#Status: It's complicated (the black baggage)
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Tiffany. She's a recovering love addict making her way through this new digital age with a complicated Facebook status and an even more complicated view of life and men. She's here to discuss today her latest and greatest, and I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT TIFFANY!!</editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Tiffany Davis
The black bag has officially been laid to rest. What does that mean you might be wondering?
The black bag is a hobo style bag that I purchased from Old Navy on clearance in 2006 for $5.00. It was a steal, such a steal that I bought one in brown too, but the brown bag hasn’t gotten much play. I guess it goes to show how often I wear things that match with brown. That is probably something else I should think about after this. I digress. I bought the black bag during my 5 year stint as a sales rep selling beauty products to salons and spas. I was so in love with this particular bag because it was a fashionable way to carry around all of the crap that is needed when doing business to business product sales. I used the black bag day and night. I toted it along in and out of every salon I entered, it went with me from home to work, and coast to coast. It was my main bag. It is such a large bag that I put a smaller, more practical purse inside of it. The black bag eventually transitioned into the main mode of transportation for everything this girl could need on a day to day basis. At any given time you could find perfume, deodorant, a small wristlet purse holding all of my credit cards and cash, hair ties, you name it, I had it in the black bag. This was the best $5.00 I had ever spent. I have even been made fun of for carrying around such a large bag, to which I simply replied “hey, I come with a lot of baggage”. Yes, sometimes I do crack myself up.
It is now 6 years later and up until today I still used the black bag every single day. The bag has become tattered and torn, the faux leather had started to peel off leaving behind remnants of the bag wherever I went. Don’t think I didn’t notice the bag was falling apart, I did. I even started the search for a bag that would replace my beloved black bag, but nothing compared. While there are black bags out there that were just as nice, if not nicer than this particular black bag, none compared in price. I can’t imagine spending $50 or more on a comparable bag, so I haven’t.
Last night I was spending time with “Someone” and I asked him to hand me my black bag. When he handed it to me, I noticed it’s tattered, sad state and said “I need a new bag, this one is falling apart”. He replied “I know, it’s disgusting, it leaves little black pieces everywhere”. “I can always tell you were here when I find little pieces of the black bag laying wherever it was”. I busted up in laughter. It was just so funny, because he stated what I already knew, but didn’t want to face. I wondered how many remnants of my black bag had been left behind in other places I had been. As I started to picture other people finding random little black pieces of some unexplainable material reality set in. It is time to put the black bag to rest.
The black bag represents a lot to me and got me thinking about the obvious, baggage. What other kind of baggage am I carrying around, leaving remnants everywhere I land? It represents holding onto something that is old, and beat up, that once served a purpose, but no longer does. Whether it be an old story or belief that I have, a pattern on repeat, or things left undone that do not go unnoticed, yet are ignored. It is so ironic how this old bag truly represents my old baggage.
In yoga we are often reminded to let go of things that no longer serve us. That is easier said than done. Often times it is so much easier to stay in the same old patterns. It becomes less difficult to face things that are right before our eyes, to ignore what we don’t want to deal with. Sometimes it takes having someone point something out before we really decide to toss out the old baggage we have been lugging around for years.
As I emptied the black bag and threw it in the trash, I felt a sense of freedom. I finally did what I knew I needed to do. Yes, this means I will be temporarily using a bag that won’t match with everything. But- I would rather be mis-matched then leave behind black remnants of my baggage everywhere I go. Besides, it is high time I lightened my load anyway.
What is your black baggage, and how long are you willing to carry it with you?
#thatisall
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