My Bags are Packed

I am ready to go.

My bags are packed.

My cup is over-flowing.

But I have miles to walk before I leave.

The joy in my heart helps me walk each step with bells on my feet.

I am bursting with excitement for all that is and all that is to be.

The line from the 70's song Jet Plane:  My bags are packed and I'm ready to go, filled me with a sense of wanderlust even as a child.  I was the only kid at camp who could have stayed all summer long without missing a thing as I loved meeting new people and experiencing all the activities only camp offered.  On my first weekend getaway with my late-husband, John, we shared story after story about the excitement of having a bag packed for spontaneous travel.  For me, it was an idea, a fantasy always enjoying drive time on an open road with the urge to keep on going and see what I found along the way; and for him, it was his reality.  Before we met, he lived all over allowing his restlessness to take him from place to place, job to job.  And during our life together when his "boys" would call to report snow had dumped generously in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, he already was prepared with his bags jam packed full of essentials in the back seat of his truck.   

I feel as if I am now living a similar life to John's but it is absolutely mine honoring my deepest desires, as I am finally ready for spontaneous travel, to discover more open roads and keep on going to see and experience what I never have before.  Anything feels possible as I am not attached to the path that unfolds, trusting it is all good.

Yesterday morning, the movers loaded my packed bags full of carefully selected items that I want in my new space.  The paring down process was not difficult for me as I trust the stuff will find new homes where it will be treasured by others as much as I did at one time.  Now, the kitties, that is another story as my heart strings continue to tug and release missing them and knowing they are on their own new adventure where they are loved.  The house is empty in every way as the vacuum on my time here seals.  The neighbor girl, CeCe, laid a bouquet of wildflowers on the porch and taped a homemade card to my door saying that she would miss me and how she can't even imagine me not being next door and hopes my new neighbors appreciate having me next door as much as she has.  Her words and kind gesture made me cry tears of gratitude for all I get to take with me.

There are certain things that cannot be packed in bags - the love and kindness bestowed graciously on us by others must be contained in the heart where it can never be eliminated only illuminated.  I will carry my over-flowing cup with me wherever life takes me passing it on, sprinkling the seeds that have been planted within me.  I have miles to walk before I leave.  The joy in my heart helps me walk each step with bells on my feet.  I am bursting with excitement for all that is and all that is to be.