Today I’d like to babble about baggage. I mean emotional baggage but I’m going to use literal suitcases as my metaphor. The thing I realize is that we all have baggage. It doesn’t take having bad past relationships to have baggage…whatever our past is is our baggage. My personal baggage is my LACK of a past. It makes moving forward in potential relationships very scary.
The issue is that it matters how a person handles their baggage. Do they have it with them at all times but carry it nice and neat with the need to only go through the suitcase (the past or whatever) a few times? Or is crap hanging out the side of the suitcases and are they constantly having to shuffle through the contents of their suitcase? Or even living out of the suitcase?
Baggage can also affect how we relate to other people. Think of it like when you see someone in the airport who is carrying their luggage. Someone with a buttload of suitcases is obviously going to be harder to greet with a hug, i.e. get close to another person. They can set them down so they can hug you, but it will take more time than say, someone who just has a carryon. People with baggage can also use the suitcases to not hug or embrace emotionally other people. They can use it as a barrier.
Well I’ve babbled long enough. I know I haven’t expressed this very well but I’m not at the top of my game at the moment. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
Jamie
Just wnated to say hello.
That’s funny you used the luggage as your example. My former Associate Pastor Greg did a tape series called Emotional Baggage. It was all about what you just talked about and how it can weigh you down and keep you from growing etc. The cover was suitcases with stickers all over them like Anger, Unforgiveness,Rejection you get the picture.When he actually preached it he came out on stage carrying all these pieces of luggage. It was a very good illustration.I hope you find a way to let go of some of your baggage it isn’t easy but you can do it! Love ya sweetie!!
Well it isn’t so much that I was saying I had specific baggage, I was more reflecting on the idea that we all have baggage to deal with. I actually started thinking about this issue a year or so ago when I was talking to a friend about her marriage. No one seemed to get that both people in the marriage had issues to deal with from their previous life experiences although one person had what most consider to be an idyllic past. Our baggage (I actually kinda hate that word, it’s so melodramatic and psychoanalytical) is whatever our past is that affects how we deal with future relationships.