July 27, 2011
Bad Timing
Sometimes I have the worst timing. I put my blog on its "updated only once-in-a-while" status just as I was about to hit one of the most challenging times of my life. It's been a difficult few months, not having the support of my bloggy buddies and the survivor solidarity I have always felt here.
Oh well. I haven't had the energy to do all my survivor advocacy stuff I used to do in the blogosphere, either. So I guess it's just one of those trade-offs of life.
As many of you know, my son has special needs and raising him has brought me the most love I have ever experienced, yet tested and challenged me more than I think I can bear sometimes. Up until recently, my son has not had much of a social life, in real life anyway (outside of gaming online and Facebook). Now, this summer, he has started to hang around kids who have way too much freedom, are smoking, doing drugs, etc. He finally feels accepted and I have always longed for him to have that and I know how important it is. I just hope he can come to realize the value of feeling accepted by kids who show more responsibility, make better choices and have stronger values.
So, with the help of his therapist, we've had to come down pretty hard with structure and consequences around here. We now have to up this part of the parenting game even more, as he just came back with dirty results on a recent UA for pot. I wouldn't be so upset about it if he were in college or something...but he is only 14 years old!
I feel amazingly fatigued just sharing this much right now. I'll try to get back and share more later. Any positive vibes, thoughts and/or prayers that any of you can send out there right now would be greatly appreciated.
Oh well. I haven't had the energy to do all my survivor advocacy stuff I used to do in the blogosphere, either. So I guess it's just one of those trade-offs of life.
As many of you know, my son has special needs and raising him has brought me the most love I have ever experienced, yet tested and challenged me more than I think I can bear sometimes. Up until recently, my son has not had much of a social life, in real life anyway (outside of gaming online and Facebook). Now, this summer, he has started to hang around kids who have way too much freedom, are smoking, doing drugs, etc. He finally feels accepted and I have always longed for him to have that and I know how important it is. I just hope he can come to realize the value of feeling accepted by kids who show more responsibility, make better choices and have stronger values.
So, with the help of his therapist, we've had to come down pretty hard with structure and consequences around here. We now have to up this part of the parenting game even more, as he just came back with dirty results on a recent UA for pot. I wouldn't be so upset about it if he were in college or something...but he is only 14 years old!
I feel amazingly fatigued just sharing this much right now. I'll try to get back and share more later. Any positive vibes, thoughts and/or prayers that any of you can send out there right now would be greatly appreciated.
Labels: attachment, being human, breaking the cycle, community, overwhelm, support
July 19, 2010
Hey, There!
My husband and I had a wonderful, peaceful, rejuvenating time camping. It was a really special adventure in the gorgeous Colorado wilderness. I'm going to write a cool post about that and (hopefully) post some awesome photos that the hubby took.
But, today was a therapy day and I'm wiped. So, for now I'll just tell you that we have the July Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse coming up at Dr. Kathleen Young's blog. She's chosen an Independence theme for July's carnival.
About this edition she said, "My first thought was how fitting, given that today we celebrate Independence Day in the U.S. I then started thinking about the meaning of independence for survivors and our culture as a whole. For me, this naturally leads to thoughts about dependence, unmet dependency needs and interdependence. I plan to write more about all of that for my Carnival post later this month!
But, today was a therapy day and I'm wiped. So, for now I'll just tell you that we have the July Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse coming up at Dr. Kathleen Young's blog. She's chosen an Independence theme for July's carnival.
About this edition she said, "My first thought was how fitting, given that today we celebrate Independence Day in the U.S. I then started thinking about the meaning of independence for survivors and our culture as a whole. For me, this naturally leads to thoughts about dependence, unmet dependency needs and interdependence. I plan to write more about all of that for my Carnival post later this month!
Please submit anything related to independence, dependence or interdependence and child abuse. As always, you do not have to limit yourself to this month’s theme. All submissions are welcome."
Don't forget our regular submission categories of Advocacy & Awareness, Aftermath, Art Therapy, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry, and Survivor Stories. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, July 21 and the edition will post on Friday (7/23).
I'm going to tie in my nature/camping post with my independence post and I'll see y'all then.
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, child abuse, community, healing, Poetry, therapy, vacation
May 17, 2010
Blog Carnival: Hope & Joy Edition
FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2010 & THE CARNIVAL EDITION IS UP!
Tracie must have stayed up late, because she's already got our Hope & Joy Carnival up. Amazing! I'm glad we extended the deadline, because we got some more folks to join us at the last minute. It is now officially huge! There are over 30 posts in there. Wowie Kazowie! We've got a nice selection of posts under the Hope & Joy theme and some neat stuff to look at in our new Art Therapy category.
I can't thank you all enough for your continued support, contribution, promotion and enthusiasm of and for this awareness-raising carnival. I just love our survivor solidarity and community! :)
YET ANOTHER UPDATE, THURSDAY 5/20/10: Well, Blog Carnival dot com is back up and running now. I checked myself with my own submission and see that the form is now working as well. I just heard back from this month's host, and we've agreed to extend the deadline until midnight TONIGHT. Thank you all for you patience and perseverance. And thank you, Tracie, for being such a committed, patient and hard-working host--and for the first time hosting, too. Wow! :)
*****
Update: Wednesday, May 19, 2010: I do not know the cause, but apparently the website at Blog Carnival dot com is down. I can't get the widget on my sidebar to load, the submission form doesn't work, and I cannot get to the BC dot com home page. This has happened once before and they got everything up and running again fairly quickly. This time, it seems to be taking a bit longer. I don't know what the problem is or when it will be fixed. I'm sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. I will be in touch as information becomes available. Thank you for your patience.
On Friday, (That's this Friday, May 21) Tracie will be hosting our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. She's just coming off of a weekend blog-a-thon, so I know she's tired. But, I think she's pumped, too! She's pumped with advocacy, awareness, doing good and changing the world. What perfect timing. I just know she'll be a great host.
She's chosen Hope & Joy for the theme for this month's edition. I told her that I thought this was timely, because I've really been experiencing some moments of pure, lighthearted joy this spring. If you're a survivor who's been through phases where those moments are quite few and far between like I have (and what survivor hasn't, really?), you know how much I appreciate these precious little moments.
What precious moments bring you joy and hope for a better tomorrow? In her announcement post for this carnival, Tracie said, "What is your hope, what do you hold onto when the healing path gets dark and it is hard to hang on much longer? What is your joy, what makes you smile and dance and laugh, even in the midst of pain? I fully believe that as survivors it is important to share our stories and our pains and our troubles. In this sharing we find a community, we find help and understanding, which is an important part of healing. We also need to share our hopes and joys, we need to give them freely to other survivors who may have lost sight of theirs."
