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?
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