The time to pack has come again. After a busy winter of working in South Florida, we are preparing for another season of travel. This week, Mary and I will take turns as crew members of the sailing vessel Yankee Girl as she begins her voyage north for the summer before we go to Spain for two months to attend a language school, visit friends, and hike The Camino de Santiago.
Though it has been everything but restful, the late fall and winter months have felt like a period of hibernation that I am now awakening from. It has been good to be in one place for a while and to have some routine back in my life. I have enjoyed living in a space to call my own that is bigger than the interior of a Toyota Matrix, while at the same time I feel overwhelmed by the volume of stuff that still inhabits my life and seems to collect so quickly whenever I come to rest for any length of time. On the boat and in Spain, the sum possessions of my life will have to fit inside of one small bag.
As I have written before, there is an intoxicating sense of freedom and possibility that comes from living out of a backpack. Knowing I can comfortably carry all that I need and walk in any direction I choose means anything is possible. My possessions expand to fit the space available I have to house them. My life expands when I have little to call my own and must seek things out in the world, reaching out to others to assist me at times. The walls I inhabit to contain my things too often serve to block my view of all else that is possible. The time has come again to tear down those walls. place the few things I really need in one small bag, and see what there is to see.
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