“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.”
-Franz Kafka

I’m at one of our bi-monthly AWP events. Our first night is one of the most interesting. For many of the widows, it is there first time to meet another with shared grief, it is a first to finally realize that they are not alone.

We sit and laugh, cry, smile, share our lives…share our sufferings.

With each one shared, a wave reaction of nodding heads take over the room. And with that nodding comes a silence of understanding, of realization that we are each not alone in the emotions and feelings that come even 10 years after the loss of our loves.

I love these times. Even after realizing many years ago that I am not alone, I savor the times where we sit…and share…and feel alive in our shared grief…our shared pain…our shared survival.

They always say that out of suffering the most strongest soul prevail…at no other time, than when I am with my fellow widows, is this most obvious…is this most prevalent.