Author: Lene Fogelberg

Own Yourself

Written by Lene Fogelberg on September 3, 2014. Posted in Blog. 8 Comments on Own Yourself

I was sitting in the couch close to my youngest daughter.

We were browsing the internet for a school project and we ended up in WikiHow. Wow — once you’re trapped in there, it’s almost impossible to get out. 🙂 Or how about interesting articles such as: How to spin a pencil around your thumb, How to skip rocks, How to wallpaper a room, How to cheer someone up…

And then we found what we were looking for: How to be happy. So, if you have ever asked yourself how to be happy; here are the answers. 🙂

As my daughter and I read the article, we discussed the answers and found they resonated with us. We liked the article very much. Some of the answers we discussed longer than others.

But there was one item on the list I have not been able to forget all week. Maybe it gave me words for something I have been pondering for a while.

Own Yourself.

“This means accept and embrace your habits, your personality, mistakes, the way you talk, looks, your voice, and most importantly ‘You’. Try to be comfortable in your own skin and subconsciously communicate to others that, ‘This is me take it or leave it’.”

To me this would include: if you are a singer — own the way you sing, if you are a dancer — own the way you dance, if you are a writer — own the way you write, if you are a poet — own your rhymes, or lack of them. 🙂

And on a personal level — own your scars.

The full half a meter of them. Own your story, all the messy and the strange and the confusing and the painful and the happy memories. Own your future, the upcoming heart surgeries (luckily my heart is doing fine now, but I’ll need at least two more surgeries down the road, the first one hopefully not sooner than 15-20 years from now.)

Own where you’re at, right now. Own the road behind you and what you know about the road ahead of you. It is tempting to carry along a shadow of how things were supposed to have been, of who you were supposed to be. You know — the person you dreamed when you were little you would become, before, well, life interfered. I have done that, am still reminding myself to let go of this shadow from time to time. It is heavier than one might think to carry, even though it really doesn’t exist. But I am here, scars and all.

In short — own your pineapples.

I love the picture I chose to symbolize this principle. Just look at her! Isn’t she beautiful!? I met this woman on the shores of Lombok, a small Indonesian paradise island. She sells pineapples and traditionally patterned shawls on the beach, and believe me — she knows how to bargain! 🙂 (I think we bought at least ten shawls). She is a typical proud woman of the Indonesian islands — feeling slightly sorry for the poor tourists who have to leave their cold home countries and travel across the world to come to visit her. But not sorry enough to go below a certain price. 🙂 She knows her home island is the paradise of the earth and she is proud of it. Often, she has never left her island — why should she, when people from all over the world leave their homes to come to hers?

She may not have read how to be happy on WikiHow. But — my goodness — she owns it.

♥Lene

Own Yourself — what does this mean to you? Is there a point in your life, or a certain aspect of your life, where you can see this principle working more clearly?

Things will work out

Written by Lene Fogelberg on August 26, 2014. Posted in Blog. 15 Comments on Things will work out

When I have a lot going on in my life, I tend to worry.

During this morning’s exercise swim, I came across a single yellow frangipani flower, floating in the pool. It made me smile.

The color yellow carries a whole story for me.

About six years ago, my family and I were about to move from Sweden to Philadelphia. Did I worry? You bet. Not only moving to a new house, a new neighborhood, a new school for the girls, a new job for my husband, but also a new country, a new continent even! And also something else: I had no idea how I would manage, feeling constantly exhausted, my chest heavy, making it hard to breathe.

“You’ll have to do everything,” I told my husband and he agreed, sensing my fatigue.

But still. Show me the woman who can sit on a chair while her whole house is being packed up! I cleaned and I sorted out old stuff to throw away. I could barely drag myself up and down the stairs.

I needed something to help me.

Feeling inspired one day, I pulled out the girls’ colored paper sheets for crafts. I chose yellow. A bright, happy, energizing color. I cut several yellow sheets of paper into odd-shaped pieces, about the size of my palm. On each piece I wrote: Things will work out.

Then I walked across the house, sticking the yellow pieces on walls, on doors, on mirrors, on kitchen cabinets, inside cupboards, on the wall by my bed, on the tile over the kitchen sink. Everywhere I knew I needed it.

I remember doing the dishes, looking up and seeing the yellow, like a smile, cheering me on: things will work out.

And we did it. We made the move to the USA, where things got really messy, but worked out in the end. (That is a loooong story, I would need to write a book about it. Oh, wait, I did. 🙂 Can’t wait to tell you more about my memoir.)

To this day, when I see that bright, yellow color, I remember.

The yellow frangipani flower floating in the water. Things will work out. The yellow flag on the beach in Nusa Dua, Bali. Things will work out.

Lately I have extended my mantra: Things will work out, and if they don’t, that’s also fine. 🙂

Somehow, somehow, even though it might seem impossible, things have a way of untangling themselves and looking back, there was actually a road where we thought only thorns. Maybe there is a road, because we walked it and now that we see it, we might help someone else struggling to find it.

Take care,

♥Lene

How about you? Are you a worrier? Or are you more of a things-will-work-out kind of person naturally?

Beautiful Indonesia

Written by Lene Fogelberg on August 18, 2014. Posted in Galleries. 8 Comments on Beautiful Indonesia

Yesterday, August 17, was Indonesia’s Independence Day, celebrated all over the country.

About a year ago, my husband and I had occasion to visit the place where the Indonesian flag was born: Hotel Majapahit in Surabaya. The days following the Indonesian Declaration of Independence, on August 17 in 1945, the Dutch still raised the Dutch flag on top of the hotel. A couple of Indonesians, offended by this gesture, climbed the roof of Hotel Majapahit, took down the flag and tore off the blue line of the Dutch flag, left the red and the white line and raised the flag again. After that followed the years of the Indonesian National Revolution, until the Dutch acknowledged Indonesia’s Independence in 1949.

