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Hiking

Taking the Lead

August 21, 2018 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

There were so many reasons for Megan to be proud of Shelby.  From her sheer intelligence, to her love for reading, to even her quirky weirdness.  She appreciated that Shelby had a love for nature, at least tiny animals and flowers.  We would take Shelby camping at least once a year, but due to Megan’s condition, that was the limit. We took one…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Pride, Leadership, confidence, widower, decisiveness, Mike Welker, widower with children, Metaphors, kids, Nature, Hiking, growing up

Woodland Preacher

December 5, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

“You bathe in these spirit-beams, turning round and round, as if warming at a camp-fire. Presently you lose consciousness of your own separate existence: you blend with the landscape, and become part and parcel of nature.” -John Muir   It is no secret that John Muir inspires me to no end.  While my love of nature and being in the wild places…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Wild, widower with children, Disconnect, religion, Metaphors, death, Nature, Hiking, wilderness, Mountains, widower, John Muir, Mike Welker, Self-reliance, love

Over the Hump

August 1, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

As Sarah noted on Sunday, I stepped off into the mountains last Friday, disappearing into the wilderness on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.  It’s no surprise to any of you that have read my posts for these past two years that backpacking, in isolation, is the most transcendent experience that I personally can have.  No matter how my…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed and Healing, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Hiking, perseverance, goals, Mountains, Settling, Climbs, widower, Descents, Mike Welker, Conquering, grief, Metaphors, Nature

Going Postal

May 9, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

It’s been cold, rainy, and just plain miserable for the past two weeks.  The brief respite prior to our Texas trip, where it was summerlike for a few days did nothing but remind me that May in Ohio is fickle.  You can be sitting outside, sipping a cold beer in the sun one day, and the next, you’re protecting plants from frost and bundling up…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: Outdoors, Silver Lining, Weather, widower, Mike Welker, widower with children, Excuses, Nature, Hiking, Work, Avoidance

Flipping the Switch

March 21, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

Way back when I started writing here for Soaring Spirits, I had posited a statement that when “my switch flips from suffering to determination, it is simply not possible to feel more powerful”.  At the time, that was related precisely to losing Megan, and wading through the grief until I finally got up off of the couch, wiped the snot off of…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: Excuses, Hiking, perspective, determination, Initiative, widower, Mike Welker, widower with children, loss, grief

New Year’s Resolution

January 2, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

 It’s 2017.  This is the 35th time that my body has traveled around the sun on this little rock called earth.  In those 35 trips, I’ve been witness and participant to milestones of education and career, love and marriage, childbirth and parenting, sickness, and death.  I’ve seen friendships both grow and wither.  I’ve evolved from a…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Holidays, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Familiar Places, Home, being oneself, Nature, sense of self, Hiking, Trips, new year, resolutions, solitude, Returning, Failed plans, widower, Absence, Mike Welker

Hope and Reality

December 6, 2016 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

As I wrote last week, I had made plans to go to a place called the Dolly Sods wilderness for a weekend of backpacking.  I’d been planning for months, to return to this place that I was so familiar and comfortable with.  A place that felt like home to me.  As fate would have it, a fire ban was instituted in the area, which quickly put this trip…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Hiking, Expectations, reality, determination, Disappointment, widower, hope, Mike Welker, Nature

Take me Home, Country Roads

November 29, 2016 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

“I hear her voice in the morning hour, she calls me, the radio reminds me of my home far away.And driving down the road I get a feeling that I should have been home yesterday, yesterday.Country roads, take me home to the place I belong.West Virginia, mountain mamma, take me home, country roads.” – John Denver In the purest, most technical…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Home, Nature, Hiking, Trips, solitude, Returning, Failed plans, Absence, Familiar Places, widower, Mike Welker

Walking Alone

September 20, 2016 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

“The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness – John Muir” Over rolling hills and through meadows full of goldenrod, studded with purple asters, I took a walk yesterday.  It is almostautumn here in Ohio; officially just a few days away.  My favorite season.is quickly approaching.  So too was it Megan’s favorite season.

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed and New Love, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: widower, Mike Welker, widower with children, Nature, Hiking, second chapters, Outdoors, Alone, Better Fits

It is not the Mountains we Conquer

January 25, 2016 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

“It is not the mountains we conquer, but ourselves. – Sir Edmund Hillary” I’ve walked in nature my entire life.  I’ve hiked, and camped in woods, deserts, jungles, alpine mountains,  swamps, boreal forests, and caves.  I’ve lived, overnight, in snow, thunderstorms, ungodly heat, wind, and cold.  Mosquitos have eaten me alive, and bears…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: helping others, Camping, backpacking, serenity, widower, widower with children, Nature, Hiking, wilderness, Self-awareness, solitude

Metaphors for Grief in Nature

December 12, 2015 by Sarah Treanor and Mike Welker Leave a Comment

I’m always astounded at the things nature teaches me about life and grief. This week I went for a walk at a park near my new house. It’s a wilderness park, with one trail that makes a 2 mile circle surrounding a prairie. For years, this area was farmland, and the park system has now preserved it to allow the landscape to fully restore back to it’s…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: grief, ohio, death, prairie, seasons, grand canyon, Autumn, Nature, Hiking, winter, metaphor for grief, widow, bereavement, sarah treanor, inspiration, loss, spring

A Walk in the Woods

August 31, 2015 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

Prior to losing Megan, I was an avid backpacker.  5 or 6 times a year, I would meticulously plan a trip to the mountains over a weekend, and disappear for a few days.  No cell phone service, no emails, no TV, no distractions.  I am at my most calm and reflective while I am in nature.      It was a way to recharge my batteries and spend time…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Memories, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: Nature, Hiking, meditation, Outdoors, Camping, Inner Child, widower, Mike Welker, widower with children, remembering

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