take some time to self-reflect, identify, make changes and do things better in our lives. Our arms, hearts and minds need a break! If it’s not a factor or doesn’t add to our life, get rid of it! If it does not give any purpose, drop it. If it doesn’t feed us positively, block it. If it’s not our problem, lets not make it ours. If it’s not God’s will and doesn’t fall into alignment with His will for our life…..let it go! Praying for you to BE GREAT and live the very best version of YOU…
