Baggage Claim

Have you ever experienced NOT finding your luggage at Baggage Claim? Anger and anxiety set it. You ask yourself, “NOW what?!” or “Why me? or “Why now?”. You had plans. You knew exactly what and how things were supposed to happen. This was not one of the things that was supposed to happen.

Our emotional baggage may leave us feeling the very same way. When life does not go as expected, we may find ourselves reacting in ways not necessarily related to the actual events taking place. We may end up feeling flustered, misunderstood or alienated because the world around us simply does not get us or what is happening to us. We may even react, and, in doing so, we make the situation even worse. In the moment of an emotional outburst, we may not even care about anyone else’s pain but our own. We may not realize those to whom we react may be experiencing the very same feelings or may even be carrying around very similar emotional baggage to ours.

We oftentimes carry similar scars, wounds and needs as those around us. Their appearance can be so well hidden or so subtle or be manifesting themselves in ways so different to our own experience, we may not always notice them there. We may not notice that the people we feel are causing us pain may also be in pain.

Where does this leave us? Does this make us a terrible person? Is the world trying to teach us a lesson?

These are most likely the same questions we should probably be asking of ourselves and of those caught up with us in these situations. We can keep on pointing the blame outside ourselves or we could try to claim our baggage, address it or dismiss it, and move on. Otherwise, we risk filling up yet another bag to carry around with us, ready to spill out when the next perfect storm happens to hit.

Even when we lose our baggage, the journey still continues. We should try to stop to acknowledge what is happening, but not let it keep us from enjoying the rest of the journey. Losing our baggage may not be such a bad thing.

If you liked the sculpture, please go to http://brunocatalano.com/ to see more of Bruno Catalano’s work.