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Vig Gleeson

Vig Gleeson

Author of Speak #TRUTH Lies – A Memoir

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Posted on November 5, 2018February 26, 2021 by Vig

Writer’s Block

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Vig ❤️

I’d love to keep in touch, don’t you? Pop your details in below and every few weeks, or so, I’ll send you my musings on writing, life and #TRUTH.

Categoriesauthor, Fear, Memoir, Vulnerable, Writing, Writing course TagsBrave, Fear, Memoir, TRUTH, Vulnerable

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For today’s #MayontheMove I wonder if our #tradi For today’s #MayontheMove I wonder if our #traditions are connected to people and places and the way we live our lives in that time? For the past 14 years, we have unwrapped presents on Christmas Eve, online, with my mum and brother in Norway. It always turns into a night of great belly laughs. When we lived in Ireland my in-laws came to us for Christmas day. Shane cooked turkey and ham with his mum, while grandad fell asleep in his chair, he won’t be doing that again, for he passed this year. There we also took part in the annual St Patrick Parade, of course, the kid was small then. Before the kid came along our Christmas tradition was long-haul holidays to explore the world on different continents, that was a favourite of mine, one I hope to resurrect now that Santa has lost his allure. In Cairo, we celebrated our traditional Christmas dinner with the Green’s @bonniearmstronggreene and Australia Day with the Dermody’s @quincydermody and, of course, many other National Days at diplomatic parties in luscious garden and rooftop terraces. I long for those traditions to resume. This year will be the first 17th May (Norwegian Independence/National Day) I celebrate in Athens. I haven’t worked out the details yet but flags and photos are in the plans. The biggest thrill, so far this year, and completely new to me, was the traditional fireworks for Greek Orthodox Easter. I didn’t know Easter was celebrated at a different time of year, over here. Tradition, of course, has long roots in religion and a nation’s independence. I’m grateful I don’t have to be religious or a citizen of any specific nation to enjoy these traditions. I already miss our Ramadan felucca rides for sunset and wish everyone, Eid Mubarak, right now. So yes, for me tradition is connected to the people we are and the places we live when we allow our lives to move with the time. The tradition I miss most from Norway is Sankthans eve on 23 June when the coast is ablaze with bonfires 🔥 How about you? Do you have a tradition you celebrate or a tradition you miss? @thefrustratednester and @diverseinthecity #lifeonthemove #fluidetraditions ‪‬‪#speaktruthlies ‪ #expat ‪#expatliving ‬
For today’s #MayontheMove I share a small snippe For today’s #MayontheMove I share a small snippet of the #Generations of women who went before me and the one who will chart our future. In his book ‘It Didn't Start With You’ @markwolynn, @VikingBooks discuss How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle. This has been a groundbreaking read, for me, in understanding the behaviour, decisions and choices, not only my parents made but also my grandparents and their parents before them. I grew up with my grandmother (Mormor) and grandfather, whom, when I was born, retired to look after me so mum could go out to work. Mormor had a melancholy nature (it wasn’t called depression then) which made her soft and caring towards me. She was also strong and courageous which instilled confidence and curiosity in little-me. There was always a sense of another woman in my grandmother’s aura, her own mother, Lovise. In a most horrendous fire Lovise was snatched from life in 1941, shortly after my mum was born. It was a loss Mormor never got over and I believe my surprise arrival filled a gap in Mormor's life, left by her mother’s premature departure.  The love and devotion Mormor had for her mother she poured into me and that love lives on today, in my daughter, who bear her great-great-grandmothers name. It is not the trauma of loss I pass on to my daughter but the love for the women who went before us and made us who we are today. This is for the Lovise of the past and the Louise of the future. ❤️ Thank you @thefrustratednester and @diverseinthecity for the #MayontheMove challenge. #lifeonthemove #selfhelp 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #familyestrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #consciousliving ‪ #expat ‪#expatliving ‬‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram
An Evening Art Walk An Evening Art Walk
