Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, Identity, Light Bulb Moments, Re-entry Reality, Repatriation, Work, Writing, tagged business plan, business start-up, career change, consultancy, emotional resilience, excitement, expat, fear, global students, job change, repat, Repatriation, what I'm meant to do, work, writing, writing a nonfiction book on March 14, 2014 | 3 Comments »
As mentioned in Under Construction, I hope you’ll join me as I navigate the re-entry stage in our repatriation journey. Every three months I’ll share a series of ‘snapshot’ blog posts about the particulars of building a new life from scratch, filed under the post category Re-entry Reality. I’ll look at everything from making a home, engaging socially, staying healthy, […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Holidays, Life Balance, Light Bulb Moments, Repatriation, Travel, Writing, tagged 'in the moment', 2013, Adapt and Thrive Across Cultures, being present, change, Christmas, continuous intentional observation without judgment, deaths, emotional resilience, expats, expectations, family, grieving, holidays, illusion of perfection, intermezzo, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, Lisa Hall, loss, mindfulness, mourning, New Year's, reflection, Repatriation, solitude, Summertime Publishing, The Emotionally Resilient Expat: Engage, transitions, travel, turbulence, turmoil, wanderlust, writing on January 6, 2014 | 6 Comments »
Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been taking it easy. Really easy. As in not doing much of anything other than what absolutely, positively needed to get done. For example, that time spent pulling together receipts, filling out reimbursement claims for our international health care provider, making photocopies of the entire stack and then standing […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Re-entry Reality, Repatriation, Sandwich Generation, Writing, tagged Be one with the transition, blogging, building a life, career, career changes, community, construction, creativity, culture, emotional resilience, expat, expatriate life, family, friends, health, making a home, re-entry, Repatriation, social life, spirituality, transition, transition stages, wellbeing, writing on October 4, 2013 | 8 Comments »
I hope you’ll join me as I navigate the re-entry stage in our repatriation journey. Every three months I’ll share a series of ‘snapshot’ blog posts about the particulars of building a new life from scratch, filed under the post category Re-entry Reality. I’ll look at everything from making a home, engaging socially, staying healthy, and stretching […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Netherlands, Repatriation, Sandwich Generation, Travel, United States, Writing, tagged building a new life, dying, elderly parents, emotional resilience, entry, expat life, involvement, leaving, loss, Netherlands, re-involvement, Repatriation, solace, sorrow, terminal cancer, The Hague, transition, transition stages on September 28, 2013 | 2 Comments »
Glancing at the calendar this morning, I realized it’s been almost three months since leaving the Netherlands. Twelve weeks from when I strapped myself into my assigned airline seat, Daughter to my right, our pets Oli and Ava beneath us in the acclimatized pet cargo hold. Eighty nine days since I watched the plane rise […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Global Issues, Identity, Repatriation, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, Writing, tagged Ann Baker Cottrell, Anne Copeland, Apple Gidley, call to action, Colleen Reichrath-Smith, creative, cross-cultural, Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness, cultural intelligence, culture, culture shock, doers, Duncan Westwood, Elizabeth Vennekens-Kelly, emotional intelligence, emotional resilience, expat life, expatriate life, expatriation, experiences, Families in Global Transitions, FIGT, FIGT 2013, ideas, innovative, insight, intercultural, international, Janet Bennett, Jo Parfitt, Judy Rickatson, Julia Simens, Kathleen Gamble, Katia Vachlos, Kilian Kroll, Laura J. Stephens, Leila Buck, living abroad, Maria Foley, networking, Norm Viss, perspective, Pico Iyer, projects, Rachel Yates, Rebecca Grappo, Repatriation, research, Ruth Van Reken, social intelligence, TCKs, topics, transition process, Trisha Carter on March 30, 2013 | 4 Comments »
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the annual Families in Global Transition conference (aka on Twitter as #FIGT2013). The theme this year was ‘Cultural Integration and the Illusion of Closeness.’ It was, in a word, exhilarating. Inspiring. Tremendous. Thought-provoking. Reassuring. Okay, it was many words, all those and more. Two thought-laden days dedicated to exchanging […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Authors (Other), Blogging, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Writing, tagged Aerosmith, author, Back in the Saddle Again, blogging, book, books, business cards, cover design, cover mock-ups, crying, done, editing, emotional, emotional resilience, FIGT 2013, final, ISBN, Jane Dean, Jo Parfitt, layout, Lemonberry.com, Lisa Hall, nonfiction, printing, publishing process, recalcitrant, regular blogging schedule, Stephen Tyler, Summertime Publishing, testimonials, writing, writing routine on March 27, 2013 | 18 Comments »
