Drop That Baggage

Easier said than done.  As adults we pick up or accept baggage through all kinds of relationships.  Friends, co-workers, management, groups and associations, hell even the book club can be a mine field of baggage just waiting for us to claim it.  But as adults we can figure that out, work through it, get rid of it, and come out the other side better than we were before.  Que the Bionic Woman music.  🙂

Not so easy when it comes to children and childhood.  Parents are supposed to teach their children in a multiplicity of ways:  being a role model, direct instruction, educational activities, educational groups, general socializing, etc, etc, etc…  And all parents succeed in doing so.  I’ll wait while your mind rebels against that idea.  *humming to self quietly*  Ok, so here’s the thing.  Children are learning machines.  That’s the purpose of childhood, to become.  So no matter what parents do or don’t do, they are teaching their children.  What they are teaching them may or may not be what was on the agenda before the embodied life began hence the baggage.

The hard part about childhood baggage is that it’s not the child’s in the first place.  They don’t know how to create such things, but they will pick up whatever the parents have dished out unintentionally or otherwise.  What’s worse is that the child won’t necessarily see it as baggage, they’ll incorporate it, like a tree growing around a forgotten bike chain.  It will become a part of them and therefore almost impossible for them to remove by themselves.  As adults they might not even realize it’s baggage they are carrying around.  Thoughts of fate and curses and the inevitability of failure and depression and misery can be the result.  Or rebellion, melt down, and resurrection from the ashes.

The one thing that I feel sure of is that if the baggage comes from childhood, if it’s become a part of the person’s identity, they won’t be able to just drop it, get over it and move on.  They will need help. Professional help as well as a support team of friends and family.  Because digging that chain out of the tree will take delicate surgery and then the tree will need time to heal and become strong again.  So while recognizing that there is baggage is the first step towards dropping it, there are more steps after that.  And there are plenty of people who have walked the path before, a pile of bags at the exit, and a line of people coming as far as the eye can see.  Let’s all support each other at leaving the baggage at the door, one bag at a time.  Step by step.