Can you recognize your luggage?

Have you ever spent time at a luggage carousel at an airport? I have! During seminary I spent a couple of years working as a chaufer. I picked up lots of folks at the airport and helped with luggage. Since seminary I have been blessed to travel quite a bit and have spent time waiting on my own luggage. One thing that I have watched is that a lot of times people pick up the wrong luggage, mostly because their luggage looks a lot like others. Some bright folks find ways to personalize their luggage. They will put all kinds of tags or stickers on their luggage to make it easy to identify. I try to buy luggage that is unique.

Today in my seminar we were discussing the need to recognize the lenses the we look through when others communicate something to us. In other words people speak words in order to share meaning from their minds to my mind. Those people when they speak words, there is luggage or meaning in their minds attached to their phrase. But when I hear their words I automatically attach luggage or meaning to their phrase. Lots of times our luggage doesn't look the same.

One challenge is for me to take a moment when an event happens or someone speaking to recognize and take ownership in the luggage that I feel and attach. So it is important to our communication to be able to say "I feel . . ." or "I think . . . " instead of saying "You make me . . ." Pick up your own luggage. Others can't make you feel or think a certain way. Maybe that is a generalization, but torture aside, we think or feel something because we have luggage of our own.
Think about how you communicate. What does your luggage look like.

learning today
Trent