Hi gregryhd,
The Countdown Widget is for one specific event, which you select on the backend of the site. The widget then counts down to that specific event, and will continue to display (with the completion text you enter) until you remove it from the widget area or change it to a different event. So if there are no upcoming events, you wouldn’t have this widget anyway. Does that make sense?
Here’s a screenshot showing the configuration on the backend: https://cloudup.com/cCbjRCXrjhx. Does that answer your question?
Best,
Leah