The deadline is Wednesday, 5/19, midnight Pacific time (U.S.) for the Friday edition. In addition to the "Hope and Joy" theme, we still have our regular submission categories of Advocacy & Awareness, Aftermath, Art Therapy, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry, and Survivor Stories. You can use this submission form here. Thanks, in advance for joining us and spreading the hope and joy! :)
Tracie must have stayed up late, because she's already got our Hope & Joy Carnival up. Amazing! I'm glad we extended the deadline, because we got some more folks to join us at the last minute. It is now officially huge! There are over 30 posts in there. Wowie Kazowie! We've got a nice selection of posts under the Hope & Joy theme and some neat stuff to look at in our new Art Therapy category.
I can't thank you all enough for your continued support, contribution, promotion and enthusiasm of and for this awareness-raising carnival. I just love our survivor solidarity and community! :)
YET ANOTHER UPDATE, THURSDAY 5/20/10: Well, Blog Carnival dot com is back up and running now. I checked myself with my own submission and see that the form is now working as well. I just heard back from this month's host, and we've agreed to extend the deadline until midnight TONIGHT. Thank you all for you patience and perseverance. And thank you, Tracie, for being such a committed, patient and hard-working host--and for the first time hosting, too. Wow! :)
*****
Update: Wednesday, May 19, 2010: I do not know the cause, but apparently the website at Blog Carnival dot com is down. I can't get the widget on my sidebar to load, the submission form doesn't work, and I cannot get to the BC dot com home page. This has happened once before and they got everything up and running again fairly quickly. This time, it seems to be taking a bit longer. I don't know what the problem is or when it will be fixed. I'm sorry for the confusion and inconvenience. I will be in touch as information becomes available. Thank you for your patience.
On Friday, (That's this Friday, May 21) Tracie will be hosting our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. She's just coming off of a weekend blog-a-thon, so I know she's tired. But, I think she's pumped, too! She's pumped with advocacy, awareness, doing good and changing the world. What perfect timing. I just know she'll be a great host.
She's chosen Hope & Joy for the theme for this month's edition. I told her that I thought this was timely, because I've really been experiencing some moments of pure, lighthearted joy this spring. If you're a survivor who's been through phases where those moments are quite few and far between like I have (and what survivor hasn't, really?), you know how much I appreciate these precious little moments.
What precious moments bring you joy and hope for a better tomorrow? In her announcement post for this carnival, Tracie said, "What is your hope, what do you hold onto when the healing path gets dark and it is hard to hang on much longer? What is your joy, what makes you smile and dance and laugh, even in the midst of pain? I fully believe that as survivors it is important to share our stories and our pains and our troubles. In this sharing we find a community, we find help and understanding, which is an important part of healing. We also need to share our hopes and joys, we need to give them freely to other survivors who may have lost sight of theirs."
The deadline is Wednesday, 5/19, midnight Pacific time (U.S.) for the Friday edition. In addition to the "Hope and Joy" theme, we still have our regular submission categories of Advocacy & Awareness, Aftermath, Art Therapy, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry, and Survivor Stories. You can use this submission form here. Thanks, in advance for joining us and spreading the hope and joy! :)
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, child abuse, community, healing, hope, Poetry, recovery, therapy
March 29, 2010
Aware AND Alive: Finding Joy
Hey, folks. I'm back from Spring Break. We couldn't afford to fly anywhere this year and my husband wanted to save money by camping instead of staying in a hotel. I was afraid we were going to freeze our buns off! We had to drive all the way down to Sedona, AZ to find some sunshine and warmth, but it was worth the long road trip. We camped in Oak Creek Canyon where it was gorgeous. I've never slept so well on a camping trip. The sound of the creek was a wonderful lullaby!
Now that I'm back, I'm reading the posts in this month's Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. Mike at Child Abuse Survivor had such a wonderful idea. To help celebrate his Irish heritage and the Irish humor he so appreciates, Mike set up a theme for this edition of humor, joy and survivors finding happiness.
You know, child abuse is such a serious subject and we do need to be warriors fighting against it, raising awareness and working for prevention and recovery. But, we can also celebrate survivors finding joy, humor and a sense of wholeness and happiness. That's the whole reason I decided a long time ago to name my dot com site and my blog Survivors Can Thrive! Don't we all want to emerge from surviving and start thriving in our lives? Sometimes, while I'm down in the trenches of my own recovery, working on my healing, I forget that. Thanks for the reminder, Mike!
Yes, thanks indeed, Mike, for coming up with such an inspired theme. I am smiling reading these posts. I so appreciate our survivor solidarity where we can share our sorrows and our joys. Thanks to all for participating and thank you, in advance, for going to the carnival, reading and sharing your comments on the posts. You'll be glad you stopped by. Go get a smile! :)
Now that I'm back, I'm reading the posts in this month's Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. Mike at Child Abuse Survivor had such a wonderful idea. To help celebrate his Irish heritage and the Irish humor he so appreciates, Mike set up a theme for this edition of humor, joy and survivors finding happiness.
You know, child abuse is such a serious subject and we do need to be warriors fighting against it, raising awareness and working for prevention and recovery. But, we can also celebrate survivors finding joy, humor and a sense of wholeness and happiness. That's the whole reason I decided a long time ago to name my dot com site and my blog Survivors Can Thrive! Don't we all want to emerge from surviving and start thriving in our lives? Sometimes, while I'm down in the trenches of my own recovery, working on my healing, I forget that. Thanks for the reminder, Mike!
Yes, thanks indeed, Mike, for coming up with such an inspired theme. I am smiling reading these posts. I so appreciate our survivor solidarity where we can share our sorrows and our joys. Thanks to all for participating and thank you, in advance, for going to the carnival, reading and sharing your comments on the posts. You'll be glad you stopped by. Go get a smile! :)
Labels: appreciation, beauty, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, child abuse, comfort, community, gratitude, healing, hope, inner child, journey, Poetry, thrive
March 21, 2010
Shamrocks, Carnivals & Spring Breaks
Happy spring, everybody! I don't know about you, but this has been a looooong winter for me. I am so happy to see the crocuses blooming!
I'm about to go out of town for a little road trip to celebrate my son's Spring Break. But, before I go, I wanted to make sure to let you all know about our next edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. Mike, at Child Abuse Survivor, has graciously offered to host for us once again. I think he chose March as the month for him to host this year because he is Irish. And March is , of course, when we celebrate for, with and about our Irish friends with St. Patrick's Day. About this edition Mike said:
"I’ll be hosting the March edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse later this month, and given my own Irish heritage, and this being the month we celebrate the Irish with St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to make the theme of this year one that speaks to the Irish part of me. Historically, Ireland has been a country of misery, and the Irish people have suffered oppression, famine, civil war, poverty... Yet, through it all, they maintain a sense of humor and know how to have a good time! I’ve always thought, as a survivor, that healing requires a little bit of that. In the midst of my worst days of trying to cope, I found that having those little moments of joy to look forward to, made it just a little bit easier. So, as part of this month’s carnival...I want to hear about how, as a survivor, you’ve managed to find the joy in life and have a good time! We’ll call it the "Life is Grand" category."
