Moving to a New "FB Home"

I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision. -W. Clement Stone

a web-cam image documenting the evening of our move from Germany to the Netherlands, March 2009

Last Friday, I deactivated my first ever FB account after 4 years of reminiscing how life was before I moved from Germany to the Netherlands, and consequently recording there our early life in a small village here in North Holland.

My last profile and cover photo from my deactivated FB account

Closing the old FB account was not as easy as I thought it would be. But something I truly had to do.

Moving on to another chapter in your life sometimes requires a "symbolic ritual". At least in my case.

Deactivating that account (as originally planned a long time ago) is an attempt to close one chapter and move on to the next with a sharper focus on applying lessons I have learned in life with much vigour.

I am not re-inventing who I am, with the new FB account I created.

Deactivating the old account (not me as a person!) is my way of shedding an old skin (for lack of a better word!) I no longer feel is a part of me, and delaying the inevitable (i.e. holding on too much - once again - to the past) is hindering me from reinforcing the positive changes, we are working on applying in our lives.

There were so much gained through various very open interactions (on various posts & PMs) on that  FB account ; they all helped us a lot adjust to our new life here in the NL. As well, as help me get through over some personal issues.

There is nothing wrong with being a very open person, in my opinion, but I've opened myself too much (by choice) online. Although I profited and learned a lot through this openness, I've also in the process opened myself to a lot of hurt.

My new FB account

What I have learned on my way to strengthening myself : I should focus on continuously and consistenly reinforcing positive learned behaviour, which will help me and my family have a stable, balance life.  A life of quality.

I feel, I can do this by starting afresh, and consciously being more aware of how I interact publicly/online.

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

Writing & Travelling Heals

One of the reasons I joined FB is for self-therapy. There have simply been too many rapid changes in my life, and not enough peace to work through them. In the past, my tendecy is to work on personal issues alone. Of course, there are more than enough love ones, who were and are willing to listen, lend a helping hand, a comforting shoulder to lean on. But it was my nature to want to sort things out on my own.

It seems contrary to state this, this occurs to me while writing what I wrote , but I am in the core a very private person. They say life to be fully savoured should be balanced. I needed to learn how to be open again. Blogging seems to be the answer to that need.

Without going into much details, I would like to share that almost 2 years (on the 23rd of March) into using this medium - what is in general considered as a social networking site - as my online journal, album (personal/family) I have reaped a lot of positive changes in my life, which in turn has benefited my beloved family.

I once received a letter from a friend, whom I worked with during college, telling me that our friendship, hopefully will not have walls, no floors and no ceilings. I still laugh whenever I recall those words. It was probably between the years 1990-91 or 1991-92. The last couple of years before I left the Philippines.

Walls. It is very easy to build up walls around one-self. Sometimes, it is so easy to slip into building walls around one-self, that one realizes too late until one feels the result of closing one-self in.

What I needed to re-affirm for myself, and was able to in the almost two years of using FB, is that everyone goes through almost the same life phases, and almost everyone has the same dreams, goals, longings.

We all have different ways of travelling through life, different pace, different tempo. But all the same, we will all encounter road blocks, and challenges to overcome on the way to fulfill whatever it is that motivates us to wake up every single day.

Why am I writing all these thoughts, and why do I have all these thoughts?

I guess the result of being ill the last few days, and now feeling a whole lot better. It reminds me clearly about the relativity of time.

Also because I have been meaning to share pictures of our trip to Berlin but never got around it. Lately, I have been looking through them again, and I no longer feel so emotional about sharing.

I was 7 or 8 y.o. when I dreamed of going to Berlin. I visited it for the first time 1993, almost half a year after turning 21 (well, near it...we were in Berlin Potsdam with my German language classmate during a school trip). Then 1996, with my German husband. Easter 2006, eldest and middle daughter came along for the first time. 2009, with P and the littlest.

The Brandenburg Gate is very prominent in the history of Germany, Europe and the world.

It played a prominent role in my childhood imagination and visualisation of living life in Europe. Ironically enough, it bared silent witness to my simple life going through many transition.

Now, I look forward to going many times through this gate with an open heart, and an open mind to the future ahead.  Perhaps like the millions of visitors in awe of the freedom and hope this landmark represents.