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Three Widows and Grief

Three Widows and Grief

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...

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So many holiday feels…

So many holiday feels…

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...

Read More

Gearing Up for Christmas

Gearing Up for Christmas

I blinked and Thanksgiving was ages ago, and we are in the thick of Christmas. We’ve decorated the inside of the house, but I’ve made a few changes this year. It’s been so cold; I haven’t put up...

Read More

The Long Trail Forward

The Long Trail Forward

The past week found me entrenched in preparing gift baskets for a Silent Auction that was held last night. Despite some weather challenges and logistical matters, I’m happy to report it was a successful...

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“Uncage the Soul”

“Uncage the Soul”

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...

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Stop Feeling Guilty

Stop Feeling Guilty

In 2014, Dr. Lucy C. Hone, a director at the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience and a university researcher witnessed a motorist slam his car into a car that was carrying her young daughter,...

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Some Days Are Like That

Some Days Are Like That

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...

Read More

Sparkly Grief

Sparkly Grief

It’s that time of year yet again. I feel conflicted yet I am trying so hard not to take away from the magic of this season for the twins. The holiday season this year seemed to creep up on me. I was...

Read More

Chiefs Love

Chiefs Love

This year I’ve been gifting the kids experiences for their birthdays instead of traditional presents. Friday, my youngest cashed in on his gift and I took him to his first ever NFL game. We spent our...

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The Art of Thanksgrieving

The Art of Thanksgrieving

How did everyone do with the Thanksgiving Holiday? I know Soaring Spirits is an organization with an international membership, so for some of you, it really was just “another day”.  For many in the...

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Time Marches On

Time Marches On

Another Thanksgiving down and this one was an oddball one. My mom is still slowing getting her mobility back, so she opted out. Mario’s dad had a cold, so he opted out. My dad passed away over the summer,...

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Once Again

Once Again

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...

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Newly Widowed

Three Widows and Grief

Three Widows and Grief

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...

Read More

“Uncage the Soul”

“Uncage the Soul”

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...

Read More

Some Days Are Like That

Some Days Are Like That

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...

Read More

Once Again

Once Again

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...

Read More

The Story of Us

The Story of Us

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...

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The Wonder of a Camp for Widowed People

The Wonder of a Camp for Widowed People

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...

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Exploring What Might Help

Exploring What Might Help

  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...

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Trusting Me

Trusting Me

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?...

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Reel Therapy Repeat is Still Good Medicine

Reel Therapy Repeat is Still Good Medicine

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...

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Imagining Life Today

Imagining Life Today

Perspective. Do you ever have trouble getting your head around the fact that your person is not here? I pause when typing those words because what does “not here” even mean? Not here, even...

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The Gift of Widowed People

The Gift of Widowed People

On the Road! Last week, I promised a story about a group of widowed folk actively plotting a road trip to (wait for it!) a Pop-Up Camp Widow in Seattle April 2025! Adventure looms! Dreaming opens the door...

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Camp Widow Serendipity in 2025

Camp Widow Serendipity in 2025

… two stories, one in process. … a story from 2023.                                          Two widows, two rocks, two husbands—integrity twice remembered. It was September...

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Soaring Spirits Interational

Soaring Spirits Interational

Soaring Spirits builds community. We create, and maintain, innovative peer-based grief support programs for widowed men and women that serve a worldwide population. Based on the powerful connections created by shared experience, we endeavor to ensure that no one need grieve alone.

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A Place in The Sun

A Place in The Sun

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...

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Nervous Eating

Nervous Eating

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...

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Future Inquiries

Future Inquiries

“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...

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The Nearly Perfect Weekend

The Nearly Perfect Weekend

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. ...

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Choices and Adjustments

Choices and Adjustments

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...

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Birthday Girl

Birthday Girl

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...

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Releasing Some Jealousy

Releasing Some Jealousy

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...

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Every Picture Tells a Story

Every Picture Tells a Story

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...

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The Keys To Happiness

The Keys To Happiness

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...

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Full Circle

Full Circle

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...

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Welcome, Jackson!

Welcome, Jackson!

On Valentine’s Day, a sweet black and white border collie-mix puppy found a new home! Lot’s of love…but not much sleep as to which any puppy raiser can attest. Some asked when they heard...

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Valentine Hugs and Kisses

Valentine Hugs and Kisses

Robyn arrived on Super Bowl Sunday, fresh off visiting her son, her brother, and one of the grandkids in southern California.  Robyn was greeted by a small earthquake upon her arrival there, but I would...

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So many holiday feels…

So many holiday feels…

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...

Read More

Gearing Up for Christmas

Gearing Up for Christmas

I blinked and Thanksgiving was ages ago, and we are in the thick of Christmas. We’ve decorated the inside of the house, but I’ve made a few changes this year. It’s been so cold; I haven’t put up...

Read More

The Long Trail Forward

The Long Trail Forward

The past week found me entrenched in preparing gift baskets for a Silent Auction that was held last night. Despite some weather challenges and logistical matters, I’m happy to report it was a successful...

Read More

Stop Feeling Guilty

Stop Feeling Guilty

In 2014, Dr. Lucy C. Hone, a director at the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing & Resilience and a university researcher witnessed a motorist slam his car into a car that was carrying her young daughter,...

