Travelling light

Well, I was hoping to travel lightly and dwell deeply with people, but I have predictably fallen at the first hurdle and am not travelling as lightly as I had hoped. I have a suitcase (rammed) and a backpack (not so rammed but fuller than it should be). I just got to the point when I couldn’t think what else I could take out. How like my entire life that is! Hmmm…

I wonder whether, on my travels, I will decide to ditch some things? At the moment, the thought of that is a bit scary. But maybe travelling will change my perspective? Other travellers have told me how travelling changed theirs in this sort of way.

How good would it be to hold so lightly to material things that at the slightest impulse of kindness, we could give them away? A friend reflected with me recently on how buying things is like taking. And how when we sell on our stuff on it’s a bit like taking too. “Why not give it away?” he asked. It seems to me that we all need some giving to balance out the taking. And the planet is crying out for it.

I am so touched by many gifts people have given me as we’ve parted. A visit, a lunch, a deep conversation, a cheque with a mandate to find treats en route, a coffee, a beautiful prayer. I receive these with so much gratitude today…