Posted in Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, United States, Writing, tagged 9/11, April 15th, bombings, Boston bombings, Boston Marathon, calm, emergency responders, explosions, injured, killed, little children, memories, National Guard, nauseous, police, run to help, September 11th, victims on April 16, 2013 | 8 Comments »
Last night I was all set to go with a humorous blog post today when Husband called down the stairs, telling me to turn to CNN. Something about a suspicious explosion in Boston. My heart sank just hearing the words. I turned the channel and together we sat, eyes glued to the television, listening to [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Light Bulb Moments, tagged 2013, blogging, centering, change, community, contemplation, creativity, emotional resilience, gratitude, Happy New Year, New Year's Eve, reflection, resolutions, writing on January 1, 2013 | 24 Comments »
I know that everyone is either partying hard, out and about and thus not reading blog posts, or already in bed. I’m not one to judge, so whatever floats your boat… Or you’ve been busy and only now are finding your way to reading this. So I’m going to keep it short and sweet. When you [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, United States, Writing, tagged blog posts, blogging, book, cancer, children, creativity, dog, expat life, family, getting creative, illness, internet connectivity, living overseas, Oli, Panera Bread, parents, planning, plotting, posting on my blog, progress writing a book, Starbucks, surgery, travel, treatment, tumor, visiting, visiting family, wifi, writing on October 25, 2012 | 12 Comments »
It’s been almost three weeks to the day since my last post. Believe me, I know. It’s been weighing on my mind. Not in an ‘oh cr@p, I have to post something on that d@mn blog’ sort of way, because this blog has never been like that for me. It is a labor of love, [...]
Posted in Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Emotional Resilience, Global Issues, Light Bulb Moments, Writing, tagged appreciation, conflict, Edna Lemle, emotional resilience, freedom of speech, grateful, gratitude, international strife, Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, optimism, positive psychology, religious differences, research, Sri Chinmoy, thankful, UN Mediation Group, violence, World Gratitude Day, writing on September 21, 2012 | 8 Comments »
Glancing at headlines in the news yesterday, one in particular caught my eye. It seems today, September 21st, is World Gratitude Day. The seed of an idea planted in 1965 has grown and taken on a life of its own over the past five decades. It seemed rather fortuitous that the concept of gratitude was raised since I [...]
Posted in Creativity, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, Work, Writing, tagged 9/11, artistry, beauty, birthday, creativity, endure, grief, joy, loss, pain, reflection, remembrance, September 11, sorrow, soul, tears, vulnerable, writing on September 11, 2012 | 14 Comments »
I had not planned to write today. As the day approached, I felt a gentle shroud of melancholy descend and wrap around my shoulders like a soft caress. I had a productive day yesterday, one in which I not only made good progress on a project, but also laid the groundwork for two new ones. One [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Global Issues, Light Bulb Moments, Netherlands, Travel, United States, Work, tagged art, artistic, blogging, connectivity, creative spark, creativity, cultural, culture, design, dreaming, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, Facebook, family, friends, Google it, Google+, imagination, innovation, innovative, inspiration, internet, internet connectivity, jewelrymaking, LinkedIn, music, Netherlands Radio Choir, painting, search engines, social media, social media venures, Twitter, Vizify, writing on September 6, 2012 | 10 Comments »
I must confess that it still astounds me how, in this day and age and in the comfort of my own home here in the Netherlands, internet connectivity and the various social media venues it has spawned allow me to maintain contact with friends and family and build associations with others. Like the old Bell [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Blogging, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, Writing, tagged A Tight Wide-Open Space, Aegean Sea, author, blogging, books, creativity, culture, epic voyage, expat, Facebook, Heathen Pilgrim, HeathenPilgrim.com, Iran, journey, Kickstarter.com, Kusadasi, Matt Krause, Soapbox, travel, trek, turkey, Twitter, video, writer, writing, writing projects on September 1, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Today is September 1st and I’m sooo excited! Not because it’s the first day of September, although I must say that autumn is my favorite season and I’m very partial to this month. Just a few moments ago, Matt Krause – writer, traveler, former expat and Heathen Pilgrim – took his first steps on his long [...]
Posted in Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, tagged aging, Alice in Wonderland, cancer, death, dementia, doctor, dying, elderly, family, hospital, illness, living, looking glass, mortality, rabbit hole, sandwich generation, surgery, US on August 21, 2012 | 34 Comments »
That’s exactly how I’ve been feeling lately. As with Alice in Wonderland, this summer I fell down the rabbit hole and ended up in a parallel universe. It’s still my life, or is it? It all began innocently enough, back in that London hotel room on Easter afternoon. I can still visualize myself resting on the [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, tagged adolescents, babies, cancer, career, children, college, doing the best you can, economy, employment, expat life, expats, family, friends, generational sandwich, illness, jobs, parents, sandwich generation, saying goodbye, teens, travel, university, vacations, visits on July 9, 2012 | 22 Comments »
Almost three months ago I wrote about the challenges inherent in being a member of the Sandwich Generation, Expat Style. You know what I mean: being squeezed between children (of whatever age) and parents and elderly family members. Both groups may need you, albeit in very different ways. It happens to many most of us, and we [...]
