Simply Packing

When I think of a retreat, I think of simplicity, peace and beauty.  My special weekend retreat had all of the perfect ingredients: a stunningly beautiful rural ocean-side location, a cozy and charming little room with a view of the marina as well as the peacefulness and simplicity of mindfully choosing exactly what I felt like doing - all weekend.  It was heaven.

Of course first I had to get there.

The pre-journey began with the building of excitement from participants posting on the retreat Facebook page. People were posting the number of sleeps until the weekend, new friendships were beginning to form from online introductions and banter back and forth between participants, retreat updates and schedule information were being shared and then it happened like a sudden clap of thunder.  Someone mentioned packing.

Now I must admit that I am a woman who likes to have options and have never been known for my light duty packing skills. In many ways, my packing skills follow the same lines as my photography skills; I have absolutely no problem taking sixty million pictures of the same little duck swimming in the same little lake because, hey, you can never have too many pictures of the same little duck swimming in the same little lake, right? I can still hear the voice of my dear ex-husband providing running commentary as he looked through the package of picture prints in the days before digital photography.  "Here is a duck on the lake”, he said.  “And here is another picture of the little duck on the little lake.  Oh and here is a picture of the same little duck on the same little lake, but from a different angle."  I did mention that he is my ex-husband, right?  But we were talking about packing.

About a week before the retreat I started making lists; on post it notes.  Why make a list on a single sheet of paper when you can have post it notes plastered all over the place? With each post-it my excitement began to build.  Then the packing question: did anyone else felt like they were over packing for a two day weekend retreat?  That simple little question stopped me in my tracks.  Over packing?  Is there such a thing?

Now remember that I said that when I think of a retreat, one of the things that I think about is simplicity. I must admit that I did give a fleeting thought to keeping my packing simple but soon realized that in Kathy terms that meant that I would bring the medium sized roller suitcase instead of the jumbo-tron version.  As I said online, happiness is packing the kitchen sink.

So having the perfect suitcase in mind, one night I set off into the furnace room to retrieve said suitcase.  That was when I realized that I have a problem.  My name is Kathy and I am a bagaholic.  I discovered bags stored within bags and then there were more bags stored within more bags.  Some people like shopping for shoes; apparently I collect bags just like I take pictures. I’m always in search of the perfect one.

When I finally unearthed the suitcase and made my way to the furnace room door, I had the presence of mind to quickly grab a bag; after all, I've lived with me for a long time now and know exactly who I’m dealing with.

Clothes washed and packed away in the suitcase, I was proud of the fact that the only "extras" that I was bringing was a sweater and a second pair of yoga pants.  I was doing well.  That was until I realized that I still needed to pack my accoutrements.  No problem, I just happen to have the perfect bag for those.

In went the hairdryer, curling iron, makeup bag, hair products, facial products, meditation quartz crystals, Kleenex and the kitchen sink.  I couldn't close the bag.  That is when I got ruthless and pulled the "can't live without" eye liner, mascara and lip gloss and about fifty other items out of the makeup bag and ditched that bag. Yup, I was making real "progress" here.  Never mind, Kathy, the big bag is going in the car and doesn't really need to close anyway.

What about all of the electronic gadgets that we were supposed to leave at home as we embraced mindful simplicity and went "offline" for the weekend?  I might want to write a blog post or read a book, and the craft project that just had to come along because I might suddenly develop a creative side to my being.  And oh the iPad has the backlight which I don't like for long bouts of reading so I should really take my e-reader.  And the big camera and ... and ... the list just goes on and on.

But wait, didn't the retreat information notes say that we needed a yoga mat, pillow and blanket for the yoga and meditation circles? Oh and snacks, someone mentioned snacks.  Snacks, electronics and other assorted items packed; I was finally ready to go.

The first thing that you must do when stuffing, I mean packing your car with all of your cherished and hand-selected retreat items is approach the car with caution.  You don’t want it to know that not only is it going to have to transport you to your destination hours away, it is going to have to transport all of your stuff hours away too.  I think that there is an art to packing a vehicle and fortunately I had learned well from watching my kindred spirit neighbours pack their compact car for their annual summer vacations.  The husband would roll is eyes as we neighbours would pull up our lawn chairs with assorted bevies to watch this revered annual event.  Watching how the ironing board was going to make it into their car was my own personal highlight each and every year. 

 

Note to self: pack the car in the middle of the night; you know what the neighbours are like.  Second note to self: leave the ironing board at home; you don’t like to iron anyway.

I’m happy to say that the little black car, packed bumper to bumper, made it to the retreat resort.  Upon arriving, a kind member of the crew asked me if I needed help unloading my car.  "Oh no thanks", I said. "I packed simply.”