Packing or Pack Rat: The Question of the Day

Are you a packer?  Does your suitcase look like this days before you set off?

Or are you a pack rat?  Throwing stuff into a suitcase while the taxi driver waits impatiently at the front door.

Or do you fall somewhere in between the two extremes?

Maybe you’re like my Great Aunt Mildred–you resolve the dilemma by staying put.  No need to worry about packing when you’re quite content just where you are.

Having spent a summer coming and going across the country and across an ocean too, I’ve come to grips (so to speak) with my inner packing self.  When I travel, more even than when I am at home, I like order in my life.  I plan ahead.  I take out a little luggage rack and put my open suit case on it (hidden, of course, from the dogs who freak out when they see a suit case).  Then I begin to pack.  Not once or twice but several times.  I’m getting my system down.  Next time I travel, I hope I can do so with only one small bag and a little carry on.

My new challenge is my purse.  I’ve yet to find one that works for travel and that will stand the course when I return home.  Maybe I should be looking at colors other than black.  As it stands, my purse really is the proverbial black hole!!!!!!!

All the travel I’ve done this summer has led me to reflect on where I go, why I’m going and with whom I travel.  I love to travel, but I love to be at home as well.  Who knows how much time any of us have.  For me it’s important to spend the bulk of the time I have left with the one who has travelled with me for over thirty years.  In the packings and unpackings I’ve done this summer, I’ve come to a decision about my future travels.  While the one I love is here to travel with me, I’ll not cross an ocean without him by my side.  We balance one another–both in our packing strategies and in our travel.  I’m grateful to travel side-by-side with Tim.