When the last house or apartment is packed up. Whe When the last house or apartment is packed up. When the six suitcases that will sustain us for the next few months are loaded on the taxi 🚕 (Slide ➡️ photo 😂 ) . When we’re all on board ✈️ and reached the point in the sky where we level off. When, from my elevated view, I see the country below us sliding from present to past, that’s when I pause and breath. Sprinkling a shower of gratitude 🙏 to the #homecountry we are leaving. When the fasten seatbelt sign ding off I breath again and let go. I let go of the expectation I’ve let play in my mind while thinking, dreaming, of the land where we next will land. The weird and wonderful, the confusing and surprising, the culture, the language, the people, the food, the school and communities, the nature and colours that awaits us in the new port we are about to call #home. Our #future for the next few years. The first time I realised #lettinggo off the expectations I had for my new home country surprised me. Before our move from London to Limerick I’d made reams and reams of plans. My expectation was for hardly any change at all. To me, the two countries, was nearly the same. How wrong I was. Arriving with my truckload of expectations gave rise to disappointment and stopped me from enjoying some of the wonders in my new surrounding. Moving form Egypt to Greece filled me with joy, to be back in Europe and able to shop for all that I’d missed . . . . I didn’t think THAT expectation was one I’d do well to let go of. The sops have been closed for near seven months 😂 . You see, I don’t get all of ‘letting go’ quite right. Letting go of #expectations, for me, is a great way to move in the world. That's my kind’a packing light. . #Moving 🏡 #mayonthemove2021 photo credit @kalvisuals on @unsplash #lifeonthemove #selfhelp @thefrustratednester @diverseinthecity  📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #familyestrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #consciousliving ‪ #expat ‪#expatliving ‬‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram
Editing al fresco ✏️ Editing al fresco ✏️
Language 🗣 #MayontheMove2021 Does she speak No Language 🗣 #MayontheMove2021 Does she speak Norwegian? 🇳🇴 My answer to that question was often meet by harsh judgement. Why would a mother deny her child the gift of learning a second language for free? 🙊 Why did feel I had to defend myself because my daughter doesn’t speak my mother-tongue? 🙈 Because I compared myself to the ones who judged me. I wanted to be liked and (s)he didn't because (s)he thought how I’d raised my child was wrong. 😳 That was when I found myself in the middle of a shame-shit-storm. 🌪 
All my #triggers spiked like a tight balled-up hedgehog in self-defence. 🦔 Language didn’t come easy to me. It was a long battle with undiagnosed #dyslexia, frustration voiced by teachers, disappointed parents and laughing peers. They didn’t know how much their words hurt and stirred my storm of #shame. I barely had an English word in my head when I landed in Australia. 🇦🇺 To my backpacking peers, that was okay. I was practising a new language, I was meant to make mistakes. 🥳 Their laughter was joyous and helped me see the funny side as they explained the difference between a hairdresser and a hairdryer. 😂 Maybe it’s ironic, maybe it’s obvious, that today, I feel more at home in my second language, I love it more than my original tongue. My memoir is sett in Norway and still it’s coming out in English. 😉 I always pick up a few local words and phrases from every place I land. It's handy to know my Arabic right from left and I’d be rude if I didn’t say ‘thank you.’ 🙏 It would be cool, if she could speak my mother-tongue. Then we would have a secret language that nobody else understand.  🤪 Instead, she's picked up French, Greek and Spanish. For her, learning languages comes easy 🦋 Would I get #triggered into feeling #shame if anyone asks me that question today? No! That’s the beauty about learning how to deal with #triggers 🥳 Still, I believe, the best language is the one we speak with our eyes, hands, and our great big bright smiles. 😀 Do you have any shame or great joy around language? #lifeonthemove #selfhelp @thefrustratednester @diverseinthecity  photo credit @estudiobloom_ @unsplash 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir
Here I am, way outside my comfort zone. . . . agai Here I am, way outside my comfort zone. . . . again. This time, I’m not even going to pretend I know what I'm doing. Am I recording an audio book? 🎧 🎙 Well, that’s the idea. At least to make an attempt at it. First I suppose, I should figure out - how to I do this thing. The idea of beginner-brain excites me. I'm literally oozing with curiosity and questions. I feel like a kid in a toy shop for the very first time. Right now, I'm in that delicious state where I can't make mistakes. I can just stumble along till I find my way. I've sent out feelers to recording studios and I am looking at microphones and headsets AND I’ve downloaded the Audacity software to try out at home. I’m not sure if I should do it myself or hire a studio and sound engineer. What would you do? Does anyone want to chip in with ideas on what equipment I should get and how much should I spend? How long, do you think, it will take to read and edit an Audio book? What is the easiest and ‘cleanest’ way I can get this done? And, most important - would you listen to an Audio Book? #audiobook #beginnerbrain #recordingstudios #microphonesandheadsets 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #familyestrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #consciousliving ‪ #expat ‪#expatliving ‬‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram
