I booked the flight for Clayton’s funeral last night. It’s bothering me because a funeral isn’t supposed to be 4 years after someone passes. The celebration of life we had originally planned was...
We know that the distance between hope and despair is different for everyone, and that access to a peer community is proven to shorten that distance.
We laugh, we cry, we talk, we listen, and we make space for widowed people to transform.
We treat the people we serve with compassion and recognize the innate dignity of every person who interacts with our organization.
We employ a broad definition of the word widow: If a person you planned to spend your life with died, and you consider yourself widowed, so do we.
We believe in the power of hope and the ability of every widowed person to recreate a life of meaning and purpose.
Soaring Spirits has one goal; to connect widowed people with each other.
Camp Widow® is a unique and incredible experience. This innovative program provides practical tools and research-informed resources for widowed persons rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of the death of a spouse or partner. We offer both weekend-long and one-day events across the United States and in a variety of International locations. Blending three event styles - a conference format, an inspiring retreat, and a reunion with great friends - Camp Widow is open to anyone who has experienced the death of the person with whom they planned to spend the rest of their lives (legally married or not), and provides an in-person widowed community of peers who are making their way through widowhood one day at a time. Learn more here.
Imagine finding a blog that gives voice to the pain you are living in, words you've thought, but never shared. We've amassed a library that includes thousands of posts written by widowed people that normalize the sometimes crazy process of grief and loss. Our blogs are searchable and will lead you to specific topics, questions or to your favorite author.
I booked the flight for Clayton’s funeral last night. It’s bothering me because a funeral isn’t supposed to be 4 years after someone passes. The celebration of life we had originally planned was...
Summer solstice. Winter solstice. The longest and shortest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. When I imagine the four seasons, I often will envision the face of a round clock,...
BRAVERY What does it mean to be brave? Definition of bravery 1 : the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : the quality or state of being...
Edward’s 53rd Birthday Comfortably run. No, not a typo. Simply a not particularly brilliant nod to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb”. I do indeed mean that I am comfortably run. By a 10 km road...
As an adult, I have always been an avid reader. I started a book club in 2012 that met monthly for a solid 7 years. My friends would tease me that any books they picked I’d already read. This was...
I’ve brought up some of the ins and outs of being a care-griever. I can’t speak to the emotions that come with sudden loss but I can speak about the experience watching someone you love slowly fade...
**This post contains discussion of suicide and seeking mental health treatment for suicidal ideation. Some background: before Boris died by suicide, he was hospitalized three different times. Two...
After this past Winter I have resolved that next year, I am getting out of Dodge. It is not merely the frequent snowstorms, or the relentless cold, or the shearing wind, or the constant overcast skies...
The Puzzle of Time Sitting at my desk, on May 17th (a Tuesday) at 8:48 pm Pacific Standard Time. The day flew by with little to count for it. Tomorrow we are mid-week as another week flies by. Time...
Main image by Duy Pham on Unsplash I am coming to the end of a lovely short week’s holiday in Mallorca, taking part in an open water swimming camp, geared around being able to swim 10km in “event”...
People Reached
Regional Groups
Parenting Minor Children
Newly Widowed Packets Delivered Annually Free of Charge
Outreach Cards Delivered Annually Free of Charge
Feeling lost in the immediate aftermath of becoming widowed is common and daunting. We can help! These packets provide a practical checklist for the newly widowed, relevant program information, and a collection of supportive messages from one widowed person to another. Packets are mailed and are designed for those widowed less than six months.
Do you know someone who is widowed? Soaring Spirits’ You Are Not Alone cards are small folded business cards that contain all the information a widowed person would need to get connected with our widowed community. You Are Not Alone cards are free, easy to order, and small enough to carry in your purse or wallet. These little cards make a big difference.
Day or night, no matter where you are on the globe, we offer an online community featuring blog posts, group discussions, focused forums for deeper connection, and ways to find widowed women and men close to your age, date of loss, and geographic location. Our carefully screened virtual community provides hope and healing from the comfort of your home.
When we discovered the lack of research being conducted about the widowed experience, we developed the first center in the U.S. focused on grief and resilience in widowhood. Housed at Schreiner University in Texas, the Soaring Spirits Resilience Center researches widowed experiences and develops tools to support healing in grieving populations.
It can feel at times like we're being guided toward an imaginary ticker tape that we'll one day cross through in celebration after "completing" grief.
The truth is, there's really no end goal. No finish line. We integrate the love and memories and we bring them forward with us into every day.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, May 27, 2022
A lot of people assume that all widowed people receive a life insurance payout after the death of their person. In the United States, only 52% of people have life insurance. Of those people, 27% don't carry an amount sufficient to cover all bills in the event of their person's death.
https://www.policygenius.com/life-insurance/life-insurance-statistics/
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, May 13, 2022
As humans, we tend to want to linger in the "good" emotions and speed through the discomfort of the "challenging" emotions. This is true in grief as well, but if we deny ourselves the anger (and other hard emotions) we are likely to make repeated trips back to it several times over. There's no timeline to any of this - only your time - and if anger requires a bit of extra time to push through now and in the future, give yourself the grace to walk through it as often and as long as needed.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 29, 2022
Ever hear that you should take their photos down? That it's been long enough, and having those memories on the walls must make you feel sad? That they're concerned because you still have memories of them displayed?
When we deny ourselves the opportunity to integrate our past with our present, we miss out on the comfort that bringing them forward into today can provide. You don't have to take those photos down until (or if) you're ready.
#ssigriefmythbusters
Friday, April 22, 2022
This is a big one. We're often not told of the body's physical responses to the heavy toll that grief takes. Grief shows up physically in all sorts of different ways - hair loss, weight loss/weight gain, increased anxiety, mind fog, the inability to focus or read...our bodies all respond differently to the weight of the grief we carry.
#ssigriefmythbusters
(While this is true, we would be remiss if we didn't encourage you to discuss the physicality of your grief with your doctors)
Friday, March 25, 2022
Soaring Spirits is grateful for the incredible support of our corporate and community sponsors. Our work is fueled by their generosity.
Soaring Spirits International
2828 Cochran St. #194
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 877-671-4071
Soaring Spirits International is a 501(c)3 Corporation EIN#: 38-3787893. Soaring Spirits International provides resources with no endorsement implied.