Of course, we will also have our regular submission categories of: Advocacy & Awareness, Aftermath, Art Therapy, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry and Survivor Stories. But, this month, Mike wants to hear some blog post stories about overcoming with joy and a sense of humor. I like his idea. It's inspired, isn't it? So, be thinking about this months' theme, won't you? The deadline for this month's edition is Wednesday, March 24. Our carnival edition will post over at Mike's blog on Friday, March 26. You can use this submission form here to send in a post. Thank you all for your continued support and involvement in our blog carnival!
I'm about to go out of town for a little road trip to celebrate my son's Spring Break. But, before I go, I wanted to make sure to let you all know about our next edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. Mike, at Child Abuse Survivor, has graciously offered to host for us once again. I think he chose March as the month for him to host this year because he is Irish. And March is , of course, when we celebrate for, with and about our Irish friends with St. Patrick's Day. About this edition Mike said:
"I’ll be hosting the March edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse later this month, and given my own Irish heritage, and this being the month we celebrate the Irish with St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to make the theme of this year one that speaks to the Irish part of me. Historically, Ireland has been a country of misery, and the Irish people have suffered oppression, famine, civil war, poverty... Yet, through it all, they maintain a sense of humor and know how to have a good time! I’ve always thought, as a survivor, that healing requires a little bit of that. In the midst of my worst days of trying to cope, I found that having those little moments of joy to look forward to, made it just a little bit easier. So, as part of this month’s carnival...I want to hear about how, as a survivor, you’ve managed to find the joy in life and have a good time! We’ll call it the "Life is Grand" category."
Of course, we will also have our regular submission categories of: Advocacy & Awareness, Aftermath, Art Therapy, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry and Survivor Stories. But, this month, Mike wants to hear some blog post stories about overcoming with joy and a sense of humor. I like his idea. It's inspired, isn't it? So, be thinking about this months' theme, won't you? The deadline for this month's edition is Wednesday, March 24. Our carnival edition will post over at Mike's blog on Friday, March 26. You can use this submission form here to send in a post. Thank you all for your continued support and involvement in our blog carnival!
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, breaking the cycle, child abuse, community, healing, Poetry, therapy
March 08, 2010
Women Changing The World For Our Children
Today is International Women's Day! Did you know?
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/diVMNX_ZDfc&hl=en_US&fs=1& type=]
As I was tweeting about it over at Twitter, I discovered a great article in the Huffington Post: International Women's Day: 11 Women Who Are Changing The World.
In this article, I learned that some of these women are changing the world through important child abuse prevention issues. Now that's some news I love to hear some coverage about!
First, there's Nujood Ali, a 12-year-old girl from Yemen. When she was only 10 years old, she was forced to marry a man in his 30's. Of course, Nujood's new husband forced himself on her. But, one day she was able to sneak away from her new "home" and go to the courthouse and request a divorce. She was successful at obtaining the divorce and now has returned to her family and her studies at school. She now has the chance to continue her childhood. She has written a book about her victory called, I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.
Then there's Waris Dirie, a supermodel and best-selling author who was born in the Somali desert and underwent genital mutilation at the young age of five.Now she is a tireless spokesperson and advocate working to end genital mutilation of girls. You can visit the website for her foundation here.
Next, meet Somaly Mam. Born into extreme poverty in Cambodia, Somaly was sold into sexual slavery as a child. Since escaping her captors, she has dedicated her life to helping other victims of human trafficking. Somaly's foundation helps human trafficking victims escape their plight and build the emotional and economic strength they need to build a future for themselves.
Finally, of Huffington's "11 Women Changing The World," I want to mention Eve Ensler. You may know her from her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues. Eve is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. It's the perfect nonprofit to end my post with, as it raises awareness in the fight to stop many of the issues I've already mentioned including: rape, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.
Well, I'm done with the 11 Women Changing The World list for International Women's Day, but I'm not quite done with my post yet. I want to point out a couple of organizations that I get updates from on a daily basis, year round (not just on International Women's Day). These nonprofits are always calling attention to ways in which we can empower women to end the abuse of children.
One of my favorites--that I've been supporting for some time--is Equality Now. Right now, Equality Now is raising awareness and helping victims in these areas: girls sold into the sex trade in India; girls raped by their teachers in Zambia; and female genital mutilation in Somalia.
And last--but certainly not least--I support Women Thrive Worldwide. This is the organization I follow over at Twitter that told me today was International Women's Day in the first place! Many of the issues involving children that I've just discussed thrive in our world's poverty. Women Thrive Worldwide works to shape the U.S. policies that help women lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Click here to find information to help you urge your senator to support the GROWTH--Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive--Act.
Thanks for reading, clicking, linking and acting to support women changing the world for our children. And happy International Women's Day!
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/diVMNX_ZDfc&hl=en_US&fs=1& type=]
As I was tweeting about it over at Twitter, I discovered a great article in the Huffington Post: International Women's Day: 11 Women Who Are Changing The World.
In this article, I learned that some of these women are changing the world through important child abuse prevention issues. Now that's some news I love to hear some coverage about!
First, there's Nujood Ali, a 12-year-old girl from Yemen. When she was only 10 years old, she was forced to marry a man in his 30's. Of course, Nujood's new husband forced himself on her. But, one day she was able to sneak away from her new "home" and go to the courthouse and request a divorce. She was successful at obtaining the divorce and now has returned to her family and her studies at school. She now has the chance to continue her childhood. She has written a book about her victory called, I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.
Then there's Waris Dirie, a supermodel and best-selling author who was born in the Somali desert and underwent genital mutilation at the young age of five.Now she is a tireless spokesperson and advocate working to end genital mutilation of girls. You can visit the website for her foundation here.
Next, meet Somaly Mam. Born into extreme poverty in Cambodia, Somaly was sold into sexual slavery as a child. Since escaping her captors, she has dedicated her life to helping other victims of human trafficking. Somaly's foundation helps human trafficking victims escape their plight and build the emotional and economic strength they need to build a future for themselves.
Finally, of Huffington's "11 Women Changing The World," I want to mention Eve Ensler. You may know her from her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues. Eve is the founder of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. It's the perfect nonprofit to end my post with, as it raises awareness in the fight to stop many of the issues I've already mentioned including: rape, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.
Well, I'm done with the 11 Women Changing The World list for International Women's Day, but I'm not quite done with my post yet. I want to point out a couple of organizations that I get updates from on a daily basis, year round (not just on International Women's Day). These nonprofits are always calling attention to ways in which we can empower women to end the abuse of children.
