Preparing for a five week adventure to an ecovillage on Vancouver Island, choosing the proper kit is extremely important to ensure a safe and successful trip. But just as important is the decision to choose which thoughts and emotions I will also carry along on this journey.

This adventure would be a blend of; travel, trekking, learning, living in community, and visiting new friends. Getting the travel gear ready was the easy part. I collected all the outerwear, cleaned up the footwear, identified the layers of quick dry clothing, pulled out the compression sacks, then made piles of the writing bits and other kits. Working from memory I basically recalled all the usual travel stuff but to be safe, I did do a quick review from a master list that I have refined over the years.

New to this list is an intentional review of what mental and emotional baggage I may inadvertently bring along. So I have been consciously evaluating everything going on in life right now and with the goals of the adventure in mind, I compartmentalized those things I wanted to bring with me to reflect on, dealt with any unfinished business, set aside ongoing issues, and discarded the frivolous.

This conscious exercise has freed up a lot of emotional and psychic ‘space’ for me to more fully enjoy the upcoming adventure. From experience I do know that the less you carry physically, and emotionally, the lighter and richer the journey will become.

As I looked over my things, thoughts, and intentions one last time, an old travelers creed came to mind; ‘take half the stuff and twice the cash’ … of course the extra cash is for getting into or out of trouble … and so having lightened my physical and emotional baggage I set out on another adventure!