I love words. I love the way they sound, what they mean, how they are said, all of it.

When Don Shepherd died suddenly, it was words that saved me. Words that kept me going. Words that gave me pause to think and to reflect, and words written or said by others who had been widowed way longer than me, that helped me to slowly begin the ongoing process of healing.

When I went to my very first Camp Widow in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and heard the words of Michele Neff Hernandez delivering her Key Note Address to all of us – and I heard her speaking about hope and community and friendships between widowed people, and I heard her ask us to ask ourselves this question that poet Mary Oliver provided with her words: Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? – I thought to myself: I have NO FREAKIN IDEA!!! But Im really glad someone is asking!!! Just to have someone ASK that of me, of all of us, and to know they really cared about me and about what I would do and how I would go forward – it was powerful and emotional, that someone else who was also widowed, cared what I might do with my life enough to ask me to think about it. Those words gave me something to focus on, other than all-encompassing death.

Now, many years later, life has gone full circle, and I will have the honor of providing healing words to the widowed community, as the Key Note Address Speaker in Tampa next month, at Camp Widow. I cannot wait to deliver the message of hopeful and beautiful words, and to hopefully help some peopple see something differently, or walk out of Camp asking themselves new questions, and hsaving something new to hold onto. Words are amazing, and when put out there and shared, can have tremendous impact.