One of my favorites--that I've been supporting for some time--is Equality Now. Right now, Equality Now is raising awareness and helping victims in these areas: girls sold into the sex trade in India; girls raped by their teachers in Zambia; and female genital mutilation in Somalia.
And last--but certainly not least--I support Women Thrive Worldwide. This is the organization I follow over at Twitter that told me today was International Women's Day in the first place! Many of the issues involving children that I've just discussed thrive in our world's poverty. Women Thrive Worldwide works to shape the U.S. policies that help women lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Click here to find information to help you urge your senator to support the GROWTH--Global Resources and Opportunities for Women to Thrive--Act.
Thanks for reading, clicking, linking and acting to support women changing the world for our children. And happy International Women's Day!
Labels: acquaintance rape, advocacy, child abuse, community, genital mutilation, human rights, human trafficking, sexual slavery, Twitter
February 22, 2010
New Host: 30 Posts!
Sorry for the delay in this announcement, folks. I spent the weekend with the stomach flu. Yuck! The two-year-old that I watch once a week has started going to daycare now. She picks everything up there and then passes it on to me. *sigh*
What I wanted to tell you about is how impressed I am with IK over at Issue Knitting . She's a first-time Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse host and she's done a fabulous job of organizing 30 submissions for our February edition . The theme is birthdays and it's IK's birthday, too! So, go on over and click on the links, do some reading, leave some supportive comments and say "Happy Birthday" to IK, won't you? Thanks for your support and survivor solidarity!
What I wanted to tell you about is how impressed I am with IK over at Issue Knitting . She's a first-time Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse host and she's done a fabulous job of organizing 30 submissions for our February edition . The theme is birthdays and it's IK's birthday, too! So, go on over and click on the links, do some reading, leave some supportive comments and say "Happy Birthday" to IK, won't you? Thanks for your support and survivor solidarity!
Labels: Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, child abuse, community, DID, dissociation, healing, inner child, therapy
February 10, 2010
New Hosts Make The Carnival Go 'Round!
Wordle: BlogCarnivalAgainstChildAbuse
I want to introduce you to a new host for our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. She will be hosting for February at Issue Knitting . We call her IK and she's not only hosting this month, she also celebrates her birthday this time of year. For this reason, we will be using a birthday theme for this carnival edition.
Here's what IK says: "As this month is the month of my birthday, I am suggesting birthdays as a theme. Birthdays are a reminder of our entrance into this world. Thus, birthdays may have an effect on abuse or the healing from such abuse. For me, birthdays have a bittersweet impression because of this. Additional tension and conflict during birthdays, resentment and guilt doled out, and a gratitude for being alive are all associated to birthdays for me. By no means is one required to submit something birthday-related. All are welcome!"
As usual, we still have our regular categories for submission as well: Survivor Stories, Poetry, Art Therapy, In The News, Healing & Therapy, Advocacy & Awareness and Aftermath.
But, I gotta tell ya, I really started thinking about this birthday theme. I think it must have been synchronicity; I go for months on end without attending church and then this past weekend, I not only went to a church retreat for women, but I also did a reading on Sunday morning. The topic Sunday was eugenics. The reason I was appropriate to do a reading is because I was one of the people attending church the day they asked for volunteers who had a parent who was diagnosed with a mental illness before they had children. This topic really got me thinking about what it would be like if I had never been born. So, I'll be writing a post about this and submitting it for the carnival.
Won't you please submit something, too? It doesn't have to be anything related to the theme, nor does it have to be a newly-created post. Just find something and send it in, won't you? I really want us all to support our new hosts. If I was limited to participating bloggers who have so generously hosted multiple times, we'd all have quite a bit of work to commit to each year, with twelve carnival editions to publish. New hosts are the lifeblood of this carnival. They do, indeed, make our Carnival Against Child Abuse go 'round!
The deadline for this month's carnival is Wednesday, February 17 and IK will have the edition up on Friday, 2/19. You can link to the submission form here.
I want to introduce you to a new host for our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. She will be hosting for February at Issue Knitting . We call her IK and she's not only hosting this month, she also celebrates her birthday this time of year. For this reason, we will be using a birthday theme for this carnival edition.
Here's what IK says: "As this month is the month of my birthday, I am suggesting birthdays as a theme. Birthdays are a reminder of our entrance into this world. Thus, birthdays may have an effect on abuse or the healing from such abuse. For me, birthdays have a bittersweet impression because of this. Additional tension and conflict during birthdays, resentment and guilt doled out, and a gratitude for being alive are all associated to birthdays for me. By no means is one required to submit something birthday-related. All are welcome!"
As usual, we still have our regular categories for submission as well: Survivor Stories, Poetry, Art Therapy, In The News, Healing & Therapy, Advocacy & Awareness and Aftermath.
But, I gotta tell ya, I really started thinking about this birthday theme. I think it must have been synchronicity; I go for months on end without attending church and then this past weekend, I not only went to a church retreat for women, but I also did a reading on Sunday morning. The topic Sunday was eugenics. The reason I was appropriate to do a reading is because I was one of the people attending church the day they asked for volunteers who had a parent who was diagnosed with a mental illness before they had children. This topic really got me thinking about what it would be like if I had never been born. So, I'll be writing a post about this and submitting it for the carnival.
Won't you please submit something, too? It doesn't have to be anything related to the theme, nor does it have to be a newly-created post. Just find something and send it in, won't you? I really want us all to support our new hosts. If I was limited to participating bloggers who have so generously hosted multiple times, we'd all have quite a bit of work to commit to each year, with twelve carnival editions to publish. New hosts are the lifeblood of this carnival. They do, indeed, make our Carnival Against Child Abuse go 'round!
The deadline for this month's carnival is Wednesday, February 17 and IK will have the edition up on Friday, 2/19. You can link to the submission form here.
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, child abuse, community
February 03, 2010
I'm So Vain, I Probably Think This Blog Is About Me
Here's a question you probably wouldn't expect lil' ol' cyber klutz me to ask: Have you ever looked up your blog's page rank or link popularity? I have to admit, in the early days of my blog I did this quite regularly. You see, I don't have a tracker on my blog. The closest thing I have is the map you see on the sidebar down there; I think it's fun to see where in the world people are coming from to view my blog. But, if you don't leave a comment here, I don't know you've come by other than the red dot that forms on that map, indicating your general location.
Often times, I find that people are linking to me and they've never left a comment on my blog before. So, in the early days, I would look up my links, then I'd give a reciprocal link back and build up my blogroll. This was back in the days when you could get a lot more, up-to-date, specific information about your blog links over at Technorati and before Marketleap started charging fees for their services. I have to admit, I was pretty excited, back in 2006, when my blog was in the top 50,000 blogs for a brief period of time!
I also have to admit that my blogroll got so long, that I really didn't pay it much attention for a while. Couple the huge blogroll with the fall-into-winter therapy marathon that just ended, and I think it's fair to say that my blog (and my dot com site) were a bit neglected for a while.