I have been thinking about this post for days, weeks, even months. I’ve longed to be able to write it, but made myself wait. There were times I never thought this day would arrive. Now that it’s here, my thoughts are a (barely) coherent mess and the words are tumbling out on the page. Well alrighty […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Identity, Repatriation, Riveting Expat Reads, Writing, tagged adrift, An Inconvenient Posting: An Expat Wife's Memoir of Lost Identity, anxiety, blogging, book, Brit in Texas, cross-cultural, culture shock, depression, depressive episode, downward spiral, emotional resilience, emotionally healthy, expat life, expat transitions, grieving loss, Houston, identity, journaling, Laura J. Stephens, loneliness, mental health, pain, positive mental health, recovery, recuperation, Repatriation, self-care, Summertime Publishing, therapist, therapy, writing on January 10, 2013 | 8 Comments »
We’re already into double digits (gasp!) in January, and fortunately my New Year’s resolutions for 2013 are going swimmingly. I say this because I want you to know that I have not neglected you, my Adventurer community. (See how neatly I just tied you back to one of my resolutions? Impressive, I know.) It’s just that I’m recently […]
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, Change, Creativity, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Forced to Fly (2nd ed.) Book, Identity, Repatriation, Riveting Expat Reads, Travel, Writing, tagged Adventures in Expat Land, Apple Gidley, Bitten by Spain, creativity, culture clash, culture shock, Deborah Fletcher, emotional resilience, empathy, Expat Apple, expat life, expat transitions, Forced to Fly, Forced to Fly: An Anthology of Writing That Will Make You See the Funny Side of Living Abroad, funny stories, going abroad, humor, I Was an Expat Wife, identity, innovation, Jack Scott, Jo Parfitt, laughter, Linda A Janssen, living abroad, living overseas, Maria Foley, Niamh Ni Bhroin, Perking the Pansies, Repatriation, Riveting Expat Reads, Robin Pascoe, Summertime Publishing, The Singing Warrior, travel, wordgeyser on October 5, 2012 | 10 Comments »
It is an exciting day here in Expat Land: we’re madly flapping our wings for take-off, determined to catch the wind currents, achieve flight and soar. ‘What’s with the flight metaphors?’ you ask. ‘They’re flying left and right.’ Heh heh. Today marks the book launch of the second edition of Forced to Fly: An Anthology of Writings That Will Make […]
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 Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Dutch Life, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Travel, Writing, tagged adultery, cancer, culture, death, Dutch elections, dying, embarrassment, emotional resilience, expat, friendship, global nomad, gratitude, headlines, humiliation, improprieties, infidelity, karmic bitch slap, living interculturally, pain, sadness, scandal, under investigation, vulnerability, workplace wrongdoing, writing on September 13, 2012 | 16 Comments »
I swear, I wasn’t going to write today. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s how I started my last post, written two days ago. I’ve got several posts lined up in my mind, generally upbeat topics and interesting things I’d like to share with you, and I thought I’d get to one of them […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Blogging, Change, Emotional Resilience, Exercise & Sports, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Life Balance, Sandwich Generation, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, Writing, tagged children, college visits, competing demands, emotional resilience, exercise, expats, fitness, health, parents, sandwich generation, sleep, TCKs, Telegraph, university search, writing on April 20, 2012 | 16 Comments »
A few days ago I wrote of the challenges many of us face being sandwiched between generations. Just like everyone else, we expats do our best to care for, raise and guide our TCK children to adulthood(and beyond) while also staying connected to and supporting our aging parents. We just sometimes have a few wrenches thrown in due to our lack […]
Posted in Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Doing What I Can to Help, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Global Issues, tagged change, depression, emotional resilience, expat life, living abroad, loss, Mayo Clinic, sadness, transitions, WebMD, writing on September 29, 2011 | 16 Comments »
