Nomad 365 Club: Take What You Can Carry
Liberation & Lightening the Load
"The road less traveled can be scary. I pack light and take what I can carry." — Alfred Nomad
The year is 2018, and my newlywed wife and I are preparing to make the biggest move of our lives. We're moving from the southern hospitality of Atlanta, GA where I've personally called home for the last decade, and are taking our talents to the city of angels, Los Angeles, CA. I won't lie, it's a scary move for us, but we're also excited. Another nice piece of this transitional journey is that we've decided to pack as much of our belongings as we can fit in our car and turn our pilgrimage into a multi-day road trip to the west coast. We plan to enjoy the sights of the scenic route west and make the transition a full-on adventure. And with this plan, we've narrowed down what we were going to keep and what we knew that we could take with us to Los Angeles.
However, less than two weeks before our moving date, I got into a head-on car collision and totaled our one vehicle. Besides some bad bruising, I, by the grace of God, was okay. But I felt guilty because within one moment I crushed our only mode of transportation and our means that we intended to use to embark on our western odyssey to the next chapter of our lives. This was a heck of a goodbye to Atlanta.
But now we not only didn't have a car, but we now had to book a last-minute flight and scale our belongings all the way down to what could fit into a few suitcases and a couple of carry-ons. I thought getting rid of even more of our belongings would be insufferable. But we did what we had to.
After we got settled in Los Angeles, this taught me a good lesson: a lot of the items and baggage I thought would be necessary to take with me to the next part of my journey actually weren't needed at all. This forced downscaling made me realize what was most important for what was to come. Everything else would be an inconvenience. It gave us a fresh start and left us with more room to build a new life and collect new items that made the most sense for where we were now.
Progression in life tends to have this cycle of release and shedding in order to undergo the growth of personal metamorphosis. A gardener must prune its plants of old and dead branches to make room for the plant to grow. A snake must shed its old skin so that it can grow. Even as a spaceship ascends from the earth, into the atmosphere, and eventually into outer space, it must drop certain parts of the spaceship, such as the rocket boosters and fuel tanks after they are no longer needed. These items were crucial for them to leave the ground and ascend into the sky, but after their purpose is exhausted, those very items that helped get it off the ground are now "dead weight" and must be released to lighten the spaceship so that it can reach the new heights it is destined for.
““...let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.””
We are our own physical and spiritual spaceships climbing to predestined heights. We have things, habits, and even people that jump-start our journey and have helped us reach great momentums, but not all of these parts of our lives are meant to stay strapped to us forever. Some of these people, habits, and even ideologies no longer serve this new level we are getting to. And you must do an inventory: What's most essential in my life right now? What must I hold onto and keep close to me no matter what? And what things have been tagging along for the ride but are actually just taking up space and are dead weight holding me back? And what are things that you have now that you believe you can take with you and share with others along the way?
"One day all them bags gon' get in your way, so pack light." — Erykah Badu
This is what we will uncover this month. As we are getting into the season of spring cleaning, it's only right that we identify what all we've been holding onto and liberate ourselves by lightening the load for our livelihood and wellness. We'll continue to practice healthy boundaries for ourselves and make sure our current daily luggage is full of essentials, and not a bag of burdens. It can be hard to let go of things that have been around for as long as you can remember. But sometimes letting go of one thing leaves an open hand to receive a better thing.