Well, I decided to go over to Survivors Can Thrive! and do some updating on my dot com site, and I also decided to update some things on the template of this blog. At the same time, just for the heck of it, I decided to look at my page rank for the first time in a long while. I'm not gonna lie to you: I was pretty disappointed to see how far my blog's rank has fallen. I'm a bit worried--to be honest--that it's threatening to fall off the bloggy radar altogether.
I know how fast things change in the cyber world. Folks just stop blogging all the time. Folks change their blogs and start up new ones. I know there are some blogger folks who I've linked to for quite a while who don't have links on their blogs--no blogroll. I knew that I wasn't getting any link popularity from those folks who weren't linking to me (duh! I'm not that much of a cyber klutz). But, what I didn't know until recently is that, when I link to a blog that does not link back to me, it actually "drains" my blog rank, so to speak. Here's an article that explains it. It's pretty complicated, but there were a few things I got that really stood out and that was one of them.
In case you're interested, here are a couple more links that you can use to research your page rank and link popularity for your own blog.
I still don't think I'm going to put a site counter on my blog--that would just make me too crazy. But, maybe I am just vain enough that I don't want to see my blog completely fall off the bloggy radar. So, I have taken some links off my sidebar to blogs who aren't linking to me. If you find that one of these is your blog, please don't take it personally. I will still follow your blog with Google Friend Connect, if you have that feature. I will follow you over at Twitter if you ask me to, invite you to The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, visit your blog and comment there. If you are listed over at BlogCatalog, or Technorati, I will certainly fave you or add you as a friend. Just ask.
Oh, and another thing: I have a lot of links in the Resources section of my dot com site, as well. My dot com site is another story. I do have a tracker over there that comes with the paid-for, monthly web host service. (I try to stay away from it as much as I can, but look at it occasionally.)
In the link department, I've got some biggies listed there. I've got book titles linked to Amazon, and I've got websites like the Sidran and EMDR institutes, ChildHelp USA and so on. These big agencies have never linked to me, so I guess that's why my dot com site has never ranked high. I'm not so concerned about that; I just want it to be available to anyone who wants to use it as a resource. And if you have anything that you think would be helpful to link as a resource under my pages of Books, Survivor Support, Advocacy & Abuse Prevention, Treatment & Research, or Survivor Issues, let me know and I'll look into adding you there.
But, here at my blog is where I run The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse every month. So many of us have been involved in this important awareness-raising carnival since 2006 and I want it to stay as visible as possible. So, please don't chalk it up to vanity that I'm looking at my page rank and making some adjustments. And, please do let me know if you get a link up to me and I'll be happy to reciprocate, as usual. And one last thing: If you see that you don't have a link on my sidebar and you don't know why, don't be shy; ask me about it. I may have had a dissociative or plain ol' spacey moment and it might just be an oversight.
Often times, I find that people are linking to me and they've never left a comment on my blog before. So, in the early days, I would look up my links, then I'd give a reciprocal link back and build up my blogroll. This was back in the days when you could get a lot more, up-to-date, specific information about your blog links over at Technorati and before Marketleap started charging fees for their services. I have to admit, I was pretty excited, back in 2006, when my blog was in the top 50,000 blogs for a brief period of time!
I also have to admit that my blogroll got so long, that I really didn't pay it much attention for a while. Couple the huge blogroll with the fall-into-winter therapy marathon that just ended, and I think it's fair to say that my blog (and my dot com site) were a bit neglected for a while.
Well, I decided to go over to Survivors Can Thrive! and do some updating on my dot com site, and I also decided to update some things on the template of this blog. At the same time, just for the heck of it, I decided to look at my page rank for the first time in a long while. I'm not gonna lie to you: I was pretty disappointed to see how far my blog's rank has fallen. I'm a bit worried--to be honest--that it's threatening to fall off the bloggy radar altogether.
I know how fast things change in the cyber world. Folks just stop blogging all the time. Folks change their blogs and start up new ones. I know there are some blogger folks who I've linked to for quite a while who don't have links on their blogs--no blogroll. I knew that I wasn't getting any link popularity from those folks who weren't linking to me (duh! I'm not that much of a cyber klutz). But, what I didn't know until recently is that, when I link to a blog that does not link back to me, it actually "drains" my blog rank, so to speak. Here's an article that explains it. It's pretty complicated, but there were a few things I got that really stood out and that was one of them.
In case you're interested, here are a couple more links that you can use to research your page rank and link popularity for your own blog.
I still don't think I'm going to put a site counter on my blog--that would just make me too crazy. But, maybe I am just vain enough that I don't want to see my blog completely fall off the bloggy radar. So, I have taken some links off my sidebar to blogs who aren't linking to me. If you find that one of these is your blog, please don't take it personally. I will still follow your blog with Google Friend Connect, if you have that feature. I will follow you over at Twitter if you ask me to, invite you to The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, visit your blog and comment there. If you are listed over at BlogCatalog, or Technorati, I will certainly fave you or add you as a friend. Just ask.
Oh, and another thing: I have a lot of links in the Resources section of my dot com site, as well. My dot com site is another story. I do have a tracker over there that comes with the paid-for, monthly web host service. (I try to stay away from it as much as I can, but look at it occasionally.)
In the link department, I've got some biggies listed there. I've got book titles linked to Amazon, and I've got websites like the Sidran and EMDR institutes, ChildHelp USA and so on. These big agencies have never linked to me, so I guess that's why my dot com site has never ranked high. I'm not so concerned about that; I just want it to be available to anyone who wants to use it as a resource. And if you have anything that you think would be helpful to link as a resource under my pages of Books, Survivor Support, Advocacy & Abuse Prevention, Treatment & Research, or Survivor Issues, let me know and I'll look into adding you there.
But, here at my blog is where I run The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse every month. So many of us have been involved in this important awareness-raising carnival since 2006 and I want it to stay as visible as possible. So, please don't chalk it up to vanity that I'm looking at my page rank and making some adjustments. And, please do let me know if you get a link up to me and I'll be happy to reciprocate, as usual. And one last thing: If you see that you don't have a link on my sidebar and you don't know why, don't be shy; ask me about it. I may have had a dissociative or plain ol' spacey moment and it might just be an oversight.
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, child abuse prevention, community, links
December 23, 2009
Mini Carnival: Holiday Survival Tips for Survivors
So, welcome to our holiday mini carnival for The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. As I said in the post below, I was psyched to see some wonderful lists of holiday tips that I found useful for survivors. I hope you will find them useful, too!
Happy Holidays, all! Stay safe, stay sane!
Happy Holidays, all! Stay safe, stay sane!
