Listen to Post Power Words – July 21st
We all have baggage. It’s not the kind we can see, or put our socks in, or load into the trunk of our car, but we carry it always, and it gets in between us and the people we aspire to grow into.
I use The Power Words to battle temptation.
One night I fell to sleep, and dreamt I was at the airport. I was at baggage claim, watching the conveyor belt go round and round. There were no other people around. None in sight. The conveyor was full, however, with many large, heavy bags. In the dream, I knew that they were all mine, and it felt awful to watch them traveling by me again and again. I didn’t want to touch them, to take them, but at the same time I was locked in place, unable to leave.
Worst of all were my regrets. After enough time passes, we often forget the wrongs others have done us, moving on to new ones in the present term of our lives. The wrongs we have done, however, can be much different.
There was so much I wasn’t proud of. I wasn’t proud of the things I had done in my addiction. I wasn’t proud of the amount of cars I’d broken into, searching for things I could sell to get high. I wasn’t proud of missing my brother’s wedding. I wasn’t proud of having cooked a dog. I was even less proud that I hadn’t made use of all the dog’s parts, as the noble Native American would have done. I wasn’t proud of all the baggage I’d stolen from baggage claim at the airport.
Once I had begun my spiritual journey, things changed. I gained some perspective on who I was. Sure, I had done some bad things, but that didn’t make me a bad person. No longer were my days were focused only on doing whatever I needed to in order to feed my glue habit. I had emerged from the sniff dens and into the sunset, and I didn’t have to live that life anymore. I wasn’t going to pick up the pipe and ‘base epoxy again. I could let that life go.
Let’s imagine ourselves at that airport, now. Watch your baggage parade in front of you. We can visualize it, and honestly ask ourselves: Is there anything in those bags we need? Anything at all that’s good for us?
See yourself turn, and walk away from the clanking machine. See yourself walking to the automatic sliding doors. They open for you, and you step out, and make your way to the white zone. It’s for immediate loading and unloading only, but that’s okay, because right then your ride pulls to the curb and stops. It’s the fancy sedan of your loving Spirit of the Universe, here to transport you into a brand new life.
Power Words:
Today, I am new person. I am a free person. I may be powerless over my glue addiction, but I’m not glued to anything. I can let the past slip away.