Packing, Unpacking, Repacking…Repeat…

I’ve been doing a lot of it over the last two months:

5 Motorcycle Trips, 1 Fishing/Camping Trip and 1 Trip to Mom’s in my truck

I swear some times, I’ve met myself coming and going.

So, I’ve been home for a few days now since the last trip and, finally, going to be home for awhile.  I’ve got a lot do catch up on and gotta start getting ready for my garage sale fundraiser.

First though, I took a few days to just decompress and enjoy the nirvana of just being back at home.  After spending 3-4 days living with complete strangers in their houses, it was really comforting to settle back into my space. I’m still digesting that experience.    I’ve given a lot of thought about how I’m going to be making my comfort space when I need it when I’m on the road.  It will be a new routine for a few years and I’m still figuring out what that’s going to look like for me.  That brings me full circle back to the title of this post…packing, unpacking, repacking, repeat.

-Decisions, decisions:

This year, every single trip had different packing requirements and decisions to make about what to take and what bags were needed

Riding and staying in a hotel for a few days, attending a women’s motorcycle conference (requiring some street clothes)

Riding and camping for the trial run (every thing I would pack for the 50-state ride)

Riding and staying in a VRBO with friends (bring swimming stuff)

Riding and camping with extreme temperature ranges expected (and experienced)

Riding and working/staying on a farm

Actually packing, unpacking, repacking:

There’s the physical packing of my bags before the trip and unpacking when I get home.

There’s the packing and unpacking of my bags every time I stop somewhere, then move on.

There’s the unpacking and repacking of my camping gear bag.

There’s the unpacking and repacking everything on my bike every time I stop for the night or three.

Then it’s remembering where things are packed so you can find them, retrieving and putting back items, hopefully without tearing the bag apart and having to put that back together again.

My biggest challenge on the last two trips was actually figuring out how to pack my new bike.  It currently does not have a sissy-bar or luggage rack (they’re on back-order).  My options for attaching bungee cords was very limited.  Repacking to come home from the farm became even more challenging, as I was wearing my rain gear and warmer clothes on the way up, but didn’t need them for riding home.  My stuff bag got stuffed even bigger.  After fighting with it for some time, I ran out of energy and ingenuity.  Fortunately for me, Alice stepped in and made sense of it and got us repacked.

My challenge for next year will still be how to pack my new bike.  I’m going to be working on that this winter in the garage.  My new bike is smaller in size, the saddle bags are smaller and different shape and the luggage rack is also smaller, limiting the space for everything I packed on my old bike.

So, today I got back to taking care of business.  Since I’m downsizing once again, this time to a single storage room while I’m on the 50-state motorcycle ride, I’ve got a lot of things to go through and figure out what to keep, throw away, sell or give to my boys/grandson or some other deserving soul. Meanwhile, I’m also looking for a few key documents to finish up some lingering paperwork for both my son and my husband.  When we downsized four years ago into our townhouse we didn’t have enough time to go through the filing cabinets, so just packed up everything and moved.  Last fall, with help, I pulled most of the boxes out of the storage closet to start going through them.  They’ve been stacked around my dining room table ever since.  I finally started going through them a week or two ago when I was home for a few days and decided to work on it more today.

This time I was unpacking and repacking.  Again, the decisions.  Pulling things out, reviewing them and deciding what to do with them.  Pretty soon I was repacking things into four new boxes:  Garage Sale, Storage, For the Boys, and Need to Burn.  After a few hours of this, I was done.  This time it just wasn’t mental and physical work of unpacking and repacking.  The contents of these boxes took me down so many memory paths and into a whole bunch of emotional decision making about what to do with everything.

I sat down and contemplated the remaining boxes in front of me.  I realized that even though I was back home, in my comfort zone, and back in my routine, here I was still unpacking and repacking, just like I had been doing for the last few months.  It also occurred to me that the Packing, Unpacking and Repacking is just a part of life.  Then, I realized that it’s more than that.  It’s life.  It is how I’ve operated in my healing and growing journey throughout my life.

I pack in experiences and information, good, bad or indifferent.

I unpack those experiences and figure out what was good, bad or indifferent for me

I made decisions about what to store, leave behind and what to take with me.  (Lots of reflection, healing, lessons learned, and hopefully some growth.)

I repacked what I needed to move forward, leaving behind what doesn’t work for me anymore.

I guess that’s it.  My thought for the day.

Love and Peace,

Chick