19 Years of Luggage

Yesterday I pulled this bag out of the closet while doing some very late Spring cleaning and my heart dropped. When you look at the picture above you may just see a small piece of worn, somewhat beat up and dirty luggage. When I look at this luggage I see flashes of life and love and childhood memories spent traveling with my children. I see growing pains, bumps and bruises as well as amazing vacations spent over and over with my family. I see my own selfish heart ache knowing my children have grown but I also see opportunity to see the world with my older more mature children. I see memories of each one of my children struggling to pull this tiny bag threw the airport and I see tiny hands packing it with a smile on their face knowing adventure awaits for them. When I look at this luggage I can remember each one of my children taking this very bag out of the closet at different stages of their life and remember clearly the look of wonderment on each of their faces while they imagined where they will be traveling. This very piece of luggage has been a symbol of my life as a mother over the past 19 years. This beat up absolutely beautiful bag stands for everything that childhood means to my children. This is my 19 year old son Michael's very first piece of luggage that we bought just for him when he was small enough to lose his hand in mine. This very piece of luggage went threw him, his sister and his younger brother over the past 19 years. This very piece of luggage both breaks my heart as well as fills it with an unimaginable amount of love knowing we still have so many adventures to take together. Today we will be passing this piece of luggage to my 1 year old nephew and my sister so they can create the memories together that we also did with this very bag. For it is time for us to purchase a new much larger bag for much larger adult experiences. However no matter how small this bag may be no other bag can replace the large amount of memories we have created with it. Whats in your luggage?