What Will You Put in Your Spiritual "Bolt Bag"

What Will You Put in Your Spiritual “Bolt Bag”?

The October 15 Weekly Insight from Spirituality U.

A Bolt Bag is a backpack in which you throw everything you might need in order to survive in case you are forced to evacuate your home. I first learned of this idea a couple of weeks ago when I watched a “DVD on TV” broadcast of the movie, “Salt.” The story features actress Angelina Jolie as a Russian sleeper spy working at the CIA until her identity is suddenly revealed. She is forced to flee and rushes to her home where she grabs her Bolt Bag and disappears. Her bag contains a fake Passport along with a disguise, a pistol, several hundred dollars in cash, and the stray bomb or two.

            I would imagine that a Spiritual Bolt Bag would contain somewhat different tools. Personally, I think it should contain everything we need to survive and thrive should a disaster overtake us. What would you put in your bag if you had, say, five minutes to pack and flee? Remember, everything must be light and easy to transport.

            I actually have a Bolt Bag. Mine contains some actual emergency supplies such as health bars, bags of juice, bottled water, a small first aid kit, and an emergency radio/flashlight that operates by a hand crank and can even recharge my cell phone.  

But I think a Spiritual Bold Bag ought to also serve as a kind of mobile home. Every home has a variety of rooms, and each must be visited regularly or it becomes dusty and messy. My spiritual mobile home comprises my five senses, as well as my head and my heart.

So, my Bolt Bag contains something to nourish each of them. For my eyes, I include a paper icon containing an image of the Virgin and Child. I’ve also packed a votive candle, matches and a waterproof tin to put them in.

For my nose, a few sticks of incense.

For touch, I’ve thrown in a set of prayer beads (a Buddhist Mala).

For my ears, I count the dozens of songs (some sacred some secular) on my I-phone; I also include the vast number of tunes stored in my head which I can hear when I call them to mind.

The health bars and bags of juice can serve my sense of taste when I offer Sabbath Prayers on Friday evenings.

It’s a different story with my head and heart. My head means my mind. It will be nourished by several books including the Bible; One Hundred Years of Solitude (my favorite book); and a few volumes of poetry and spiritual writing that I have stored on (you guessed it) my I-phone.

For my heart, I will take along memories of friends and loved ones as well as the fondness I feel for the apartment that has been my home for the last five years.

And to keep a record of how I use all of these spiritual tools in the days or weeks or months of an evacuation, I will take a blank notebook. And a pencil.

What Would you put in your spiritual "Bolt Bag"?

And how about you? What would you take in your Bolt Bag?