COMMUNITY!
Good things emerge from great need.
The first of its kind, Camp Widow is an example of a good thing born out of great need when a 36-year-old suddenly-widowed woman found herself in need of widowed support at a time when there was none to be found. With a mind for ideas, and a strong need to figure out what was next, she set out to discover how to live without her person. How to be alive when her life had a giant hole in its center. The place her beloved formerly filled with the fullness of his life was now empty.
It was not long before she figured out that other widowed folk were key.
Her instinct led her to find others who were trying to discover how to find life after death. She gathered a small group of widows at a local community center and invited them to share their stories.
Out of this gathering came the First Annual National Conference on Widowhood
In other words, HOPE born through COMMUNITY.
The success of Soaring Spirits International mirrors the process of newly widowed people taking one small step at a time toward creating a new life as yet unknown to them. Michele Neff Hernandez and team nurtured the National Conference of Widowhood (and its 80 participants) into Camp Widow with a 5K named Run For Your Love; into Camp Widow with CW Kids; into a plethora of virtual programs via Widowed Village; into Camp Widow Pop-Ups.
Responding to the feedback of the widowed folk who attend, Soaring Spirits and the Camp Widow model continue to evolve.
The idiom “Love begets Love” speaks of how love multiplies. The more people reaching out in love, the more love exists, which results in more people learning to love.
Time proves this concept with community.
The more people finding value in a community of widowed people, the more communities based on this concept exist, which results in more healthy communities of widowed people ready to receive newly widowed folk.
Community begets community.
Our lives do not have to be identical with widowed people we meet. Having one important truth in common can be the seed that grows into community: the truth we lost the person we planned to spend the rest of our life with. Having this in common brings this conversation to the micro image of community; the one-on-one or small group experience for widows.
In my widowed experience, moving into Year Three, the most rewarding part of being in the Soaring Spirits Community is the in-person community connection with other widowed folk. I belong to a small community of people who meet and share a meal twice (sometimes 3x) a month in a public space.
Our February group meeting fell on Valentine’s Day this year.
We shared pasta in various styles, along with salad and dessert. One member brought chocolate covered strawberries.
We lit a candle and said our person’s name.
Then we toasted with Veuve Clicquot champagne — to US!
To the bravery it takes to process our grief.
To the many things in life we are required to carry alone.
To the hard things we’ve learned to do.
And to the love that lives on.
Long Live Love!