5/5 #MentorsandMates #MayontheMove2021 “I can 5/5 #MentorsandMates #MayontheMove2021 “I can do it myself.” “You can't do this." “I’m doing it even if it kills me.” “Who am I to do this, I don't even know how?” These have been dominant voices in my head. The first; my stubborn toddler voice, the second; my parents voices, trying to keep me safe. The third; my invincible twenty-something voice and the letter is one I still wrestle to the ground sometimes. I don't think I’d even heard about MENTORS, until I discovered an old box of cassette-tapes 📼 at the back of the cupboard, in the sales office, where I worked as a marketer in London 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 . I was 30 and the tapes were about to radically change my life. Who knew I needed help with living my own life? . The mere idea of it sounded preposterous at the time. As soon as I started to walk my life's journey accompanied by the voices of a growing number of self-help teachers, I realised that—just as my mother and grandparents had held my hand while I learned to walk—these teachers where holding my hand as I learned to live the good life I desired 🤗. I consumed these self-help tapes and books in secret, embarrassed that I should need guidance in how to live my own life. It would be more than a decade, and a new home country, 🇮🇪 before I meet likeminded MATES and delightfully discovered I was not alone. Moira Geary @therecombobulator was one my MATES. It was her I reached out to, from Egypt 🇪🇬, when I was ready to be MENTORED. I jumped into her #WealthyMinds program where I found my way H O M E . 🏡 Her teaching goes deep into reprogramming the inner voices that, in the beginning, I didn’t knew held me back. She is all about #application 🍏 “you have to do the work to get the result,’ is one of her mantras. She teach, almost every day, LIVE and for FREE in her Positive Recombobbers Facebook Group 🔗 This a great place to start or continue a journey to Live The Good Life We Deserve. Because, we are all just Walking Each Other H O M E 🏃‍♀️ ❤️ Who is your mentor? 5/5 #MentorsandMates #MayontheMove2021 @thefrustratednester @diverseinthecity  @therecombobulator #TheGoodLife #Mentors #Mates #selfhelp #lifeonthemove 📚 Speak #TRUTH
🥂 Enjoying the outdoor bars and war weather aft 🥂 Enjoying the outdoor bars and war weather after six long months in hibernation. Feels like freedom and nearly normal. ❤️ 🇬🇷 #bars #wine #Athens #summerloving #expat #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove
Conceived on the move, far out in the wast oceanic Conceived on the move, far out in the wast oceanic, I didn’t really take roots. I felt more like a weed, 🌱 easy to pluck out and toss away. I suppose that's what I did. Tossed myself out of my birth country 🇳🇴 as far as I could throw. I landed in Australia 🇦🇺 where I meet an Irish man 🇮🇪 When Australia tossed us both out 🛂 we became travel companions. 🎒 Meandering through Thailand 🇹🇭 and Malaysia 🇲🇾 on a shoestring 🩴 before landing back in Europe 🇪🇺 where we said goodbye and have a nice life. 🙋‍♀️ We didn’t know our roots had entwined. Love, longing and hope guided us back on our path. 🧭 Decades later we still journey together comfortably grounded on the move. This has made me strong enough to look back and see, the weed I once thought I was, have grown and sprouted beautiful wings. 🧚‍♂️ Spanning the coast of Norway, from Stavenger, Bergen and Ålesund to the very North in Lofoten, I have ancestral Roots. I’m proud in that. In our garden back in Limerick, Ireland I have Roots too. Here we planted trees, 🌲 apple and pears and even when we’re not there, they grow and await our return. Until then I focus on growing my wings, learning to fly 🦅 and pilot my own life. For wether I see life as short or long, it’s a worthy journey to traverse the disowned parts of my past and find my way home in the present, exactly where I am. ❤️ I’m excited to hear how you grow your roots and your wings. 3/5 #Roots #Wings #MayontheMove2021 @thefrustratednester @diverseinthecity #lifeonthemove 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #Family #Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram #expat‪ ‬ #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #consciousparenting #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove #storytelling
Happy Easter from Athens 🐣 🐥 I never knew— Happy Easter from Athens 🐣 🐥 I never knew—until we got here, nine months ago, from Cairo, via Bangkok—that the Greek Orthodox celebrate Easter, much later than what I’m used to from Norway, Ireland and England. The bells have tolled for days, I wonder why they sound so solemn. We were looking forward to holidaying on a Greek island but Covid restrictions mandate another staycation. That makes me especially grateful that our apartment is nestled on the foothills of Mount Lycabettus. By now I feel a part of this mountain with her breathtaking views. This is where I go to move and be moved. This is me on the trail, in today’s pic. 📸 When I’m not walking or hanging out with himself and our teenage daughter, I spend hours and hours in the office revising. I’m nearly at the end of my Memoir now, it’s been years in the writing. No, that’s not true, it took a year to write the first draft, the other years were rewriting and learning the craft. 