I apologize for the cliche.

I have been absent for a couple  months…here’s why!

Some events happened that forced me to review the question “what do you want to do when you grow up?”.  I always answer “I don’t know, I never want to grow up.”And I still haven’t.

But I always grow – sideways and every way possible.

here’s the skinny

My landlord had been harassing me (a life issue nobody should put up with). It was making work impossible. The last couple years was about discovering a happy balance of mental and physical health. There were some very serious health issues to take care of. As I overcame these life obstacles, life pursuit started to come to the forefront. In fact life in general has became a priority.

Now I live on the edge in many ways. But drastic change calls for drastic measures. I am happy when I’m exploring. Perhaps I’m in my true element.

I’m generally pretty darn green and live a non consumptive lifestyle. I consider myself a minimalist and non-conformist. I often tell my friends all I need is my guitar, car and comput-ar (cooking, reading, traveling and nature are nice too). I realize the car isn’t that green but I work it into a pretty green life and Canada is a very large country.Things don’t give me a lot of satisfaction – my friends, family and blogging community do.

It’s my purpose to share my life experiences to help other’s learn and grow and to reduce suffering and struggles  – I won’t be apathetic.

So………….

• I stopped blogging
• I reduced my information intake (including reducing my feeds)
• I stopped twittering and minimized computer use
• I gave my landlord 30 days notice
• I sold the majority of my stuff (and I’m already a minimalist)
• I decided to pursue life and observe blogging from the sidelines

In short…I have various life issues that I can share with the world and I want to take the steps to put these things in place. I wanted to review how and why I blog. To take the time and focus on blog quality not quantity.

I have experienced life issues such as adoption and adoption reunion that I want to write about.It was time to take the plunge. My eBook on adoption reunion is finally in the works after 16 years (since my birth family reunion).

I am also interested in alternative living and have many ideas that will reduce our global impact. I wanted to live various alternative lifestyles and practice what I preach in a more active way, so I’ve gone mobile.

I’m traveling across Canada in both directions, visiting my family in Moncton, New Brunswick and friends scattered all over. In the winter I will visit my daughter, friends and family in Europe while seeking out alternative lifestyles and projects along the way – I call it The Yurtopia Project and I will blog about it. This includes:

• simple living in my typical minimalist style
• visiting meditation retreats and places with humanitarian people
• couch surfing, house-sitting and various creative methods of finding lodging
• camping and sleeping in my car (one reason I kept it to keep warm and safe)
• woofing (working on organic farms) and volunteering for socially responsible projects
• visiting with friends and family

live life

It’s also important to spend your time living – sitting behind a desk and writing won’t create the kind of real experiences and stories. Anyone can read a story and research information but to live it….that’s another story.

Reading information from the web and learning ideas from the news, television, books, articles, web content and various forms of information is one directional and has a habit of creating a one way flow – information overload.

We need to stop information intake to create new experiences (or at least limit it sometimes).

a funny thing happened along the way

Guess what! As soon as I started my journey at the end of March – life happened.

And things changed. While selling my stuff, I met a very special person right away. And things changed again. Suddenly my plans needed adjustment because this connection was a life changing event. We come from two different worlds but…sparks flew and will continue to grow into an everlasting flame.

Now I needed the tools to get things going. I had to fix my laptop and car to get mobile. I needed to have a more minimal attitude. I converted my little car into a camper. I needed to make sure I could eat, sleep, blog and most importantly (wink) play guitar.

My friends needed help to fix up their house before they sold it – and I stepped up to plate. Helping them for the first half of both May and June. This delayed things. Getting my computer functioning (and converting to Linux, since I want to promote community living) was a challenge. Getting internet access has proved to be more challenging but I’m finally on top of things.

In between I visited a vipassana meditation center for an 11 day silent retreat – another life changing event and something that I highly recommend. I wanted the tools to keep a clear mind and remain calm. I met amazing people, yep even though we didn’t talk for 11 days, including a singer/songwriter and someone going through adoption reunion. What are the odds!

Then more life happened…out of the blue, my parents offered me a newer model car, well taken care of from a friend. Typically my relationship is strained and my parents let me struggle and learn on my own (a good thing most of the time), so I was very overwhelmed with the kind gesture. The newer 2002 fully loaded, standard transmission Toyota Corolla is amazing but it delayed my already challenging journey.

Finally, I’m on the road. But the first 3 months have been amazing. Now I’m living the dream. I’m in Moncton visiting my birth family and interviewing them for my eBook. I miss my soul mate back in Toronto. I am looking forward to the journey though. It will be amazing to see what transpires.

I will be writing on a frequent basis, but spreading it out across my blog network and focusing on life – green alternative living, coping with life, living on a dime, the blogging life and a few personal interests like a cribbage book (another kinda living).

I’ll share it all from simply stephen and add some tips and tools along the way. Expect to see a lot more consistency and a little less in the way of content. It will all relate to simply stephen in some way. My time will be spent living the 4 hour work week and focusing on life. Something all of us deserve to do.

Oh…and btw, I missed you guys.

if you liked this post, take a gander at these ones!

• community – sharing our blogging journey
• Release your Inner Tortoise and Slow Down
• i’m not hungry, i’m starving
• gratitude and season greetings 2010
• what do you get when you cross green with not green