Gone

Can losing your luggage also take way some emotional baggage?

My bag never showed up.

I never used to check a bag. But when I hit my 50’s, I changed a lot of my travel protocols. I quit running through airports. I gave up most airplane food. And I started checking my bag.

Once on the ground in Amsterdam, I double-checked the belt: Carousel 16.

I went to the arrivals hall and waited. And waited. And waited. But to know avail.

As the crowd thinned out, that awful feeling emerged — they lost my luggage.

Soon I was the last person from my flight staring at two random bags on the conveyer that were not mine. I immediately switched into “fight or flight” mode.

I hit “fight,” but with a twist. I was going to remain calm. I had been reading plenty of Stoicism and this is precisely the kind of situation the Stoics have you ask: “What’s in your control?” (The correct answer is not much.)

I’ll spare you the details of the procedure and paperwork.

But I left Schiphol without my checked bag feeling bummed and discombobulated.

I checked into the hotel and Googled the nearest H&M.

Then I quieted my mind and simply asked: what do I really need?

When you lose your luggage, your world suddenly shrinks. You start to think in essentials.

I started with what I had. Fortunately, I had my carry-on items: Phone, Mac, Meds…Moleskine.

What I didn’t have was everything else: my favorite linen blazer, running shoes, running gear, favorite t-shirts, underwear…Dopp kit! (Not only all my toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant and hair goop, but the actual Dopp kit itself. A leather Tumi-number I’ve had since I started going global back in 1998!)

All gone.

Weirdly, about a week before this trip I started listening to the new HAIM album and my favorite track, in heavy rotation, was the song, “Gone.” It’s a break up song, to be sure. Maybe my bag broke up with me. It was tired of traveling.

Gone. A weird harbinger, nonetheless.

In any event, here I am.

I’ve been in contact with KLM/Delta. I saw on the app that the bag had arrived. I then saw on their website that it had arrived and they tried to deliver it. Progress?

Um, no.

I called to speak with an actual human (they still have them here in Amsterdam!), but the human said there was no information. And to make matters worse, they had my email wrong.

Might have done better with a robot.

So…here I am with the essentials.

I’m staying calm. I’m staying hopeful.

But enough about me.

What can help you?

What are your essentials?

Can you just show up as you are and can that be enough?

That’s my plan.

How about you?

Image: Random shot I took on a walk here.