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Nature

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

A Mindful Conversation

March 6, 2018 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

It’s been far too long since I felt the sting of an icy wind hitting my face.  Months have passed since I lazily stared into a campfire of my own creation, with nobody but my own self to discuss it with.  I haven’t dunked into a mountain creek after a long march, and I haven’t been woken up by annoying crows, rather than an annoying alarm…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Therapy, Widowed by Illness, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Mike Welker, mindfulness, Nature, Avoidance, pessimism, widower, Long Term Illness, therapy

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: Mike Welker, Self-reliance, love, Wild, widower with children, Disconnect, religion, Metaphors, death, Nature, Hiking, wilderness, Mountains, widower, John Muir

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: Nature, Hiking, perseverance, goals, Mountains, Settling, Climbs, widower, Descents, Mike Welker, Conquering, grief, Metaphors

Grief Lessons in Nature

July 16, 2017 by Sarah Treanor and Mike Welker Leave a Comment

This past week, in between various errands and chores and work tasks, I took an hour or so to go for a walk at one of my favorite hiking trails nearby. It’s been on my mind ever since, for a few reasons. I don’t really take time to myself out in nature anymore like I used to. Life is so much busier now and there just never seems to be time.

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed and Healing, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy Tagged With: learning, writer, widow, sarah treanor, wisdom, grief, lessons, coping, Nature

Crossing a Bridge That Never Will Be

May 30, 2017 by Mike Welker Leave a Comment

Way back in September of 2012, Megan, Shelby and I took our first backpacking trip together.  Shelby was only 5 years old, and Megan was almost two years past her lung transplant.  I meticulously planned the trip, choosing the Blackbird Knob trail in the Dolly Sods Wilderness, in West Virginia.  I was already intimately familiar with it, knowing…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed Parenting, Widowed Milestones, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: Safety, Nature, Pride, Shelby, Protectiveness, widower, milestones, Mike Welker, widower with children, Metaphors

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: widower, Mike Welker, widower with children, Excuses, Nature, Hiking, Work, Avoidance, Outdoors, Silver Lining, Weather

The Journey of a Life

January 22, 2017 by Sarah Treanor and Mike Welker Leave a Comment

  There are days that make you look at the places you are arriving more than the ones you are leaving behind. Mike and I spent most of the afternoon yesterday out hiking. It was the first warm, sunny day we’ve had in ages in Ohio… and it put me in an especially grateful mood just to be existing and feeling the sunshine. We went to a big…

Filed Under: Widowed, Widowed and Healing, Widowed Emotions, Widowed Therapy, Miscellaneous Tagged With: bereavement, river, journey, widow, sarah treanor, metaphor, loss, grief, lessons, death, Nature

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: Home, being oneself, Nature, sense of self, Hiking, Trips, new year, resolutions, solitude, Returning, Failed plans, widower, Absence, Mike Welker, Familiar Places

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: Expectations, reality, determination, Disappointment, widower, hope, Mike Welker, Nature, Hiking

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

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