Today is Lee’s birthday. She would have been 69 years old. I would not have forgotten. As soon as I glanced at the calendar the date’s significance would have jumped off the page. But the truth is that, until Tuesday, the quickly approaching special occasion had been out of mind for me. I was engaged […]
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Our Beating Hearts
It happened last night in a waking dream. The other day I was on a call about grief. In poetic prose, the speaker mentioned “hearing the beating of her heart.” She repeated that phrase at least three times. I wonder. . . is the beating of our hearts a reminder? Returning to her words, I […]
NNTR and other attempts to influence language
Image by i-am_nah on Unsplash Back in the 1980s, and possibly into the 1990s, I was quite an avid reader of two “wimmin’s magazines” – Company and Cosmopolitan. I just looked up to see if they still exist – they do. But I am curious how I ever found any of it interesting. Perhaps it […]
Art Reflects Life
It’s not surprising that things hit differently once we are widowed, but sometimes it’s still unexpected. In 2019, I excitedly ordered tickets to Hamilton when it was coming through on tour. Tony didn’t love the theatre like I did, but he put up with a show every now and then because he loved me. My […]
Dreams Altered, New Dreams Met
Well, you all know by now that ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to be onstage, or maybe even part of a television series of some kind, making people laugh and think and doing my thing in the world of comedy and acting. I did community theater shows my whole childhood, then moved to […]
What Grows On
My last two posts have focused on the inner workings and transformation of house, home and human in the wake of profound loss. It was so gratifying to see my post, “Staying in Place”, written earlier this month recently featured on the Facebook Page of Soaring Spirits, International, and to see it appreciated by those […]
When it isn’t your crisis
*TW: there is mention of suicidal ideation/psychiatric hospitalization in this post You know those times in life when it feels like everyone around you is going through a crisis or a loss, and you have this strong urge to be super supportive but you are also reeling a bit yourself? That is happening to me […]
Reprise (updated)
I am on the road all week. In my absence I have decided to reprint my initial contribution to this blog with a few edits. It concerns a tough time in my life. Most important, my sweet wife was recently deceased. Additionally, these were scary and uncertain days because of the pandemic. If you have […]
Camp Widow Serendipity . . .
… a story. It was September of 2022 in Denver at the local community college. A widow, finding no support options in Mississippi, arrives via a road trip where Soaring Spirits is offering a one-day program for widowed people. What was she thinking when she arrived? She did not know a soul and discovered the […]
“Pas Voulu Mais Choisi”
Image by Josue Michel on Unsplash 18 March 2023 I have just come back from my Saturday morning swim with the Masters. When I say, “with the Masters”, I speak rather relatively. Yes, I am part of the Masters group, and so get access to special opening times, long before the sun rises. On Saturdays […]
Our Anniversary, Number 16 and Number 2
Friday would have been our 16th wedding anniversary and it’s the 2nd one he’s missed. The last two years I have intentionally been away from home on St. Patrick’s Day. Last year, the kids and I went to Florida to visit my parents. This year we spent a long weekend in the Ozarks with […]
Sunset at Clearwater
So, as you are all probably tired of me saying and tired of reading about, I was unable to attend Camp Widow Tampa and do my presentation this year, which is/was this weekend. Right about now, as I write this, campers are gathering inside the Marriott Hotel for the Farewell Breakfast Brunch – taking some […]