IN ONE OF MY HAPPY PLACES: EXPLORING PRE-PATRIARCHAL SARDINIAN NECROPOLI!
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We have new Reignite Weekends open for booking for 2026: two in London and one in Sydney, Australia. There are also a couple of places left for November in London. All info, dates and booking links here
November's theme in the CC online community is ‘Reimagining Holiday Traditions.’ It'll explore what it means to create holidays that honour where you are now by adapting or letting go of what no longer fits, alongside building new traditions that feel meaningful. Click here to access/join for member-only events and conversations and, if you're new, there's a free trial followed by plans to suit all pockets, including low/no income.
Registration is open to join us for a bumper panel of NomoCrones for December 13th's Fireside Wisdom with Childless Elderwomen, when we're planning to Celebrate Our Light at a time of year that can be heavy for those of us without children and often without partners or congenial ‘family’ either…
First of all, I wanted to say a big thank you to each of you who emailed me after last month's newsletter with your tips for dealing with, in the absence of any other diagnosis, what seems to be my Long Covid illness (even though I didn't notice getting Covid!) I'm happy to report that I do seem to be doing a bit better after following an incredibly restrictive diet (no carbs whilst on holiday in Italy was savage!), although my energy is still low and unpredictable.
Seven months in, this illness is giving me practice in saying ‘no’ more often to things that drain me (sadly, even things I'd like to do), and perhaps to let go a little bit more of my action-oriented middle-aged persona and settle more deeply into a slower-paced and more reflective young elderhood. I'll be writing more on that over on my Gateway Elderwomen newsletter soon. (Just not today, I'm learning to pace myself more). I've also pulled back almost completely from social media for the last six weeks (apart from the occasional scroll on Substack Notes), and rather like cutting out carbs, it was tough at first, but now I feel a whole lot better for it…
We've got three new Reignite Weekends now open for booking for 2026 (two in London; one in Sydney), and there are still a couple of places left for November's weekend in London. The Reignite Weekend has been changing childless women's experiences for the better for 13 years now, and I'm so deeply grateful to Sarah Lawrence and Yvonne John in the UK, and Sarah Roberts and Judy Graham in Australia, for continuing to hold space for childless women in this way. Just so you know, one of my plans for November 2026 is a brand new workshop for childless elderwomen to take place here in Ireland. Stay tuned as plans for that unfold and as health allows…
November also sees the launch of a new book written by US sister World Childless Week Ambassador, former Reignite Weekend facilitator and founder of the Facebook Group ‘This Childless Life’, the irrepressible Sandy Langhart Michelet. I was deeply touched to be asked to write a foreword for her book, in which she shares a detailed map of life after infertility, learned through her own experience, and that of the many members of her FB group. Written with liberal doses of Sandy's signature Southern snark, My Family Tree Stops With Me: A Guide to Purpose and Possibility is particularly good on dealing with workplace inequities (Sandy herself is an HR professional). And whilst Sandy's own lens is that of a married, heterosexual woman, she's not blind to other ways of experiencing childlessness, and whatever your situation, I hope you'll find her book helpful and supportive.
And on another note, we really need more unpartnered childless voices sharing their stories, so if you think you've got a book in you, please write it! (There's also a writer's group within the CC Community, which could be a great place to get peer support?) This lack of representation contributes to the invisibility and shaming of childless, single women in our culture. This is why I did everything I could to bring Fabiana Formica's book Childless: A Woman and A Girl in Man's World to your attention earlier this year. If you missed it, do watch this webinar I recorded with her and YL Wolfe. You can also read my reviews of, amongst others, Lucy Meggeston's Shiny Happy Singles and Olivia Sprinkel's To Hear the Trees Speak, both written from the single, non-mother perspective, and many others on my website here,
MY PLACE OR YOURS?
I hope that wherever you are in the world, if Halloween celebrations are pushing your buttons, please know that I get it. Cute as the kids at the front door can be, it took me years to stop hiding inside with the lights off! And anyway, now that I'm moving into my witch archetype years, I'm far more interested in the Celtic and pre-Celtic origins of Samhain (pronounced sow-en in the Irish language), the roots of modern-day Halloween. I'm studying the ‘Wheel of the Celtic Year’ with Mari Kennedy and loving it. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the next six weeks are a time of hibernation as we compost the year until the celebrations to mark the return of the sun begin at the winter solstice on December 21st. And as we say here in Ireland, I'm so able for that!
What is the Reignite Weekend? The Reignite Weekend is the transformational healing weekend that I created in 2012 (and ran personally 50+ times) in many different countries. It now continues with my team of licensed facilitators in London (UK) and Australia. The testimonials continue to show that this weekend often marks a ‘before’ and ‘after’ moment in the trajectory of childless women's healing from the heartbreak of childlessness. Info, testimonials, booking links here.
