On Our Own - Widowhood for Smarties

Silver Boomer Books has published an anthology, On Our Own - Widowhood for Smarties, and I am proud to have two of my poems, Sleeping Alone and Solitude, published in it.

These editors have put together a book for everyone who is part of a couple. If you have a husband or a wife, a life-long partner, or if you have lost your love, read this book of essays, fiction and poems. . 

I have to be honest. I have been published in anthologies that I never read all the way through. But I love the work in On our Own, Widowhood for Smarties. 

From Silver Boomer website: "The writers of this collection express the range of emotions at the loss of a spouse but the overwhelming message is affirmation of the strength they find to create new lives after deep loss. Widows and widowers will read these stories and poems with knowing nods, sighs and smiles. Other readers will find insight into a common human condition and perhaps courage to face their own unsought new beginnings."

If you have lost your mate or know someone who has made this journey through grief, give them this book. They will know as they read the touching and heart warming writing of these men and women, they are not alone and the crazy things they feel are not crazy at all.


Solitude

I’ve always needed time alone
to gather meandering thoughts,
musings on life, mine and yours.
I snatched my moments
where I found them.
But now the stillness whispers to me.
Careful what you ask for.

Waking in our quiet house,
no one greets me with, “Hey, Hon,
Get me a cup of coffee, will ya?”
No one sits in your chair,
No one speaks but the dog.

Hours pass while I make
eggs and toast – no coffee-
not for one. Feed the dog
and cat, answer e-mail, fewer
now it seems.

Slowly I learn to use the quiet,
to ponder my future, to cry
when I am stabbed with memories
so precious I can’t bear the pain,
to face the hard reality that you
will not return.
I am alone inside the
silence that I craved.
               --- Glenda C. Beall

Order a signed copy  of On My Own, Widowhood for Smarties from me for $15.95.

 Email me for ordering information. nightwriter0302@yahoo.com 

Nothing feels better to me than immersing myself in the 80 plus degree water of a heated pool.
I never liked the intensive heat where I grew up in south Georgia. I loved the mountains' cooler climate, but lately the temps here have risen to the nineties. That means I stay inside. Indoors at my home or inside at Brasstown Valley' s pool, I find ways to make the best of the drought and the heat.

 All anxiety floats away as the warmth creeps into my bones, steals away shoulder pain, knee pain, and pain in my hands from too many hours on my computer. I think doctors should be able to prescribe therapeutic pool exercise, and insurance should pay for it. I'd rather prevent illness or injury than pay thousands of dollars trying to correct the problem.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a massage that releases the load of stress we carry around all day, and have insurance pay the massage therapist?  In today's world, we spend millions each year trying to cure illnesses that are often caused by our environment, our relationships, stressful situations at work and at home, and in most cases we don't need the expensive pills given to us by doctors. We can cure ourselves by making lifestyle changes; slowing our pace, learning to rid our bodies and minds of the toxins we ingest every day, learning about our own energy, making good choices.

Until the time comes when we can purchase insurance for methods to prevent illness, I will sacrifice in order to continue my water exercise, get massages to relieve tension and stress, and see holistic practitioners who are enlightened about needs of people today.




My new mantra is: Will the event causing me so much angst be important tomorrow, next week or next year? And my answer is usually, NO!
Sometimes people enter our lives for a reason. When that need is completed, we go on and other people enter our lives for another purpose. Dear friends from many years ago become lost to us. New friends become more special in our lives.
Will my relationship with anyone make or break me in the long run? If I never hear from that person again will my life change for the worse?

 I control my destiny. No one else can ruin my life unless I let them. I will not be a victim. I am a survivor.

Joyce Carol Oates said in her memoir A Widow's Story, "of the countless death-duties there is really just one that matters. On the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think 'I kept myself alive.'"