When you don’t drink 

And you change your small view of the world 

The world opens up

Waiting for life to change

And not  changing within yourself?

Well good luck with that but I suspect it would be an uphill battle.

Once you shift within yourself however things that you previously wouldn’t consider 

Shift, broaden – the view becomes expansive.

Every time I make a move to not drink alcohol I end up doing 

So

Much

More

I recently rode 6 hours which ended up becoming 7 hours to Cania Gorge on a Saturday. Arrived late afternoon, set up camp (ie through my swag on the ground and rolled it out) and went for a hike.

Returned from said hike 3 hours or so later in the twighlight, lit a camp fire (with a firelighter helpfully supplied by an elderly fellow camper – smart man, will take my own next time) and heated my soup.

Then I did this:

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For a very long time.

Then I went to sleep.

I would like to say that I had a dreamless sleep and everything was ticketyboo alas this is not the truth.

My air bed went flat and the bats in the trees kept fighting (and dropping the odd twig on me) but I did sleep and thanked the camping Gods for my sheep skin that I take everywhere with me. It is a good buffer under my bum when riding and being a loose skin is easy to throw down under my sleeping bag. Warm too. Tip to bikers – carry a fleece.

Anyway, waking up wasn’t a problem so after a very strong cup of coffee I then hiked for another 4 hours through some amazing scenery. And then rode my bike home for another 6 …or so.

The Roos were out on the road in the twighlight as I got within 100km of home so I throttled back to about 80km per hour – it made me later but at least I arrived home. (After three near misses with the flightly little beasts I was well aware of this).

None of this would have happened if I was in my normal mindset of having a few drinks on a Friday night. No I’m not a raging alcoholic and never was – just a “normal drinker” yet even at that drinking becomes something you do like a past time.

I much prefer my past times when I’m not drinking. Yes it was a slightly mad full on week-end and my back and bum were sore, I fell asleep on the couch Sunday night instead of making it to bed and had to be woken by my husband to get up butttt

That’s living. Really living – at least it is my idea of it and it is amazing what can be achieved in two days if you have the yen to get away and be in nature. One trip like this can rejuvenate the headspace for a month.

Which means I need to go again! Oh and it rained – a bit – but my swag is waterproof and it washed the bugs off my bike so…not too bad. 

Sorry – this is a rather boring post and  it is self indulgent – I am reliving the experience in my head and enjoying it again. There’s a few other photos on Instagram. I’m still building a new platform after bombing the other one – come follow me there (and I’ll follow back)  if you have an account as I have lost my fellow bloggers accounts. 

It’s a bit messy but this was my little camp set up for the night. Rudimentary perhaps but very comfy especially with the chair I carry the tiny and excellent Equinox chair everywhere. 

Qualifier: Ray mentions in the comments below how if I’m talking about it then perhaps I am/was an alcoholic. I think everyone has visions of alcoholics being these sick desperate people so therefore noooooo I was not one of them. What I was and )now am not) was a pretty normal drinker. 

Normal for I would say 90%of the population in this town where I live. I would say I actually drank far less then that 90%. 

The difference is that the more I see of my sons growing into young men, the other young people around them and the harmful (as I see it) drinking culture amongst young people (and many older people as well) the more it concerns me. 

When I started reading blogs, books and even Instagram accounts of people who had been drinking (or drugging) their lives away and had now found a path to freedom through sobriety I guess you could say my eyes were opened to just how endemic addiction is in society – everywhere. And I was revolted by the norm and conversely inspired by the unconventional – these amazing individuals like Holly Whittaker (from Hipsobriety) and Laura McGowN. These are women I look up to.

I don’t crave alcohol and if someone were to set a cold glass of wine in front of me on a hot day I would be repulsed. So I don’t call myself an alcoholic because alcoholics are still in “recovery” – some for the rest of their lives. They are brave people who have to battle their demons every day.

I don’t have demons. I do have bad decisions and regrets but I don’t have demons.

And I do have goals.

I can’t stop other people that I love and care about from drinking but I can stop myself. The more people that stop – the easier it is for other models of behaviour to develop amongst young women, young men and anyone who even vaguely worries about their health.

When someone says (as a lady did yesterday) to me “oh social events aren’t really my thing – I don’t drink) then I can say – as I did say – “me neither but it will be a lovely afternoon (I am in charge of a organising a race day – don’t get me started on how far this is out of my comfort zone 🙄) and you should come anyway”

And I meant it.

See that is the thing – when you don’t drink you become the outcast and because a lot of people feel uncomfortable in that role (I don’t anymore) they just don’t go to “things” or they’re truly not interested (me most of the time) in sitting around talking crap and drinking when they could be hiking or reading great books or just baking something yummy  so there is not a lot of other models of behaviour for young people.  

Crap! This is turning into a long rambly post so I’ll stop I’m sure my point was enunciated some 3 paragraphs higher up.
Here is a picture of my motorbikes bum and camp. Because it makes me happy. Have a lovely day 😊