Read More

Sparkly Grief

Sparkly Grief

It’s that time of year yet again. I feel conflicted yet I am trying so hard not to take away from the magic of this season for the twins. The holiday season this year seemed to creep up on me. I was...

Read More

The Art of Thanksgrieving

The Art of Thanksgrieving

How did everyone do with the Thanksgiving Holiday? I know Soaring Spirits is an organization with an international membership, so for some of you, it really was just “another day”.  For many in the...

Read More

Time Marches On

Time Marches On

Another Thanksgiving down and this one was an oddball one. My mom is still slowing getting her mobility back, so she opted out. Mario’s dad had a cold, so he opted out. My dad passed away over the summer,...

Read More

Thanksgiving Sentiments

Thanksgiving Sentiments

It’s Thanksgiving week in the US, and we are bombarded with messaging telling us how to feel. Well wishes telling us to be thankful, or to gather and enjoy each other. The first year, I was annoyed and...

Read More

A Place in The Sun

A Place in The Sun

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...

Read More

As the Seasons Change

As the Seasons Change

A repost as we get into the holiday season! The reality of the seasons changing is hitting me a little differently this year. This past week we took our family photos for the upcoming season and it was...

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Recalling The Jersey Shore

Recalling The Jersey Shore

This Saturday Morning marks the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend which for many brings the unofficial end to Summer 2024 and the official beginning of Local Summer. In places like the Jersey Shore, where...

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July Blues

July Blues

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...

Read More

Camp Widow®

Camp Widow®

Camp Widow® is a unique and incredible experience. This program provides both practical tools and relevant resources for widowed persons rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of the death of a spouse or partner.

More Info

Three Widows and Grief

Three Widows and Grief

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...

Read More

So many holiday feels…

So many holiday feels…

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...

Read More

Gearing Up for Christmas

Gearing Up for Christmas

I blinked and Thanksgiving was ages ago, and we are in the thick of Christmas. We’ve decorated the inside of the house, but I’ve made a few changes this year. It’s been so cold; I haven’t put up...

Read More

Some Days Are Like That

Some Days Are Like That

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...

Read More

Sparkly Grief

Sparkly Grief

It’s that time of year yet again. I feel conflicted yet I am trying so hard not to take away from the magic of this season for the twins. The holiday season this year seemed to creep up on me. I was...

Read More

Chiefs Love

Chiefs Love

This year I’ve been gifting the kids experiences for their birthdays instead of traditional presents. Friday, my youngest cashed in on his gift and I took him to his first ever NFL game. We spent our...

Read More

Once Again

Once Again

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...

Read More

Daddy is Dead.

Daddy is Dead.

Last night was really tough. The twins and I were in our after-school routine, as we were most weekdays. I started the bath as usual and put one twin in after the next. As I began to wash Charlotte’s...

Read More

Thanksgiving Sentiments

Thanksgiving Sentiments

It’s Thanksgiving week in the US, and we are bombarded with messaging telling us how to feel. Well wishes telling us to be thankful, or to gather and enjoy each other. The first year, I was annoyed and...

Read More

The Story of Us

The Story of Us

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...

Read More

If Only.

If Only.

As I was driving the twins home from school on Friday something hit me. Just out of the blue, I started to full on cry. The kind of crying that I couldn’t do silently. The kind I couldn’t hide. The...

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Signs From Nashville

Signs From Nashville

Last weekend I went to Nashville for a belated birthday trip. One of my best friends from college and I flew in to meet there. The trip was for us, but I knew it would bear reminders of Tony at every turn...

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Three Widows and Grief

Three Widows and Grief

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...

Read More

So many holiday feels…

So many holiday feels…

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...

Read More

Restoration and Renewal

Restoration and Renewal

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...

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The Twenty-Eighth

The Twenty-Eighth

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...

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Forever 32

Forever 32

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...

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August Slipped Away

August Slipped Away

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...

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July Blues

July Blues

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...

Read More

Grief Is

Grief Is

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...

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Sea of Serendipity

Sea of Serendipity

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...

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Backyard Campout

Backyard Campout

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...

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No Time

No Time

As I started to get ready for bed tonight, I realized it was Monday and I haven’t yet written anything. Our days feel so packed right now I don’t find myself looking too far forward. Which is probably...

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Preparing for the Deathiversary

Preparing for the Deathiversary

The kids and I made a plan for what to do on the upcoming third anniversary of Tony’s death. One of the boys and I were by ourselves driving recently when he asked me about camping.  If we were ever...

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The Widowed Resilience Scale

The Widowed Resilience Scale

Resilience is defined as the ability to ‘bounce back’ or recover from a traumatic life event or circumstance. According to the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Scale widowhood rates as one of life’s most challenging experiences. This fact has driven the desire to study resilience in widowhood and identify the ways in which resilience can be built in men and women who have experienced conjugal loss.

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Featured Author

Meet this weeks Widow's Voice author.

Emma Pearson

Emma Pearson

My life is a whirling mix of swishy strands, dark and glowing brightly, rough and silky smooth – all attempting to be seen, felt and integrated at once. Here are some of my themes.

I am British

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