Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 271 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
How Heavy Is Your Backpack?
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 271 of our trek, and the past three days on our hike, we used a simile of how Life Is Like a Seed. Today we want to focus on the load that we carry on our trek of life each day. So I want to ask you, “How Heavy Is Your Backpack?” If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On our daily trek called life, the hills that we climb, the twists and turns on the path that we face, and the steep slopes that we find ourselves on can be challenging and very interesting. On the home front, we have come across one of those situations. Paula's Mom asked Tuesday why the furnace was only blowing cold air. Since our office is upstairs and the temperatures have been mild, I had not noticed it.
Upon investigating it, I discovered the flame was not lighting in the furnace although the blower continued to run. We called the company we purchased it from, and unfortunately, the heat exchanger has a crack in it causing it to overheat and shut off the flame. A more serious situation is that it can also leak carbon monoxide.
Since the furnace is over 20 years old, we will have to replace the entire unit. This is a major expense that we had not anticipated, so it is time to be extra frugal to cover the cost. Although this is something extra in our backpack of life that will be a burden for a while, we have learned over the years that it is best to take life as it is, not how we wished it were. So, the positive aspect of this is we will have a more efficient furnace that will work better.
If we are not careful as we trek through life, we will allow our backpack to become full with cares and concerns that weigh us down and cause us issues. So, today as we start up the trail let me ask you…
How Heavy Is Your Backpack?
Imagine carrying a backpack filled with rocks everywhere you go. Now that would be exhausting! It gives new meaning to the phrase “doing the heavy lifting.”
If the weight of that backpack seems like too much to bear, just imagine the impact of the emotional baggage that we carry every day! Think about it…We fear getting fired, we complain about the service we receive, we express disgust over the politics of the nation, we envy the person “next door,” we worry about meeting deadlines, and we discredit our colleague for “stealing” the promotion. Emotional baggage? You bet.
Now ask yourself, “What do we gain by gossiping about a colleague, badmouthing politicians, or ranting about our frustrations on Facebook?” Answer: We get upset, with little to show for our efforts. It’s as though we believe that if we gossip, rant, and rave loud enough and often enough, people will accept our way of thinking. The truth is, besides being a colossal waste of time, nothing really changes — except that we’re not much fun to be around. Who needs that?
Even when we don’t overtly express our negative feelings of worry, prejudice, fear, criticism, guilt, anger, and envy, we play out these “dramas” in our heads like a chess master plotting his next few moves. These negative thoughts race through our minds like a whirlwind, making us more and more anxious each time we revisit them. In fact, some people get so overwhelmed and depressed that they worry themselves into a frenzy, making it tough to concentrate during the day and causing sleep issues at night. Taken to the extreme, emotional baggage can be absolutely debilitating if not contro...
