Even my EDC Kit is Weird!!

My EDC Kit is only interesting to people who know what EDC is… right? Every Day Carry, is a term that you could look up on YouTube and see thousands of videos about. Just like a lot of topics on there, you can find people totally geeked-out, and crazy-excited about a topic that you have never heard of, or maybe care to… on the world wide interweb.

A lot of guys show the guns and knives and weapons they Every Day Carry, on vidoes on YouTube. They show the clothes they choose to wear, that hides their gear. They tell you tons of detail about the brands and models they choose of almost every item in their pockets. Then they show you the bug-out bags they have in their cars for when the SHTF happens! (Sh!t Hits The Fan) of course…

So here is the contents of my pockets and person on a daily basis. I do switch out to a sleeker more gentlemanly knife on Sundays, this one has screwdriver heads build in, and is a little more bulky, but overall, I Carry these items Every Day…

EDC-kitBelieve it or not, this type of thing is really interesting to some people… So, here is my personal EDC itemized list:

  • Sunglasses
  • Watch
  • Front Pocket Wallet, with a little cash
  • Change
  • House Keys/Bar Keys/Church Keys
  • Car Keys/Fob
  • Memo Pad
  • G2 Pen
  • Leatherman C33T Knife
  • Galaxy S3 Cellphone

And that’s what an EDC Kit is… for a guy like me who doesn’t Conceal and Carry…

Or is it??

What other items do I Every Day Carry??

The idea for this blog post popped up, when I noticed that Every Day, I tend to carry some things around, besides the contents of my pockets, that I may want to take notice of. For instance, I tend to carry surly attitude on many days. I notice other people, seem to carry a brighter one. Some seem to be more dark and negative even than mine.

I notice that I carry a desire to help. I want that in most any situation, and I also usually bring with me an open mind to possibility and think almost any problem can be solved, if we just spend a little time thinking and working on it.

Every day, I carry a part of my past with me. I notice that I seem to always have done this. I can remember, even as a small kid, when someone would ask me, ‘how is it going?’ or ‘how are you doing?’, I would internally want to answer that I was doing crappy, or not well, because, I had lost my Daddy when I was only 4. How could someone be doing okay, without their Dad? That didn’t make sense to me back then. So I suppose, I was carrying the idea that since Dad was gone, I couldn’t be truly happy.

I just carried that Every Day.

Now, I have just opened this conversation, to the fact that we Carry Ideas with us Every Day. Just like I choose what items to fill my pockets every morning, I can see, that I decide what ideas I am also going to arm myself with for each day as well.

Are they good ones? Positive things that leave me open and happy when greeting others? For me, not as much. I tend to grab onto an idea, that I am already behind for the day. I haven’t gotten enough done. I need to do so many things yet. I can talk, but just enough, to get through the conversation, and onto the next thing I need to accomplish. Wow… Good things to EDC??

I notice that sometimes I want be open to the fact of personal choice in these matters. Sometimes I want to pout and complain and point fingers around, that the world at large, has me backed into a corner. I can only see the limitations, since that is what is being thrown at me… the higher self knows better, however.

The higher self is patient. It is sublime in it’s steadiness. It allows me to scurry and worry and fill pockets of my brain each morning with the troubles of the world. I woke up into a day of life, that could go any direction. I must focus myself and dam off the sprouting springs of energy. I can deal with a small grinding day, if that is what I limit myself to. I can comprehend a small town, tasks at hand, two jobs today, a blog to write, designs to create, calls to make, a business to assist. These are just the things I chose to carry today though. What if I chose other things?

I used to do that some, I was wild and ambitious for a couple years. I was completely on the Western tundra, deciding that each day, could be the one that skyrocketed my connection and energy and clients into some other stratosphere, not here, but some imaginary wonderland… Usually, I was sitting at this same computer though.

I don’t do that as much anymore. When people out and about say ‘How are You?’ I say that I am well. They say, ‘Are you busy?’… (a question I used to detest, in it’s pedestrian and overused glib-ness…) I say, Yes I am, very busy.

I have changed my EDC, in the last few months. The Branding Iron has given me back some form of identification, that I tossed to the wayside back in 2010. I wear a shirt with our logo. I talk about The Iron. I have something to conduct conversation with and around again. It is a much easier way for me. I never got the hang of calling myself a Life Coach. Although I desperately wanted it to be true.

That desperation translated like light through clean glass, I’m sure. I carried different stuff then. My EDC kit has changed much over these last few years. Back in the day, the Beer, the Wine, the Scotch, were my calling cards. The RumRunners, the nights out at the Bar, Parties and play toys. Quads, motorcycles, a Jeep too. Bachelor play life. You could see every day, back then, what I was carrying. It was the idea, that we work hard, but play harder, it was a wild time. I did that Every Day.

Until I didn’t anymore. I suppose I still carry that past with me today too. I have a back pocket, where I know all the things I used to be. It is a flipbook of mental pictures and laughter. Good times, Bad Times. It is there, with me all the time. I wouldn’t ever forget to bring it with me, everywhere I go. I forget my pocket-knife sometimes. I have left my phone at home even. I rarely however, forget to bring along, the consciousness of  ‘who’ I think I am today. I color that vision with regrets from the past. I brighten it with tiny sprinkles of glitter, from an imagined future too.

We’ll see, in the long run. What is the truly important stuff I carry with me, and if I can remember that it is my choice, what I load my pockets with, when I set out for my daily adventures. In the physical objects, and mental ones too.

With Love,

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols