The other day during a Zoom meeting, a colleague noted that most people stop reading at the third paragraph of articles and blog posts. I think about that as we adjust to a new year. I find myself reimagineing...
I think I’ve settled on an over-arching theme I’d like to personally have for 2025 and that theme is to enjoy life. I realized that my determination to simplify some things so far this year...
These days, Thursday morning is ordinarily the time I finish writing these posts. It’s a reasonable goal that I seldom accomplish. I give the piece a “final” reading but never publish it immediately...
Are we truly getting better? I’m trying to remember what I was looking for when seeking signs that I am doing “better” in the early days of being widowed. If I remember correctly, I...
I’m sorry, I missed my post last week. The kids and I traveled over the holiday break. We were supposed to be home Saturday night. As luck would have it, there was also ice and snow headed to our hometown...
The first week of any new year can bring an unsettling mix of relief, new direction and incentive, angst, apathy and procrastination. Even if your holiday season was emotionally challenging with...
Normally right before the new year, especially on New Years Eve, I look forward to a fresh new year and have a positive feeling. This was the first year in awhile, that I came into the new year cautious...
Eight days from today Lola the Pup and I bid farewell to Robyn. Then, for the third consecutive year, we’re off to our Winter quarters in the American Southwest. I take this annual extended journey...
Past to Present to Future In the 17th century, physicist Isaac Newton saw time as an arrow fired from a bow, traveling in a direct, straight line and never deviating from its path. It is...
And so begins another year. Another year of accepting a reality that looked so different than what I thought life would be. This year seemed to have started off so hectic. From another holiday season where...
Welcome 2025. At this time each year, I feel as if a heavy weight has been lifted from me. Despite all the mental minefields carefully curated in my Museum of Magical Memories that are highlighted during...
Sometimes loss may be a positive thing. If you’re an athlete, for example, and your team loses, you learn from any mistakes, regroup, practice harder and come back better. Sometimes loss can be a...
Are we truly getting better? I’m trying to remember what I was looking for when seeking signs that I am doing “better” in the early days of being widowed. If I remember correctly, I...
Past to Present to Future In the 17th century, physicist Isaac Newton saw time as an arrow fired from a bow, traveling in a direct, straight line and never deviating from its path. It is...
Brings a Bit of Healing Magic There’s nothing like a Christmas movie to bring the magic of the season to the present moment. Tonight I watched The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix which brought alive...
One of us was working too hard. The other was wobbling on the ladder of memories on her death-a-versary. Each of us with our long list of widow-worries and widowed woes showed up to...
This week, a local artist I know lost her son to cancer. I had been watching his story with the disease unfold for a couple years. At one point in time he owned a video production company called, Uncage...
Trying to roll with it According to experts, fatigue is a very common physical symptom of grief, often experienced as extreme tiredness or exhaustion. This fatigue can manifest in waves and significantly...
I Forgot You Left It was last Saturday night I was struggling with a writing goal a story that felt slightly out of reach Called a friend Drum she said I drummed for a time felt sleepy and...
Through 179 blog posts. The image says life is the best story, to which I say, Yes. I believe that is true because death is a part of life. Dying inside happens repeatedly after realizing our person...
Images of Past and Future Dear Widowed Peeps! Wednesday snuck up on me, so I am reposting a blog about attending my first Camp Widow, in correlation with a Camp Widow happening in this very moment, and...
Today I wish to offer three simple tools to help those of us who are having an especially “off” day. Three fresh ideas or strategies for your back pocket at the ready in advance...
Which part of me do I trust? This is me in grief’s low spaces. Grief stricken. Broken. Vulnerable to pain. Feeling useless. What good is a broken bridge? Can I trust the broken parts of me?...
What is Reel Therapy? Gary Solomon’s popular book of the same name suggests that movies can be a therapeutic tool for our lives. A friend of mine gave me this book a long time ago and I pulled it out...
Eight days from today Lola the Pup and I bid farewell to Robyn. Then, for the third consecutive year, we’re off to our Winter quarters in the American Southwest. I take this annual extended journey...
Robyn had set her alarm. She wanted to see a local television countdown to the New Year but dozed right through it. Each year her favorite weather gal and handsome on-air partner perform a music and dance...
Happy Birthday Jackson! Yesterday, Jackson, our local hound-lab mix rescue, turned the Big One according to his adoption records. He was one of a litter of nine brought to the shelter as they struggled...
Every day, I see small yellow and red leaves falling in the hundreds, relentless falling leaves coloring the lawn. The geese are gathering. Were they drawn together by chance to form the V-formations cutting...
“Are we going to get a stepdad?” my then 7-year-old asked me. It had been less than one month since Tony died. Like all deep questions posed by children, this one was at bedtime. It was a question...
On Friday, the weather in New York City was picture-perfect. Warm sunshine reflected off the Hudson and the blue sky was completely cloudless. I chatted with a Louisiana woman, now living in New York City. ...
HI Friends. I feel like a broken record, but once again my apologies for not posting in here the last couple weeks. I really don’t completely forget on purpose. Its just that the last few weeks have...
Robyn was born in the 20th Century, the youngest of three children, and not too long before I arrived. She grew up in the big city, attended its public schools, and has a high school diploma to prove it...
I often notice couples’ togetherness as I travel the spaces of my life as a single person. That’s likely because I am not wholly comfortable in my singlehood. I am independent and capable of being...
After Lee died, I was left with the photographs and paintings to lift me if I needed to see her. To this day, for example, I will take a moment to look at her images when I go down to the basement kitchen...
When my late husband, Rich, learned that I’d never been to the Florida Keys he suggested that we honeymoon there. We were married in New Jersey in late September and I made my first visit to this beautiful...
Last Wednesday, when I told Robyn that I might make it home in just three days, instead of the usual four or five, I knew accomplishing the feat meant extending each day’s drive by several additional...
I’m sorry, I missed my post last week. The kids and I traveled over the holiday break. We were supposed to be home Saturday night. As luck would have it, there was also ice and snow headed to our hometown...
And so begins another year. Another year of accepting a reality that looked so different than what I thought life would be. This year seemed to have started off so hectic. From another holiday season where...
Robyn had set her alarm. She wanted to see a local television countdown to the New Year but dozed right through it. Each year her favorite weather gal and handsome on-air partner perform a music and dance...
As I sit here on New Year’s Eve reflecting on my day compared to all those past New Year’s Eves I can’t help but daydream about what we would be doing if you were still here today. Thinking...
Emily is off for the holidays. Please enjoy this repost of “Midnight Kisses”. Last week the kids and I were on our annual holiday vacation. Since Tony’s death, I have taken the kids to Disney...
I hope you all got through the Christmas holiday alright. I know this time of year can be especially difficult for many, whether your loss occured last week, or several years ago. The shadow of that loss...
The gray, overcast, and snow-less Christmas morning had left me listless, especially after two or three virtually identical days preceding it. The gray seemed to get to Lola the Pup, who lolled nearby...
Bullet Points . . . My apologies for nearly missing my post this week. Here are my bullet points about how I find myself in the predicament of forgetting to show up on Widow’s Voice this week: Bullet...
A repost – Merry Christmas Eve! And there goes the second December without Erik. This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. December is always such a hard time. The holiday season starts with...
Today is Christmas Eve Eve. As a solo parent, who is prone to overprogramming there is so much to do with so little time. I found myself trying to do it all today. I wrapped up work for the holidays, grabbed...
Brings a Bit of Healing Magic There’s nothing like a Christmas movie to bring the magic of the season to the present moment. Tonight I watched The Christmas Chronicles on Netflix which brought alive...
It has been a whirlwind of a season. When the holidays came around this year I told myself I would focus more on being present for the twins than worrying about to-do lists. I told myself I would focus...
The other day during a Zoom meeting, a colleague noted that most people stop reading at the third paragraph of articles and blog posts. I think about that as we adjust to a new year. I find myself reimagineing...
I’m sorry, I missed my post last week. The kids and I traveled over the holiday break. We were supposed to be home Saturday night. As luck would have it, there was also ice and snow headed to our hometown...
The first week of any new year can bring an unsettling mix of relief, new direction and incentive, angst, apathy and procrastination. Even if your holiday season was emotionally challenging with...
And so begins another year. Another year of accepting a reality that looked so different than what I thought life would be. This year seemed to have started off so hectic. From another holiday season where...
As I sit here on New Year’s Eve reflecting on my day compared to all those past New Year’s Eves I can’t help but daydream about what we would be doing if you were still here today. Thinking...
Bullet Points . . . My apologies for nearly missing my post this week. Here are my bullet points about how I find myself in the predicament of forgetting to show up on Widow’s Voice this week: Bullet...
A repost – Merry Christmas Eve! And there goes the second December without Erik. This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. December is always such a hard time. The holiday season starts with...
Today is Christmas Eve Eve. As a solo parent, who is prone to overprogramming there is so much to do with so little time. I found myself trying to do it all today. I wrapped up work for the holidays, grabbed...
It has been a whirlwind of a season. When the holidays came around this year I told myself I would focus more on being present for the twins than worrying about to-do lists. I told myself I would focus...
Over the last week, I’ve been reflecting on friendship. When you lose your partner, often you also lose your best friend. Losing your best friend changes the dynamics of how you share information. There...
In my family, December is dying time. Mom passed away in December a few months before Lee and I married. I still can see my father crying softly during our wedding ceremony, sitting by himself, his wife...
One of us was working too hard. The other was wobbling on the ladder of memories on her death-a-versary. Each of us with our long list of widow-worries and widowed woes showed up to...
A repost – Merry Christmas Eve! And there goes the second December without Erik. This past week has been a whirlwind of emotions. December is always such a hard time. The holiday season starts with...
One of us was working too hard. The other was wobbling on the ladder of memories on her death-a-versary. Each of us with our long list of widow-worries and widowed woes showed up to...
Here we are yet again. Knee-deep already in another holiday season. This one has been a little different than last. The twins are another year older and understanding more. The excitement and joy of the...
I don’t think there’s been a time in my life when I’ve been so caught up in so many projects simultaneously and I no longer seem to have a measure of time. It was a Facebook Memory from my archives...
Today, September 28, marks the 28th Wedding Anniversary of my late husband, Rich, and I. He would pass weeks later on the 28th of October. This time of year is filled with all those “trippy” memories...
I found myself lying wide awake at 10:49 the Monday night before my birthday wishing that midnight just wouldn’t come. And that if it did, that my birthday wish would come true. That when that clock...
A repost! Join me next week to read about this year’s birthday. August has always been such a busy month in our lives. Our entire family’s birthdays. Summer plans, parties, trips…memories. This...
Just like clockwork, another July rolls around. As each year passes, the important dates seem to hold more value as we get further from when Erik was here. July holds so much significance for us. July...
Emily is on vacation this week enjoying some time with family. I love this post from her titled Grief Is, a poem Emily wrote near the first anniversary of Tony’s death. ~ Mary Moore Hughes Grief...
Whew! It has been a hectic few weeks. I feel like I’m always in survival go-go-go mode where I’m just going through the motions of doing things without really being fully present in what I’m doing...
Saturday, I hosted a BBQ backyard campout with my neighborhood crew for the third anniversary of Tony’s death. We gathered in the afternoon and six family’s setup tents to spend the night. Eighteen...
