When a ship contract comes to a close, I find myself back on land in my old surroundings but feel like a completely different person. After four months spent traveling the world, seeing exotic new places, eating new foods, meeting new people, and all in all having completely new experiences, a person is bound to look at themselves and the world around them a little differently.
Consequently I find myself arriving home always in a state of reconstruction. It’s been a great way to clean out my closet – literally and figuratively. I’ve learned to simplify and to live with just enough to get by. I’ve learned the act of letting go – of people, of things, of the past. It’s never an easy thing to do, but when your life is contract based and you need to live with just enough material things to get by, you quickly realize why less really is more.
When one arrives home after months away at sea or travel, it feels like the world instantly slows down to a snail’s pace. Nothing appears to have changed around you but you have changed. It’s quite a shock to the system and it’s hard to comprehend if you haven’t experienced it yourself. I once watched a documentary called A Map for Saturday about a guy who spends a year backpacking the world and the emotional extremes he and fellow long term travelers go through. In the end we learn it can be frustrating to always live in a state of change (or as I like to think of it – renewal), but it can also be (and usually is) quite an addicting way to live as well.
I had the idea for this post while cleaning out my childhood bedroom yesterday evening. Now that I’ve learned the art of letting go, I’m finding it so much easier to rid myself of unnecessary items; even once cherished items. I appreciate them for what they were, what joy they brought me at the time, and let them go. I’m trying to do the same emotionally: find what’s cluttering up my mind, (past relationships, past emotions), appreciate them, and let them go.
And while we’re on this subject, I also deleted my Facebook account yesterday. I’ve had it deactivated for awhile and would pop back in here and there in periods of extreme boredom or general curiosity, but yesterday when I signed in and began cleaning it up with thoughts of reactivating, I became overcome with repugnance. Facebook is like a great big closet full of things we hold onto but should have discarded a long time ago: old acquaintances, past loves, old photos, outdated ideas and memorabilia. If Facebook actually was a closet it would be bulging at the seams as it holds on to everything. And holding on to things in life only creates stagnancy. Life is all about change (renewal). We should embrace it more often.
And that’s what living out of suitcases has taught me.