To All My Poly Pals:
To All My Poly Pals: by Marj aka Thriver on Polyvore.com
First, I direct you to a list found on Dr. Deb's blog, entitled, "Ten Tips to Keep You in Yuletide Cheer." Especially helpful for dissociative survivors or those with PTSD: "Avoid triggers that set old traumas into motion." Easier said than done, but definitely something to be aware of is her advice to stay in the present. I also like, "Use your senses to find beauty and peace in small moments around you." Especially if you find yourself around your perpetrator or someone toxic or abusive, remind yourself that the beauty and peace you discover with those senses of yours can never be taken away from you.
The next blogger I'm highlighting is new to me. The blog is called Healing Stream for Survivors. The insightful, useful post is called Holiday Tips for Incest Survivors. If you are still in a quandary about whether or not to show up at your family of origin gathering tomorrow or Friday, you may want to check out this post. It gives useful ideas for weighing the pros and cons of attending family of origin gatherings or passing on them. There is one word of caution here, however: Don't spend the holiday alone. I agree. Even if it's simply taking a book to read at a Chinese restaurant or going to see a movie--get out there. Crunch in the snow. Take a drive and look at the Christmas lights. Grab an eggnog latte.
Another blog that is new to me that I am loving is Grace Davis' State of Grace. Her post, An Adult Child Abuse Survivor's Guide to the Holidays makes the point that you don't have to go to any holiday gatherings of your family of origin, but gives many helpful tips for if you do go. As a dissociative, I particularly like her idea about sitting next to the window and looking out. For me, I find looking at falling snow, birds at a feeder, frosted trees, etc. quite grounding. You need to stay grounded so that you can keep yourself safe.
I found Grace Davis through Patricia's blog, Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. State of Grace was a wonderful resource link Patricia provided in her post entitled, Help Getting Through the Holidays. When you visit Patricia's blog, stay and take a look around. Her two most recent posts are about feelings and the spirit of Christmas. Her post on December 2 talks about shutting down to get through the holidays. I always find something I can relate to at her blog.
Patricia was, actually, the spark that motivated this mini carnival for me. Thanks, Patricia! Her post that I just mentioned also points to Colleen's blog, Surviving by Grace. Her posts, How to Help a Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse, and If You Want to Help a Survivor are not exactly holiday tips lists for survivors, but they have some wonderful ideas for how your healthy, non-toxic friends and relatives can be helpful to you during this stressful, often triggering, time. You might just want to copy off these posted ideas and have them in your pocket in the next couple of days as a reminder for you to be assertive and ask supportive loved ones for what you need.
My blogger friend, Clinically Clueless is anything but. She is making her own holiday-time changes and is passing them on to other survivors in her post, Holidays ~ A Time For Change. This is an amazingly helpful, powerful, yet short and succinct list that we can all adopt as we make healthy changes in our lives. I especially like her advice to "make your own family traditions." I started doing this when I was single and on my own and have really enjoyed adopting my own holiday family traditions with my husband and my son. Remember: just because Grandma did it doesn't mean you have to do it...particularly if it is stressful and/or triggering! We have choices now. Let's make them!
Finally, I leave you with Amy's blog Smelling God. Amy is an amazingly prolific Christian writer who has created her own four-part series of posts about getting through the holidays, aptly named "Surviving The Holidays." Part four of four is about finding and celebrating your new beginnings. Part three talks so importantly about breaking the cycle, protecting yourself, saying no and starting your own new traditions. Part two is my favorite and is really the tips list, starting off by saying, "you are enough!" and explaining how to let go of your abuser's brain washing. On the list itself, I really like her advice about copying kids at Christmas. Make a snow angel! She also gives us this gem: "Reclaim their joy and make it your own." Yes! Amy's part one of four explains how to overcome fear and dread, which may really be mounting for some of us as Christmas Day approaches.
My thanks goes out to these helpful bloggers for letting me highlight their holiday posts. Thanks for reading. Won't you stop by their blogs and tell them you appreciate them, too? As always, I appreciate all of you for letting me into your lives. I'm looking forward to continuing our bloggy buddy relationships and survivor solidarity in 2010. If any of you think you may want to host a monthly edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse in the New Year, please leave me a comment expressing your willingness to do so. Thanks, in advance!
To All My Poly Pals: by Marj aka Thriver on Polyvore.com
First, I direct you to a list found on Dr. Deb's blog, entitled, "Ten Tips to Keep You in Yuletide Cheer." Especially helpful for dissociative survivors or those with PTSD: "Avoid triggers that set old traumas into motion." Easier said than done, but definitely something to be aware of is her advice to stay in the present. I also like, "Use your senses to find beauty and peace in small moments around you." Especially if you find yourself around your perpetrator or someone toxic or abusive, remind yourself that the beauty and peace you discover with those senses of yours can never be taken away from you.
The next blogger I'm highlighting is new to me. The blog is called Healing Stream for Survivors. The insightful, useful post is called Holiday Tips for Incest Survivors. If you are still in a quandary about whether or not to show up at your family of origin gathering tomorrow or Friday, you may want to check out this post. It gives useful ideas for weighing the pros and cons of attending family of origin gatherings or passing on them. There is one word of caution here, however: Don't spend the holiday alone. I agree. Even if it's simply taking a book to read at a Chinese restaurant or going to see a movie--get out there. Crunch in the snow. Take a drive and look at the Christmas lights. Grab an eggnog latte.
Another blog that is new to me that I am loving is Grace Davis' State of Grace. Her post, An Adult Child Abuse Survivor's Guide to the Holidays makes the point that you don't have to go to any holiday gatherings of your family of origin, but gives many helpful tips for if you do go. As a dissociative, I particularly like her idea about sitting next to the window and looking out. For me, I find looking at falling snow, birds at a feeder, frosted trees, etc. quite grounding. You need to stay grounded so that you can keep yourself safe.
I found Grace Davis through Patricia's blog, Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. State of Grace was a wonderful resource link Patricia provided in her post entitled, Help Getting Through the Holidays. When you visit Patricia's blog, stay and take a look around. Her two most recent posts are about feelings and the spirit of Christmas. Her post on December 2 talks about shutting down to get through the holidays. I always find something I can relate to at her blog.
Patricia was, actually, the spark that motivated this mini carnival for me. Thanks, Patricia! Her post that I just mentioned also points to Colleen's blog, Surviving by Grace. Her posts, How to Help a Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse, and If You Want to Help a Survivor are not exactly holiday tips lists for survivors, but they have some wonderful ideas for how your healthy, non-toxic friends and relatives can be helpful to you during this stressful, often triggering, time. You might just want to copy off these posted ideas and have them in your pocket in the next couple of days as a reminder for you to be assertive and ask supportive loved ones for what you need.
