MWC SPECIAL EVENT
There’s Still Time to Register for Our Transformative Event
Our Widow Empowerment Event (WEE) is where widows go to find friendship, understanding, and support when rebuilding life after loss.
Connect with other widows in a safe, compassionate space. You’ll find exceptional friendships, understanding, support, and community with others who are walking this path with you.
Heal through education, resources, and activities designed to help you find purpose and meaning. Every session and special activity will help you learn and grow in widowhood. Topics include self-esteem, self-worth, inner harmony, financial health, dating, unleashing your inner warrior, and much more.
Most people don’t understand the dynamics of gathering a large group of widows together. But it’s powerful. We all knew what great loss feels like, we all knew about the many secondary losses we have experienced as a result of our new, unwanted, identity. We all knew that at first we couldn’t even say the word widow let alone check the widow box on so many forms, but after this gathering, I would say we’re embracing our widowhood. We’re embracing the opportunity we have to fully live the second part of our lives. – Jeanie S. (WEE 2022 attendee)
Gain knowledge to empower your important decisions. Create a life that you love, filled with hope and possibility!
The gifts you’ll experience at WEE are something you’ll take home with you and keep close forever.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
September Was Shiny
By Cindy W.
In September 2022, I went to the Modern Widows Club Widow Empowerment Event in Scottsdale, Arizona, despite photos of women in tiaras from a previous year. I don’t like stuff like that because it smacks of a sorority event gone bad. (Full disclosure, I loved my sorority, though I don’t remember wearing shiny stuff on my head. Gamma Phis, feel free to correct me. Especially if you have photographic evidence.)
Not a deal breaker. Just because tiaras might be available didn’t mean I’d have to wear one. And I had a family reunion to look forward to afterward.
My sister and one of my brothers picked up my dad and me from the airport and we drove straight to the hotel. While my sister went inside to check on the room’s location, I waited outside.
Then lost it. Out of the blue, I started crying. I sniffled into my dad’s shoulder that I hated that I was eligible to be there. As I calmed down, I decided to stay, knowing I could be rescued within 20 minutes.
The first day was so packed there was hardly time to stretch. My roommate was a woman I’d met on monthly Zooms since 11 days after Tom died. It was wonderful to meet her in person.
Day Two, I walked into the ballroom and saw that each table had a shiny centerpiece. You guessed it. A stack of tiaras. Fine. I’d been warned.
Click below to continue reading Cindy’s article.
MENTAL HEALTH MOMENTS
Mental Health Benefits of Planning and Tracking Goals
By Cyndi Williams, MSW, LCSW
After a traumatic loss, such as the loss of a spouse, many people report feeling disorganized, overwhelmed, forgetful, helpless, and experiencing slower mental processing. You may be familiar with the terms “grief fog” or “widow fog,” and how your mental health and cognitive function can be impacted in grief.
This can be one of the most frustrating parts of grief, and an area of grief which can be slow to recover. There is suddenly so much more on your plate, and 24 hours seems like not enough time in the day to get everything done.
While you may not be prepared or capable of “planning” in the recently popular sense, using fancy expensive planners, special paper, and stickers, there are many simple tools you can use to help you cope.
Click below to continue reading Cyndi’s article.
Widowed in 2013, Cyndi Williams is a mental health advisor and contributor for Modern Widows Club. Follow her on Facebook at CyndiWilliamsLCSW.
ADVENTURE TRAVEL
Creating New Holiday Traditions with Travel
Traveling can be a big step into a future of hopefulness and happiness in widowhood. Many widows find that traveling helps them define who they are in their new life. It gets them out into the world to encounter new people, places, and experiences, helping them feel stronger and more confident.
But after the loss of a spouse, it’s not always easy to know how to get started with travel. And milestone dates, including the holiday season (which will be here in the blink of an eye), can be especially hard to navigate.
As you move through your grief process, you can learn from other widows a bit further along on their journey that holidays can still be beautiful and memorable. You may find that you want to continue the holiday traditions you shared with your person, or you may find that you want to create new traditions for yourself.
If you choose to redefine your holiday experience, traveling with other women can be an empowering way to create new friendships, find (and give) encouragement and support, embrace the great outdoors, and explore the world.
Click below to continue reading this article.
To celebrate our collaboration with AdventureWomen, Modern Widows Club community members can receive a $1,000 discount for the Breathtaking India: Culture, Colors and Cuisine trip on November 17–28, 2023. Get ready to be immersed in India’s vibrant culture! Visit the Pushkar Camel Fair, explore Delhi bazaars on a bicycle rickshaw, witness gorgeous Taj Mahal sunrises and sunsets, and participate in local cooking classes.
The regular cost for this trip is $5,995. Through September 8, 2023, community members can book this trip for just $4,995 using discount code MWC23 (subject to availability of trip spaces). To take advantage of this incredible offer, you must book by 9/8/23.
MWC BOOK CLUB
Join Us for Our September Book Club
Our virtual Book Club for widows meets on Zoom the third Monday of each month. Our next meeting is September 18 at 8pm ET. We’ll be discussing The Rabbi's Widow by Joelle Eckstein, a deeply personal memoir of the two years following her husband’s sudden death. The book paints a very deep and realistic picture of loss, pain, and perseverance to rediscover and rebuild.
Author Joelle Eckstein is scheduled to join the discussion! Click below to sign up for an opportunity to meet her. Our Book Club is free to join and attend.
A WIDOW’S PATH
Love and Energy Remains
By Janice Talbert
I have wandered through the wilderness and have seen the expanse of its energy. I have sat immersed in nature and allowed myself to briefly meld with its life force. It is a powerful and wondrous experience.
I do not get enough of these nature baths. Yet when I do, I often intermingle the experience of my senses with spiritual and scientific concepts. Occasionally, when this and the “stages of grief” morph together, an epiphany shines through.
Energy Does Not Die. The scientific principle of energy conservation states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another.
1 + 1 = “Us.” When we commit our love to another and agree to merge our two life forces in shared ecstasy and purpose, two futures reroute and daily existence interweaves into a shared reality, a mutual energy.
Love is Transformative. When the physical existence of “Us” is severed by death, both halves are transformed. We who are still within our mortal being do not return to our previous state. The severing of a shared life is frayed and uneven, and requires new growth. We are transmuted through grief.
Reality is Complex. Life is energy and energy does not end; it can be transformed and it can affect transformation. Our physical “Us” has changed, but the union can continue.
Holding the memories and love of “Us” has helped me survive in grief. And as I continue to embrace the unending power of my husband’s life force, my life continues to transform — and I have learned that it can even thrive. It is a powerful and wondrous experience.
Janice lost her husband and soulmate, Mark, in January 2021. Two months later, she found Modern Widows Club.
MWC ART CLUB
Personal Growth Through Art
Join our Art Club and connect with your Wisters (widow + sisters) interested in using art as a medium towards growth. The club is facilitated by Dr. Linda Shanti McCabe.
The September art theme will relate to the Fall Equinox. Please note that in September, the club will meet on Saturday, September 9 at 1pm ET. Beginning in October, club meetings will return to their regular schedule (the first Saturday of each month).
The club is free to join and attend. Your only cost will be your art supplies.