Meet Me At Baggage Claim

Seasons change. We move from one season to another. We experience change. It’s inevitable. The old saying “You get out of it what you put into” is applicable here.

As a former Chef, admittedly baking was my least favorite discipline in school. I felt like I couldn’t be creative enough. Every single ingredient had to be measured with precision and exactness. It was nerve wracking though necessary. I learned about discipline and I’m a better cook because of it but I learned something else.

Sometimes our “mixes” in life don’t turn out well because we don’t measure and take stock of every ingredient we so freely add. We want success and prosperity but our approach is to consume and add. Some elements we add don’t complement other elements already in our lives. Haphazardly adding things that we like that don’t fit where we are are likely to make for a convoluted, undesirable situation.

There’s not much worse than moving into a new life situation still dragging around all the old stuff from years ago and expect to build something new and different. It’s laborious, restrictive, and unwise.

I was once a part of an organization that has some big plans for community, diversity, and social change. I invested years into this effort but there were some fatal flaws that sank the ship. With every new revelation, I was forced to unhitch my wagon from the effort. Wisely, instead of quickly joining a new effort, I needed to regroup and re-evaluate. I looked at all the ingredients I previously put into the mixture. I broke down all that happened, all I contributed, and all my feelings the last 2 years. It took nearly 12 months for me to see that the organization’s approach wasn’t the only issue. I was part of the problem. I brought some baggage into that relationship. I contributed to the overall mixture, like it or not. Once I saw my attitude, my fears, and my rigidity, it freed me to drop those bags and let them go. I was able to embrace a new organization and give myself to the effort, without the extra baggage. If I didn’t change the way I saw situations, I’d simply be repeating the same cycles and never growing beyond them. Case in point.

“A man who was traveling came upon a farmer working in his field and asked him what the people in the next village were like. The farmer asked “What were the people like in the last village you visited?” The man responded “They were kind, friendly, generous, great people.” “You’ll find the people in the next village are the same,” said the farmer. Another man who was traveling to the same village came up to the same farmer somewhat later and asked him what the people in the next village were like. Again the farmer asked “What were the people like in the last village you visited?” The second man responded, “They were rude, unfriendly, dishonest people.” “You’ll find the people in the next village are the same,” said the farmer.”

Yep.