When climbing a mountain or taking on any other challenges, a wise course of action is to “gear up” appropriately.

Getting the right shoes, sleeping bag, backpack, snacks…whatever. It’s helpful to have them or, in some cases, pick them up along the way.

But when that challenge is complete, it’s no longer necessary to wear the hiking shoes or carry the sleeping bag.

They have served their purposes.

Look at them with gratitude and then let them go.

It might feel good to say or think, “ah, this was the backpack that went up the mountain with me,” but the backpack itself, like the first blossoms of spring served its role at the appointed time and for its appointed purpose.

Then, just as we watch the flowers that turn to leaves, we have a choice.

Either long wistfully for the flowers that once were or savor the flow from flower to leave to the inevitable bare limb.

The things we pick up along the the massive trek that is our lives are no different.