“Oh my Lord,
I am carrying too much luggage,
and it’s weighing me down,
holding me back.
I worry about losing it,
but don’t need much of the stuff I’m dragging about.
It blocks up the aisles and gangways,
getting in the way,
making people cross
and wrapping itself round my ankles.
I need to learn to travel light,
but don’t know what to do with all this stuff……..”
~Kathy Galloway

For the last several weeks I have been placing the things I think I will need for our pilgrimage to Ireland in a basket in my office at home. Slowly over time the basket’s contents have flowed onto the floor nearby. They are little things, toiletries, papers, socks, clothes, a flashlight. And yet in their totality it seems like a lot of stuff. My goal today is to actually now place them in my bag while also weeding out those things which were based on whim and not need.

So yesterday as I was searching for a prayer for an upcoming worship service and my eyes fell on this one by Kathy Galloway of the Iona community in Scotland, I was chagrined. This problem of ‘too much stuff’ is both literal and metaphorical in our world. Most of us accumulate much more than we will ever need and then wonder why we are moving piles from one side of the desk to the other, from one drawer to another, from one room to the next. This accumulating is one of the dark sides of a society based own consumption. It is also the fodder of garage sales!

I have no doubt that I will be able to weed out what is truly not needed as I pack my bag for Ireland. But more than the literal stuff I discard my deepest prayer is that I, and my fellow pilgrims, can also leave behind all the other mostly invisible weights that are dragging at souls and hearts and minds. As people prepare my hope is that there will be time for deep breaths that replace long lists and full sighs that give way to open hearts. May nothing be wrapping around ankles or blocking the path to being fully present to this soulful landscape which awaits us.

Traveling light is tricky and difficult business. I know I have packed many a bag with shoulds and oughts. Have you? I also have a full set of bright red Samsonite that carries judgment. I have a back pack of regret and a small tote of shame also. This is the luggage I hope over time to drop at the side of the road.

But I also have bag upon bag filled with hope and wonder and at least one that carries a compassionate heart. There is the flowered duffle filled with a sense of adventure and the desire to meet new people and hear their stories. A brown canvas bag hauls around opportunity for laughter and seeing the world in new ways, with a little side pocket that holds awe and the longing to be surprised.

Tomorrow I hope to take all of this invisible baggage which will help me be present to the gifts of the open road and the equally open heart. Now if I just remember the toothpaste!