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A very astute observation.

what synchronicity! I was just listening to "Keep it light enought to travel" by the BeGood Tanyas on my profile page and then I see your post~

very sensible advice

Everyone has baggage. The older you are, the more baggage you have. The trick is whether you are hauling it all with you and letting it weigh down your every step, or you have managed to find a place to stow it. Because you can never get rid of it, only store it someplace.

I am not sure I agree that our baggage becomes part of the landscape, but it IS part of us.

"Emotional baggage" is such an easy term to toss off, dismissing events that have shaped one into the person they are today. If everyone is to be a Pollyanna, blow off everything that happens to them and develop selective amnesia, live like an oyster insulated from everything around them, a shallow person that person will be.

It is the challenges and disappointments in our lives that teach us much. deepen our humanity and empathy for others who suffer losses and disappointments in their lives. The most shallow people I have ever met are ones who have had no rainy days, no losses, no setbacks, no betrayals therefore leading a Peter Pan life. They could not understand, sympathize, empathize nor help anyone through a crisis. Such a person is incapable of being anyone's friend.

Part of my baggage is not stowed away, for it is part of me -- who I have become as a result of living, feeling, doing, failing, succeeding. I have learned more from my failures than my successes and I treasure those learning experiences.

"Travel light?" I am not sure I know what that means. I live in the here and now, the Today. I plan for the future and work towards it. With the 'baggage' I am better prepared to bring my dreams into realization for, thanks to the lessons I have learned, I am not prone to make the same mistakes again. My baggage, like souvenirs collected from one's travels, serve me well.

Easier said than done, but how very true!

One way to shed the emotional baggage is to unload it for a while and see how it feels, if it is really needed we can pick it up again.
The main virtue of forgiveness is that it benefits us first and foremost.
Being altruistic is the best thing one can do for oneself.

I think our baggage does become part of the metaphorical landscape. We "inflict" it on others, therefore--landscape, which I am taking to mean our surroundings.

GG said "The most shallow people I have ever met are ones who have had no rainy days, no losses, no setbacks, no betrayals therefore leading a Peter Pan life. They could not understand, sympathize, empathize nor help anyone through a crisis. Such a person is incapable of being anyone's friend."

You just nailed the reason I am no longer married.
Wendy

"The most shallow people I have ever met are ones who have had no rainy days, no losses, no setbacks, no betrayals" GothamGal

What about the people who have been through all of those things and as a consequence don't want to "understand, sympathize, empathize nor help anyone through a crisis."? Are they shallow too?

I agree with Marti on this. You can push your emotional baggage into the background but you can never be rid of it no matter how many times you face it or relive it. Whether you do face it or relive is entirely up to the individual - nobody else has the right to poke their nose in.

'Traveling light' is also good advice for those of us in the habit of bringing home some of that landscape.

Tumble weeds and rocks for example, both real and metaphorical.