Packing Light

These are some passages from the book Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage by Allison Vesterfelt. Quotes are italicized, my responses are not. These are only some snippets of the book that impacted me. I realize that you won't get the full context and impact that I did unless you read the whole text (which I recommend), but I think you'll get the idea. Some of my thoughts were written a couple of years ago I think, and some were added today.


"Wanting something meant feeling the pain of not having it, and feeling the pain of chasing it down."
 There is something about wanting that is inherently painful. I don't know about you, but there have been times that I've wanted something so much it literally hurt. Not having what you want means you have to wait. That experience will stretch you and that is also painful. Which part is worse, feeling the pain of not having something, or the pain of chasing it down? The way Allison phrases this sentence makes whatever she wanted sound really elusive. How do you chase down something you can't quite put your finger on?


"We're scared to choose anything--a school, a job, a spouse--because choosing one thing means letting go of several others. But sometimes having limited options is a blessing. It makes it easier to choose our path, and choosing means we get to zoom in and enjoy our one, complicated, imperfect path, instead of trying to halfway entertain a bunch of others. No matter which school we pick, it won't be perfect. No matter who we marry, our spouse will have flaws. But choosing means jumping in and accepting that path for all of its triumphs and trials. It means letting go of other roads, but in the end, it's better than never really choosing anything at all."
 Whew, this really resonates with me! I'm terribly indecisive. Possibilities paralyze me. I'm guilty of "halfway entertaining" things. It's a strength and a weakness. It makes me flexible but mediocre. This is why my word for 2016 was direction.* I need to jump in and choose a road and ride out the triumphs and trials. Choosing means letting go of other options, but it's better than never choosing anything.

"We can't measure the value of our decisions based on outcomes. Most of life is not an outcome. Most of life is unfolding on the road in front of us. The "outcome" can change as fast as the scenery." "Sometimes there are not right and wrong decision. There are just different choices with different benefits, different ramifications, and different baggage."
It's not about the destination but the journey. The road we choose may or may not take us to our desired or expected destination, but hopefully we're better off for having taken the journey. Part of the adventure is in not having a concrete outcome. Outcomes change like scenery or the seasons. It is important to be flexible so you don't miss the lessons along the way.

"As scared as I was of chaos and the unknown, I was equally scared of the mundane and predictable. In fact, I felt caught between the two. Which one was I supposed to choose? I was desperate for a road map, something concrete and definitive that would answer all these questions. At the same time I worried I would take all the right turns, make all the right steps, follow all the directions, and at the end would find out the terrain of my life was meaningless and boring. I told God all of this, and He just listened."
I feel like this. It's like I'm already living the mundane and predictable, but everything else is so unsure and unpredictable. How can I know that it will result in anything worthwhile? I could do all the things I think I'm supposed to do, the things I think I want to do, and still be miserable. At least the difference there would be that I went on some kind of adventure rather than sitting motionless, not taking a chance that there would be something more fulfilling on the other side. 


"I want to be the kind of writer who is awake to the realities of heaven, but engaged in the realities of this world. I pictured myself throwing a lasso around the feeling I had right now, in the middle of nowhere, and dragging it with me back to civilization. That's what I hoped I could do with words. I hoped I could invite people into realities they had never experienced. I hoped I could wake them up to a life they wanted to be living. I would give up anything to keep this feeling--the feeling of being close to Him."
Whenever I open my mouth or spill out my thoughts on paper or on this screen, I hope to challenge you into new ways of thinking. What I contribute should make you ponder something, challenge your worldview, or make you ask questions of yourself or the world you live in. Ultimately, I hope to connect you to our Creator through my experience of connection with Him.

"So the problem with expectations, if there is a problem, is that our expectations aren't big enough to hold the possibilities that will unfold in front of us. Our single perspective is so limited. Vision changes everything. Sometimes we need to change locations in order to see something amazing, but sometimes it's simpler than that. Sometimes what we need is to change our perspective. It's not about ignoring expectations, or lowering them. It's about letting the events of our journey shape our expectations, even as they shape us. If the location where you're standing is less than energizing, check your vision. don't abandon your expectations. Try to see them from a different perspective. 
Maybe if we mastered the art of expecting the unusual, we would start experiencing the unusual. Maybe we have more control over the direction of our lives than we think. Maybe we should live our lives in a constant state of expectation, always curious and excited about the possibilities that could unfold in front of us. Maybe it is our sense of vision that colors our reality. " 
I know that there are realities far beyond my feeble imagination. But my perspective is so small. How have you enriched your life by altering your perspective rather than your expectations?

 "Maybe we missed something at Mt. Rushmore because we hadn't taken long enough to look around. Maybe we gave up too easily."
Oof.

"Just expect amazing scenery, without knowing what it will look like. Don't try to imagine it, just know it will come. That way, when it comes and it looks different than you expect, you won't miss it." 
This. One of the scariest ideas is the thought of missing out on something because it looks different than you expected. Once you imagine something, you kind of put a boundary or limitation on it. Your thoughts put a concrete definition to something that is much more insubstantial. Then, when you start looking for that thing, your expectations may not be met because "the thing" actually looks completely different.

*Actually, my word for 2016 became breakthrough, but for me direction and breakthrough can be intermingled.

Buy the book!