Moving Back to Move Ahead

I started this blog a few years ago but was too busy to really do anything with it. That's my excuse anyways.

Since leaving Canada for our new life in Wales I've had lots to write about and pictures to show off and used Facebook for that. But I'm getting creeped out by the size and use of it. Constant messages advising how our personal info is being used and abused and now ads everywhere posing as info. And it really bugs me that Facebook is selling our info to companies that target specific people for their products. So fuck 'em.

Withdrawing from Facebook isn't easy. Like the cigars I gave up when I left Canada, there's a withdrawal syndrome in its wake. A craving to connect, anxiety in not knowing and restlessness in not knowing what else to do. I was able to quit the cigars by changing my routine - a necessity when you change countries - and Facebook has been part of my daily routine for six months. My browser is set to go there on startup and checking in on what everyone's doing back home is comforting. It's been my lifeline, my connection to my former life as I drift politely and obscurely in Wales.

A few years in detox (on the nursing side of the counter) taught me that in addition to the withdrawal syndrome, a vacuum is created when drugs are stopped. Most of the clients were there to get away from drugs and the brutal lifestyle they demanded. They weren't moving towards something better which meant there was nothing to fill the hole left by the drugs departure. Recidivism is high. Contrary to the teachings of AA which advised them to just work on today, I encouraged them to make a goal and fill the vacuum with efforts to make the goal happen.

I've got a goal and I'm going to use this blog to fill the vacuum created by Facebook's departure and help me achieve my goal. For the time being you'll have to decide what that goal is but it will become apparent. To date I've written about where I've been and what I've seen and as I'll be travelling for another 8 months, there'll be lots more of that. But I also want to write as honestly as possible about what I've seen and felt in years previous; about losing and gaining children, careers and partners. It's been a fifty-one year roller coaster ride and you're invited along.