It was just another day at work for me and I was heading back home late evening. I stood waiting for the bus at the bus stop nearby. After long hours of lecturing, I sometimes choose to sit down at the bus shelter as the waiting period could be anywhere between 15 to 30 minutes. However, on that day, unlike the other days, I wasn’t feeling like sitting down. I was feeling unusually energetic and agile. As I continued to marvel the unusual energy I was experiencing, my mind began flipping through the day’s events and even the food I had consumed. There was nothing different. So where was this energy coming from? What was the secret of my agility?
It took me a while before realizing that I was not carrying my backpack. For some reason, that day, I had left my bag at home. That was what was different. So the secret to my agility was not any extra shot of energy but the lightness of my own body due to the absence of the backpack. Suddenly, I felt a little insecure without my bag. I usually carry the books that I read and a bottle of water wherever I go. Their absence started making me feel uncomfortable.
It was then that I started relating my situation to what most of us do in our life. We carry invisible backpacks with us all the time consciously or unconsciously. The baggage would be containing negative emotions relating to the past. Bad memories, the emotions associated with those memories, anger, hatred, jealousy, vengeance, so on and so forth. Moreover, we keep adding to the baggage every single day. I know of a young man who even maintains a dairy, in which he records every incident that hurts him in some or the other way, along with the date and time! He vows to take revenge. I wasn’t surprised to find that the pages of his diary were getting exhausted. Each day there was something new for him to add on. Inspite of being a really good human being, this baggage has been robbing him of his life force. It has begun to take a toll on his health. He knows the perils of carrying this baggage, yet not willing to let go of it.
We maybe be attached to our respective backpacks and may feel insecure in its absence, but what it really does is that, it weighs us down. The sooner we choose to let go of it, the better. We are souls meant to fly high with our wings spread wide, not crawl on the ground and be miserable throughout our lives. But the choice is ours. We do posses the power to let go. It is easier said than done. But when it is done, we will be re-born again. It will become a true cleansing process for our soul.
On that day, at the bus stop, the positive energy that I was experiencing from my agility, gradually overpowered my insecurity. I finally reached home…safe and sound. And I no more missed my backpack.