📚 It is set in Norway, on an island where my father died, during the two weeks I was there to bury him. I unravelled then because we had been estranged for fifteen years. Maybe that’s why I find the sound of the Greek bels solemn? Because they remind me of letting go of the man who was supposed to be my father. Conscious living and speaking my truth matters to me. I’m blessed to learn how to do that with the two amazing people I live, love, laugh and travel with. What’s your Back Story? 1/5 #Backstory #mountlycabettus #greekeaster @thefrustratednester @diverseinthecity #MayontheMove2021 #lifeonthemove 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #Family #Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram #expat‪ ‬ #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #consciousparenting #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers #mayonthemove2021 #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove #storytelling
I've just put a request out to hire a recording st I've just put a request out to hire a recording studio and sound engineer. I'm freaking out 😱 🎙 . . . and . . . breath . . . #audiobook 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #Family #Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram #expat‪ ‬ #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #consciousparenting #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove #storytelling 📷 photo credit @vademann on @unsplash design thanks to @canva
Date night on the mountain 🏔❤️ Happy Easter Date night on the mountain 🏔❤️ Happy Easter 🐣
It bings a divine spark to my day when it starts w It bings a divine spark to my day when it starts with a book parcel. 📚 All the way from Denmark, which isn't very faraway since we’re both in Europe, 🇪🇺 @thefrustratednester beamed me her anthology Life On The Move. Edited by @lisawebbofficial 🎁 And hand crafted chocolate from @gnawchocolate which I could, if I wanted to, hide in the gorgeous Congolese pouch she sent too. Life On The Move is a perfect book to kickoff #MayontheMove2021 📦 which starts this Saturday. If you want to join us, head over to @thefrustratednester and click on the link in her bio for more. Thank you so much Catriona, I feel loved and showered with gifts. It’s a great day ☺️✨ Who wants to place a bet on how long it will take before I tear into the chocolate? 🍫 🐿   #ChocolateByPost  #GnawChocolate  #ChocolateDelivery #BooksByPost #lifeonthemove 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #Family #Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram #expat‪ ‬ #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #consciousparenting #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers #mayonthemove2021 #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove #storytelling @diverseinthecity
I wrote this little poem, inspired by the people w I wrote this little poem, inspired by the people who’s on the journey with me, right now, and the upcoming #MayontheMove2021 next month. It is also a cheeky response to one of Walt Whitman's quote in ‘Leaves of grass.’ * ❤️Let’s keep walking. And here’s #WaltWhitman #quote “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.
Perhaps it is everywhere - on water and land.” ― Walt Whitman, #LeavesofGrass @wwhitmanian 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on #FamilyEstrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram #expat‪ ‬ #‪expatliving ‬ #consciousliving #consciousparenting #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers #mayonthemove2021 #internationalliving #expatstories #lifeonthemove #storytelling #waltwhitmanquote 📷 photo credit @andrewtneel on @unsplash design thanks to @canva
Date-Day ❤️ Date-Day ❤️
I used to believe it was something wrong with me. I used to believe it was something wrong with me. Then again, I used to take everything personally. Now, I realise it didn’t even start with me. Just like the colour of our eyes the genes we inherit from our parents and grandparents also includes our mental and emotional makeup. It Didn't Start with You by @markwolynn is an interesting read on how inherited Family Trauma shapes who we are 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on Family Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement #consciousliving ‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram ‪#expatliving ‬ #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfath #itdidntstartwithyou #familytrauma #mentalbreak #mentalhealth #happiness #grief #mindfulness 📷 photo credit @mazi_dalykai on @unsplash design thanks to @canva
Happy St Patrick's day ☘️ From the writing de Happy St Patrick's day ☘️ From the writing desk in Athens 📚 Speak #TRUTH Lies - a #Memoir on Family Estrangement ‪‬‪#author #speaktruthlies #familyestrangement #consciousliving ‪ ‪#writinginspiration‬ ‪#writing‬ ‪#inspiration‬ #writingcommunity #writerofinstagram ‪#expatliving ‬ #fatherdaughterrelationship  #absentfathers
Pink sky. A sailors delight Pink sky. A sailors delight
Market day 🍎 🍏 Market day 🍎 🍏
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