The document of Independence was signed by Soekarno and Muhammad Hatta and the airport in Jakarta is named Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in their honor.

I felt I wanted to make a small tribute myself, to the country my family and I are guests in. Here are a few of the photos we have taken on our travels through Indonesia, each of them representing some of the things we love about this country: the ocean and the beaches, the nature, the food, the people and the list goes on…

♥Lene

(Just click on a picture and the gallery will show in a lightbox.)

One little spark

Written by Lene Fogelberg on August 13, 2014. Posted in Blog, Quotes. 10 Comments on One little spark

“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

Robin Williams, July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014.

Yesterday the sad news of actor Robin Williams’ passing reached us. Immediately my mind filled with the many moments of joy he brought to me and my family. Only a couple of weeks ago we watched Mrs. Doubtfire together with our girls, laughing so hard we had to pause the movie at times. I remember watching Good morning Vietnam as a young girl and being utterly touched by it, watching Dead Poets Society in my English class in Sweden as a teenager, Aladdin on one of my first dates with my husband, Good Will Hunting as newlyweds in our first small appartment, Night at the Museum and Happy feet with our small girls.

I can hardly believe he is gone. He was a part of our lives we somehow thought would always be there. Robin Williams made us laugh and cry, he inspired me in writing poetry and in finding the crazy, the funny, the beauty in life.

After he underwent his open-heart surgery in 2009, and came back joking about it, I felt a special bond to him. He had had aortic valve replacement, just like me. It is difficult to explain, the special bond between us “heart-people”. It is a comfort just to know that someone else has been there, has felt the utter loneliness of lying on that operating table. Not that I wish anyone to go through it.

Robin Williams struggled with depression as well — which is difficult to imagine, he being so funny and brilliant. Heart disease and depression is not unusual to be linked together and I was so saddened to learn that though he beat the heart disease, he was overcome by the depression in the end.

I too have experienced depression close to me, how it affected myself and loved ones. It is often accompanied with a sense of guilt, an almost knee-jerk urge to cover up and hide it. We want to be our best, show our best, make the world a happier place, not burden it with our struggles. But is there a nobler thing than to open up, reach out, meet each other as we truly are? And that way help each other, through bad and good times. I wish everyone who struggles with depression a good friend, an understanding doctor, the best professional treatment there is, and kind people to support on the scary journey through the dark and back to the light.

Because there is light on the other side of the dark, no matter how dark the night is. A depressed person can be told this, can sometimes know this, but not feel it. The darkness is everywhere, never-ending. This is why help is so important, someone to lean on who will repeat: “soon you’ll be out in the light, soon”. How grateful we are for the friend who will show us that spark of light!

Maybe the people who have waded through much sorrow, are the ones most ready to amuse us, to crack a joke, make us laugh. Because they know the true value of a spark of light. Or a little madness.

Take care friends,

♥Lene

Into the jungle…

Written by Lene Fogelberg on August 7, 2014. Posted in Blog. 12 Comments on Into the jungle…

Hello dear friends,

Vacation is over and this week I have been diving into my Work-In-Progress manuscript. Thought I might come up to the surface and give you a sneakpeak into what will be my imaginary home this fall.

Part of my manuscript takes place in the Javanese Jungle, complete with demons and vines. No Tarzan though. 🙂 But a girl fighting for her life and an unusual POV/protagonist telling the story. That’s all you’re gonna get for now… 🙂

I’m planning to have the first draft ready sometime this fall, so I can start the rounds of editing as soon as possible. I just love this story!! Love the POV, love the girl, love the setting.

I’m gonna head back into the jungle now, but I’ll try to keep you posted of my battles with the words (and the demons).

Cheers,

♥Lene

(Picture taken by my mother-in-law in Bali.)

Back from Thailand

Written by Lene Fogelberg on August 4, 2014. Posted in Blog. 14 Comments on Back from Thailand

Today we are back in Jakarta after a week in Phuket. Best vacation ever! We stayed at Le Meridien and tried all their family activities: rock climbing, archery and golf, but most of all we were at the beach. We never wanted to leave!

Chasing the waves was superfun!

Our girls stayed in the ocean for hours. 🙂

I tried to do some reading, but I have to confess, the ocean was a little distracting… That view! I couldn’t get enough of it!

I know, right? Is this allowed? 🙂 Coconut in hand, book in lap, ocean view and a warm breeze…

Ahh, happy memories… But now, back to work and school and for me: my WIP manuscript that I am longing to dive into. 🙂

See you soon, friends!

♥Lene

Paradise

Written by Lene Fogelberg on July 30, 2014. Posted in Galleries. 10 Comments on Paradise

We’ve had wonderful days at the beach here in Phuket, chasing the waves and relaxing in the sand. I brought my small Canon powershot and took some pictures of this paradise and my favorite people. 🙂

Just click on a picture and the gallery will show in a lightbox.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you beautiful days,

♥Lene

Happy Idul Fitri

Written by Lene Fogelberg on July 28, 2014. Posted in Blog. 12 Comments on Happy Idul Fitri

This is the week of Lebaran, the culmination of Ramadhan, when Muslims celebrate Idul Fitri together with their loved ones. Consequently Jakarta is more or less emptied of people traveling to “kampung”, their home village, however remote.

Usually expats also go on vacation since many shops and restaurants are closed during the celebrations, not to mention that the driver and the housekeeper are on vacation. 🙂

Since our girls have never before been to Thailand, we chose Phuket. Can you believe the view we woke up to this morning?

That sea! That sky! Those palm trees!

Look out Phuket! Here come the Fogelburgers for some serious vacation!

See you soon, friends!

♥Lene