Yesterday, we had our Soaring Spirits Regional Group meetup. We do this 2x per month, and usually one is at a restaurant, park, or coffee shop type place; and the other is at a local library where we have a private large room, access to a kitchen, and we can bring food and drink and set up a refreshments table. It’s really nice, because it offers people who maybe cant afford to go out for lunch all the time to still come out and get support/friendship/community.
Yesterday was our library meetup, which is normally 2 hours long, but my co-leader Allison and I recently made it a bit longer, because it seems we are always chatting away in that library space and we arent quite ready to leave when our time is over. About 8 people were there yesterday, which is pretty typical for our group. And we talked about so many things, most of which I cannot get into here because it’s peoples personal stuff and they knew that what was said and talked about in that space would not be broadcast to the world online. But generally speaking, whether you have been widowed for four months, four years, or twenty four years; widowhood continues to affect your life and sometimes in very unexpected ways. New things happen in life, and your person isnt there to go through them with you, or family dynamics change and alter because of your loss. Or you are still trying to navigate and figure out life after loss – what your future looks like, what your day looks like, what tonight’s dinner looks like. It is so amazing to have this tribe of people who just get it, who understand all the nuances and complicated emotions and decisions that we face; that often seem trivial or are misunderstood by the outside world. Honestly, even after 12 years of being widowed, there are some days where I don’t know where I’d be without my widowed friends. It’s a special bond that none of us asked for or wanted, and yet, I’m pretty sure we all feel pretty thankful for it.
Check out a Soaring Spirits Regional widowed group in your area. You can find them right here on this site.
