Travelling Light

A post about what we carry, both literally and in our hearts.

As I watched a sweaty, agitated American woman wrestling with an enormous suitcase that rivalled her own size, arguing with a fellow passenger on a busy train, I felt a slight smugness at having finally perfected the art of travelling light.

Even with my son in tow, we had all we needed in one small cabin sized case.

I remembered all those times in my early twenties I insisted on taking ridiculous amounts of luggage on holidays.

Somehow, back then it was important to me to have day clothes, night clothes, beach clothes….

To take two pairs of heels, jewellery, handbags, a hair dryer…..

To carry sunscreen, perfume, an epilator, insect repellent.

To take things ‘just in case’.

And these days…....I don’t.

I take the basics.

I make the trip about the experience of travelling instead of trying to look my best or ensuring I have every possible eventuality ‘covered’.

And how wonderfully liberating it is!

I loathe dirtiness so I just do my laundry as I go along.  Little by little. Sometimes it means I end up wearing something twice but as long as I have clean underwear, I’ve made my peace with that.

I still enjoy dressing up, indeed during lockdown I made a point of dolling myself up to the nines to cheer up both myself and other people. I refused to submit to the ‘slob revival’ others had succumbed to, particularly those working from home.

Effort put into appearance, for me goes hand in hand with mental health. Once you completely stop caring about the way you look, it’s a downward spiral. But that effort must never get in the way of the business of living. The prize must always be the moment, not the wrapping paper of it.

To ‘travel light’ is to accept you will not always look your best, and that’s fine.

It is a surrender that you will never be prepared for everything…….but that’s okay.

It is an acknowledgment you cannot take everything with you. You electively downsize, understanding that when you try to juggle too much, something else has to give.

It is useful to extend the metaphor to other aspects of your life. The older we get, the more mental baggage we naturally acquire. We accumulate old relationships, good and bad experiences, children, failed businesses, old careers, ideas about ourselves and our limitations…

Allow yourself to put down the heaviest suitcases.  Just like clothes, maybe you’ve outgrown certain people but still you carry them. Why?

What about expectations? Ideals? Guilt? Anger?

Travel light and the world becomes an easier place to navigate.

Your heart can be a ball and chain or a knapsack of stars.

You can moan about the shit you drag around, you can obstruct the paths of others with your big ugly bags, have the weight curtail your movement.

Or you can let go of some of it, walk on, unburdened.

Free.