Monday, August 12, 2013

The Right Sized Bag

A couple of months ago, before I headed to Hawaii for 6 weeks, I got a new little bag.  It seemed like the perfect size - it would hold a few credit cards, my phone, a key, some cash and (just barely) the Kindle Fire.  At first, I filled up that bag up every morning with all those things and take it with me. Throughout the day, it would get stuffed with other things - maps, receipts, brochures, little snacks and other odds and ends it is tempting to pick up when you are traveling.

In about a week, that bag's zipper broke.  It was just too stuffed all the time.

So, to avoid the overstuffed temptation, I went to a market and got a tiny cloth bag, jusssst phone sized. I could not add anything to it as I walked around - it just plain wouldn't fit.

Now I am back in Portland, and although I am not officially back from sabbatical, I'm starting to do a few things.   And I'm trying to decide what to do with my little bag.  Can I keep it?  Or am I going to have to trade back up to one that holds more stuff?

I don't like to push a metaphor further than it can really be pushed, but what if time is something we could hold in a sack?  I've been able to hold everything there was to do in a pretty small bag this summer.  But already since we've been back in Portland, I've been invited to do a thing - on a night I'm already doing another thing.  Already, the list of things To Do at the beginning of every day is longer than the day can possibly hold. I don't want to the relative indolence of this summer to continue.  On the other hand, the schedule I've been carrying the last few years is feeling like a lot to lug.

One thing I know now is that I can "travel light."  The question is, can I "be-home light", too?