My blogger friend, Clinically Clueless is anything but. She is making her own holiday-time changes and is passing them on to other survivors in her post, Holidays ~ A Time For Change. This is an amazingly helpful, powerful, yet short and succinct list that we can all adopt as we make healthy changes in our lives. I especially like her advice to "make your own family traditions." I started doing this when I was single and on my own and have really enjoyed adopting my own holiday family traditions with my husband and my son. Remember: just because Grandma did it doesn't mean you have to do it...particularly if it is stressful and/or triggering! We have choices now. Let's make them!
Finally, I leave you with Amy's blog Smelling God. Amy is an amazingly prolific Christian writer who has created her own four-part series of posts about getting through the holidays, aptly named "Surviving The Holidays." Part four of four is about finding and celebrating your new beginnings. Part three talks so importantly about breaking the cycle, protecting yourself, saying no and starting your own new traditions. Part two is my favorite and is really the tips list, starting off by saying, "you are enough!" and explaining how to let go of your abuser's brain washing. On the list itself, I really like her advice about copying kids at Christmas. Make a snow angel! She also gives us this gem: "Reclaim their joy and make it your own." Yes! Amy's part one of four explains how to overcome fear and dread, which may really be mounting for some of us as Christmas Day approaches.
My thanks goes out to these helpful bloggers for letting me highlight their holiday posts. Thanks for reading. Won't you stop by their blogs and tell them you appreciate them, too? As always, I appreciate all of you for letting me into your lives. I'm looking forward to continuing our bloggy buddy relationships and survivor solidarity in 2010. If any of you think you may want to host a monthly edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse in the New Year, please leave me a comment expressing your willingness to do so. Thanks, in advance!
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, breaking the cycle, comfort, community, dissociation, healing, holidays, safety, self-care
December 21, 2009
Holiday Survival Tips for Survivors
Hi, everybody! Well, I can't tell you all how much I enjoyed our pre-holiday interchange with the
"gift of gratitude" I put up on the post below. Wow! What a wonderful, supportive group we have here. :)
Now, I'm getting ready to organize a little quick "mini carnival" for The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse for December. I don't have any new hosts lined up and I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle a full carnival edition myself. But, then I started seeing some great posts out in the blogosphere that had lists of tips for holiday survival for us survivors. So, on Wednesday--December 23--I'm going to link to some of these holiday tip lists.
So far, I've found very useful lists at the blogs of Colleen, Patricia, Amy, Clueless and Dr. Deb. I also hope to get permission to use the lists from bloggers who are new to me: Healing Stream and Grace Davis.
Nobody has to bother with the Blog Carnival submission form this time. Just let me know if you'd rather NOT have your list included in our mini carnival. And if anyone has other lists they know of out there, please let me know ASAP by leaving a comment. Oh yeah. And if you've already submitted a post that is not a holiday tips list, don't worry. I will save all the other submitted posts for the January carnival. Thanks!
"gift of gratitude" I put up on the post below. Wow! What a wonderful, supportive group we have here. :)
Now, I'm getting ready to organize a little quick "mini carnival" for The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse for December. I don't have any new hosts lined up and I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle a full carnival edition myself. But, then I started seeing some great posts out in the blogosphere that had lists of tips for holiday survival for us survivors. So, on Wednesday--December 23--I'm going to link to some of these holiday tip lists.
So far, I've found very useful lists at the blogs of Colleen, Patricia, Amy, Clueless and Dr. Deb. I also hope to get permission to use the lists from bloggers who are new to me: Healing Stream and Grace Davis.
Nobody has to bother with the Blog Carnival submission form this time. Just let me know if you'd rather NOT have your list included in our mini carnival. And if anyone has other lists they know of out there, please let me know ASAP by leaving a comment. Oh yeah. And if you've already submitted a post that is not a holiday tips list, don't worry. I will save all the other submitted posts for the January carnival. Thanks!
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, community, healing, holidays, links, self-care
December 14, 2009
The Gift of Gratitude
I want to take some time out of the busy holiday schedule (which doesn't seem to be triggering me this year, thank God) to let each of my bloggy buddies know that I am grateful for your friendship. Your support and kind words always mean such a great deal to me. I want you all to know that. Each one of you is special and has a special place in my heart. Thank you!
My holiday wish for you is that the spirit of the season brings you true comfort and joy.
My holiday wish for you is that the spirit of the season brings you true comfort and joy.
Labels: beauty, collage, comfort, community, connection, gratitude, support, survivors
November 16, 2009
Take a Ride, Help a Child!
Update, 11/19/09: Happy World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. Whew! This is a HUGE carnival I'm organizing here, with over 35 posts! I will do my best to have the edition up and posted by early this afternoon. See ya then!
*****
Thursday (11/19) is World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. It's an annual, global awareness campaign, launched in 2000. Won't you help a child--help break the cycle--by raising awareness about child abuse at our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse? I'm hosting an edition here at my blog on Thursday--"World Day."
*****
Thursday (11/19) is World Day for the Prevention of Child Abuse. It's an annual, global awareness campaign, launched in 2000. Won't you help a child--help break the cycle--by raising awareness about child abuse at our Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse? I'm hosting an edition here at my blog on Thursday--"World Day."
You can submit items from the news, poetry, survivor stories, posts about healing & therapy, advocacy & awareness, and abuse aftermath. Also starting this month, we have a *New* category: art therapy. If you love collage at Polyvore like I do, embed one of your collages into one of your blog posts and submit it for this new category. We will also take drawings, paintings...any kind of visual art, as long as it's part of a blog post and it was created for art therapy/healing purposes. In addition to these monthly categories, I'd like to see lots of posts this month that focus on prevention of child abuse, to celebrate "World Day."
The deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 17, at midnight Pacific Time, U.S. Hurray! You can use this submission form here .
Tuesday, 11/17 Update: Thanks for the heads up on the Blog Carnival submission form link not working. I think it's working now. Thanks for your interest and support of our carnival. If you tried to submit before and couldn't, please try again! Appreciate your patience! ;)
Tuesday, 11/17 Update: Thanks for the heads up on the Blog Carnival submission form link not working. I think it's working now. Thanks for your interest and support of our carnival. If you tried to submit before and couldn't, please try again! Appreciate your patience! ;)
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, breaking the cycle, child abuse prevention, collage, community, survivor art, therapy
October 23, 2009
A Little Business To Attend To
Update: 10/30/09: Lynda has the October edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse up at her blog, In The Best Interest: Child Advocacy Law. She's done a wonderful job of organizing the entries. We were able to get several that were in the child abuse prevention and advocacy category; under that theme. Please go over and support these brave bloggers, won't you? I appreciate the survivor solidarity!
****
Starting Sunday night, I'm going to spend six days away from my noisy, always-begging-for-some-form-of-attention, house. I'm going to rest, process and write, as well as comfort and pamper myself a little bit.