During the summer I was approached by an editor at a new site, AdaptingAbroad.com, to write two companion articles on expats and emotional resilience. The first article was to focus on what expats may risk if they find themselves lacking in emotional resilience.* I agreed, and found the experience particularly stimulating because I tend to write from […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Doing What I Can to Help, Emotional Resilience, Expat Transitions & Change, Global Issues, tagged emotional resilience, Expat Backup, international aid worker, Liberia, Senegal on August 17, 2011 | 8 Comments »
One of the greatest gifts I’ve received from my writing is experiencing the connection that can be forged between two people based entirely on the words that they write. It never ceases to amaze me. Several weeks ago I received an email from Elie over at Expat Backup. Her tagline is ‘aid workers need assistance, […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Family & Friends, Life Balance, Writing, tagged awareness, communication, David Pollock & Ruth Van Reken, emotional resilience, expat life, FACTORS, family, optimism, rituals, something bigger than ourselves, transitions on July 19, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Whew. Finally. This is it. The last in the five-part series I’ve written on Emotional Resilience in Expat Life: FACTORS for the Emotionally Resilient Expat. I laid the foundation in Parts I through III by covering a range of key concepts: identity development, emotional resilience, transition phases, change model, emotional & social intelligence and […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Emotional Resilience, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Life Balance, tagged communication, connection, emotional resilience, expat, optimism, visualization on July 6, 2011 | 6 Comments »
As promised, here is part ii of Part IV in our series on Emotional Resilience in Expat Life. Along with part i last week, we’re looking at ways to engender emotional resilience to help us weather the changes and transitions we face. I can’t believe that we are getting to toward the end of this […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Life Balance, Riveting Expat Reads, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, tagged Barbara Schaetti, change, David Pollock, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, emotional resilience, expat, Robin Pascoe, Ruth Van Reken, Tina Quick, transitions on June 11, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I’ve been working on a five-part series on Emotional Resilience in Expat Life, and a couple days ago the second article, on Transitions & Change, was published on I Am Expat. As mentioned previously, emotional resilience is generally defined as being able to deal with and adapt to whatever challenges, setbacks and unpleasant curve balls […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Change, Dutch Life, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Expats in Motion, Netherlands, New to Nederland, United States, tagged emotional resilience, expats-to-be, five phases of expat transition, moving to the Netherlands on June 2, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Since this blog began a little over 7 months ago, I’ve been contacted by three different Americans who were planning to move here to Nederland this year. These women (and their families) are not aspiring expats; they are expats-to-be, in that the commitments are made, jobs accepted (and wrapped up back in the US), movers […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Culture, Crosscultural, Intercultural & Multicultural, Emotional Resilience, Expat Authors & Others, Expat Life, Expat Transitions & Change, Identity, Life Balance, Riveting Expat Reads, Third Culture Kids (TCKs), Expat Teens, tagged Barbara Schaetti, David Pollock, emotional resilience, expats, identity, Robin Pascoe, Ruth Van Reken, Tina Quick on May 31, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Well here we go. As mentioned briefly in an earlier post, I’ve been busy working on a five-part series entitled ‘Emotional Resilience in Expat Life.’ The first article, ‘Identity and the Expat’ debuted today on I Am Expat. I’m sharing it with you here on my blog because I believe that emotional resilience is important to […]
Posted in Adventures Big & Small, Expat Life, Family & Friends, Food and Drink, Oddities + Odds & Ends, Writing, tagged cafe, cafe culture, emotional resilience, I Was an Expat Wife, relocation, sight-seeing, Swanny Mouton, The Hague on May 25, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Today I’m going to do a number of things: provide two updates, share a helpful link and a fun link (although the helpful link could be fun and the fun link could be helpful, too), and issue an apology. Think of it as dealing with all the leftovers in your refrigerator. My gift to you. […]
my read shelf:
