What's In Your Wagon?

It’s been a minute since I’ve pulled a red wagon and the experience on a recent trip to the beach triggered lots of childhood memories. I remember my wagon being a lot bigger than me, mostly empty and hard to pull down the concrete street.

But it was the sense of going somewhere that made the wagon the ideal mode of transportation as a kid. Some days, when I didn’t feel like pulling, I would switch it up and allow my dad to pull me in the wagon as I waved like a beauty queen to passersby.

Now, as my adult self pulled the wagon across the beach in the blazing hot sun, the wheels sunk in the hot sand, my belongings fell out when we hit a bump, and the wind blew my hat off of my head and onto the blanket of fellow beach goers.

Finally, when my sun umbrella refused to say in it’s makeshift hole, I realized that I was just doing too much. I was trying to recreate a nostalgic moment that was most comforting as a memory.

Did I actually need a wagon to enjoy the beach in addition to the sand and water? As I was pulling the heavy wagon, all of a sudden my belongings felt like baggage as opposed to the feeling of happiness I was trying to create. What else was I carrying that I didn’t really need for my current journey?

The struggle to pull the wagon was a great reminder to travel light and pack for for the moment in which you’re living because that’s where we can access the playfulness our heart desires.

What worked during one part of our path may not work when we take a new direction, so we have to be willing to empty our wagons from time to time so we have strength to shape the future and most importantly, the capacity for more joy.