Posted in Blogging, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Expat Life, Global Issues, Guest Posts, Light Bulb Moments, tagged aggression, Al Qaeda, Al Shabat, blogging, civil war, Djibouti, drought, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gry Tina Tinda, guest post, homeless, Kenya, referendum, refugees, Republic of South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Tracey Buckenmeyer, UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on June 19, 2012 | 2 Comments »
A couple days ago I shared a bit about my own corner of the world, life on quiet little Ten Hovestraat, in This Little Straat of Mine. Today we’re going to head further south, all the way to Ethiopia, for a guest post from Tracey Buckenmeyer. I ‘cyber met’ Tracey through fellow expat and guest blogger, Gry Tina [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Global Issues, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Writing, tagged age, children, contentedness, crosscultural, culture, Economist, education level, Expat Focus, extroversion, global, happiest at beginning and end of our lives, happiness, introversion, marital status, parents, U-Bend of Happiness, U-Bend of Life, U-Bend of Wellbeing, unhappiest in middle of our lives, wellbeing, worldwide, writing on May 24, 2012 | 10 Comments »
It dawned on me the other day that when I do a post that includes a link to an article I’ve recently had published, some readers may think it screams ‘Yay me! Look at what I’ve done.’ That’s certainly not the intention, and I apologize if it appears that way. The thing is, I like [...]
Posted in Blogging, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Learning Dutch or Other Foreign Languages, Light Bulb Moments, Writing, tagged bilingualism, brain, cognitive muscles, executive function, focus, monolingualism, resolve internal conflict, social media, switching among languages, Telegraph, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee on May 19, 2012 | 10 Comments »
As a writer and blogger, I would be the first to tell you how important social media is in getting your work out there, sharing it and finding kindred souls who find something of value in your words. That value may be information, inspiration or entertainment. If you’re really fortunate, occasionally you win what I call the Writer’s [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Expat Life, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, tagged blogging, burnout, career break, Career Break Secrets, Career Break Secrets Travel Show, career change, global nomad, Jeff Jung, laid off, Random Nomads, serial wanderer, The Displaced Nation, travel, travel writing, unemployed on May 17, 2012 | 8 Comments »
I’ve been a big fan of The Displaced Nation for quite some time now. How could I not, with a tagline of ‘A Land of Plenty for the Global Voyager,’ promising advice, opinions and yarns? One of my favorite features on the site is the interview series called Random Nomads. The questions posed aren’t your average ’where [...]
Posted in Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Holidays, Identity, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, tagged collective memory, culture, existence, expat life, Expatriate Archive Centre, expats, family, friends, hospital, illness, leave your footprint, legacy, love, making the world a better place, memories, mortality, Mother's Day, parents, remembrance, rootlessness on May 13, 2012 | 14 Comments »
Everyone wants to know, deep within, that their time on earth meant something to others. That their being here mattered. They mattered. It is human nature to want to leave your footprint on the world for others that come after you to see. For some, it is through their betterment of the immediate world around them. Think Mother [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, First Year Blur, Light Bulb Moments, New to Nederland, The Animals, tagged Albert Heijn, balancing act, bravery, cat, change, Charley, courage, expat life, expat transition, isolation, limbo, loneliness, Netherlands, new expat, tightrope, walk the ledge on April 28, 2012 | 20 Comments »
It was a chance encounter yesterday on a crowded street that sent me back in time. As I turned the corner onto our nearby shopping street affectionately known as ‘the Fred,’ I caught a snippet of conversation. The young woman was seated at one of the outside tables of a local restaurant, twirling her forefinger along [...]
Posted in Blogging, Change, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Sandwich Generation, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, Travel, tagged children, elderly, expats, needs, parenting from afar, parents, sandwich generation on April 14, 2012 | 6 Comments »
Recently I caught up with a couple expat friends, enjoying koffie while sharing the latest on comings and goings. Spring is in the air, along with blooming trees, blossoming flowers and plants, and the necessary but dreaded pollen. Students are getting antsy, ready to break free of their daily grind (oh, if they only knew!) of classes, course [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, tagged ancient, astronomy, Bucket List, England, equinox, lunar calendar, lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, solstice, stars, stellar, Stonehenge on April 12, 2012 | 16 Comments »
[Updated Mar 10, 2013] On a recent trip to England I had the opportunity to experience one of the items on my own personal bucket list: a visit to Stonehenge. And may I just say that it was everything I’d hoped it would be, and more. Competing theories abound as to the origination and purpose [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Catarina Chronicles, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, Travel, tagged adventures, funny, giggles, humor, humorous anecdotes, jokes, knock knock jokes, laughter, Malta, smile on March 1, 2012 | 22 Comments »
You know what I realized yesterday? Humor is funny. Really funny. Let me rephrase that. I’m not talking about dark humor, sick humor, mean-spirited at the expense of someone else humor. I’m referring to your all-purpose humor. The good kind that makes you smile or giggle or even laugh out loud. It feels good. Humor has [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Albert Heijn, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, tagged busy, daylight, dogs, health threats, hopeful, laughter, meetings, overwhelmed, pleasure, problems, reindeer, Rudolph, signs, smile on January 14, 2012 | 10 Comments »
Some days you wake up and just ‘know’ that they’re going to be tough. You know the kind I mean. You didn’t sleep well the night before and you’ve got a busy day planned with back-to-back meetings, errands and appointments. You’re worried about a couple friends facing serious health threats and/or dealing with difficult issues. You’re out of milk [...]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Family & Friends, Light Bulb Moments, tagged brain cancer, live in the moment, needs, pain, suffering, wanting on January 5, 2012 | 16 Comments »
Those of you who are kind enough to follow along here know that just before Christmas I learned of a dear friend who had emergency surgery in early December to remove a brain tumor. It’s been 18 months since I last saw her, and a good six months or more until I get another chance. [...]
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