Don't worry, I'll still be on top of things for next week's October edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. This month's host is Lynda at In The Best Interest: Child Advocacy Law . Now, you don't have to know anything about child advocacy law to enter this carnival. We will still have our regular submission categories of: Aftermath, Advocacy & Awareness, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry and Survivor Stories. In addition, Lynda has set a theme of advocacy (perfect fit, right?) for this edition. To be exact, Lynda says, "The theme is: Beginner's Guide to Saving a Child. We are seeking submissions on volunteer opportunities, ways to help work to end child abuse and organizations that focus their efforts on this important work." I've already submitted my post called, Take A Stand, Raise Your Hand . I'm actually getting my own post in before the day of the deadline for a change. Yay!
Speaking of which, the deadline is Wednesday, October 28th for the Friday 10/30 edition. (That's midnight Eastern time in the U.S.). You can submit your own post using this form here . Please make sure to tell your friends and get your own posts in while I'm gone, okay? Thanks, everyone, for your continued support and contributions to this carnival. Together, we can make a difference and raise awareness about child abuse!
****
Starting Sunday night, I'm going to spend six days away from my noisy, always-begging-for-some-form-of-attention, house. I'm going to rest, process and write, as well as comfort and pamper myself a little bit.
Don't worry, I'll still be on top of things for next week's October edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. This month's host is Lynda at In The Best Interest: Child Advocacy Law . Now, you don't have to know anything about child advocacy law to enter this carnival. We will still have our regular submission categories of: Aftermath, Advocacy & Awareness, Healing & Therapy, In The News, Poetry and Survivor Stories. In addition, Lynda has set a theme of advocacy (perfect fit, right?) for this edition. To be exact, Lynda says, "The theme is: Beginner's Guide to Saving a Child. We are seeking submissions on volunteer opportunities, ways to help work to end child abuse and organizations that focus their efforts on this important work." I've already submitted my post called, Take A Stand, Raise Your Hand . I'm actually getting my own post in before the day of the deadline for a change. Yay!
Speaking of which, the deadline is Wednesday, October 28th for the Friday 10/30 edition. (That's midnight Eastern time in the U.S.). You can submit your own post using this form here . Please make sure to tell your friends and get your own posts in while I'm gone, okay? Thanks, everyone, for your continued support and contributions to this carnival. Together, we can make a difference and raise awareness about child abuse!
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, breaking the cycle, community, Poetry, survivors, The Show of Hands art project
October 02, 2009
You Are Beautiful. Yes You!
If you couldn't tell, I'm really enjoying my experience and the community over at Polyvore. I discover new things there all the time (at least when my computer is cooperating). The other day I stumbled onto something that reminded me that I--we all--need this reminder: We are beautiful! I think it is so easy for survivors to think that they are ugly. Especially if we are in therapy or doing memory work, we have to stare ugly in the face. But, we are beautiful. Let's remember that.
I'm posting this collage, aka "set" of Chloe's, which is the reminder for me that started it all. Turns out, she was inspired by a campaign called Operation Beautiful. Through this campaign, people are leaving reminders--posty notes--all over the world to spread the "you are beautiful" love. Cool, huh? You can go to the Operation Beautiful website and get instructions on how to get involved and find out how to have your own posted note...er posted! ;)
And as a final reminder of your beauty, I will leave a copy of my poem, "Your Beauty" below for your reading enjoyment. Have a beautiful day!
Your Beauty
I'm posting this collage, aka "set" of Chloe's, which is the reminder for me that started it all. Turns out, she was inspired by a campaign called Operation Beautiful. Through this campaign, people are leaving reminders--posty notes--all over the world to spread the "you are beautiful" love. Cool, huh? You can go to the Operation Beautiful website and get instructions on how to get involved and find out how to have your own posted note...er posted! ;)
And as a final reminder of your beauty, I will leave a copy of my poem, "Your Beauty" below for your reading enjoyment. Have a beautiful day!
Your Beauty
I see the beauty you can’t see
You’re unaware of what it does for me
It’s the light shining in your eyes
Lifting me up to brighter skies
Still you walk around
And you hang your head
Sometimes wishing
You were dead
But if you could see
What I see in you
There’d be nothing, love,
That you could not do.
Copyright 2003 Marj McCabe ~ All Rights Reserved
Labels: awareness, beauty, community, healing, inspiration, poem, Poetry, self-esteem, therapy
July 27, 2009
Licking My Wounds & Art Therapy
I've spent the last several days "licking my wounds." Although the pain of my mother's betrayal feels like having my skin ripped off, I've taken the time to really indulge in some self-care lately. I have also just taken the time out to grieve. Although there has been a lot of pain and a lot of tears, I have also had some rare moments of unique peace.
Thank you all for your kind comments. There were some things written in the comment section of my last post that I hadn't really realized before. Seeing those sentiments in black and white was very helpful to me. I appreciate you all so much. Our Survivor Solidarity is awesome!
Another thing I'm finding helpful is my art therapy through collage over at Polyvore. Let me share a couple of recent compilations.
This piece is called "Return to Wonder." I wish we--as child abuse survivors--could all go back and NOT know what we shouldn't have known as young children...return to innocence and wonder.
This piece reminds me that maybe--just a little at least--I'm coming out of the dark and into the green, the growing...the light. Also, that maybe I can grow something out of all the dark, black dirt that I have. I wish you all much rest, peace and blessings on your own journeys of recovery, healing, dirt-digging, reaching for the light, and growing beautiful things out of the muck.
Thank you all for your kind comments. There were some things written in the comment section of my last post that I hadn't really realized before. Seeing those sentiments in black and white was very helpful to me. I appreciate you all so much. Our Survivor Solidarity is awesome!
Another thing I'm finding helpful is my art therapy through collage over at Polyvore. Let me share a couple of recent compilations.
This piece is called "Return to Wonder." I wish we--as child abuse survivors--could all go back and NOT know what we shouldn't have known as young children...return to innocence and wonder.
This piece reminds me that maybe--just a little at least--I'm coming out of the dark and into the green, the growing...the light. Also, that maybe I can grow something out of all the dark, black dirt that I have. I wish you all much rest, peace and blessings on your own journeys of recovery, healing, dirt-digging, reaching for the light, and growing beautiful things out of the muck.
Labels: appreciation, beauty, collage, comfort, community, grieving, healing, recovery, self-care, support, survivor art
June 05, 2009
Abuse Survivors Learning to Thrive
No, the headline for this post is NOT one of my slogans for my blog and website, Survivors Can Thrive! But, I sure do love it because it is such a great fit for the message I aspire to in my real life and the awareness-raising blog world in which I circulate.
This is actually a slogan and subhead you will find on the home page of a message board and forum for survivors called isurvive. This forum currently has 829 registered members who have created over 88 thousand posts.
The topics in these posts are excellent and pertinent for survivors and their supporters: artwork and poetry; breaking the cycle; male survivors; sexual abuse; ritual abuse; dependence and much more. The forum is, of course, moderated and has a good safety policy. It looks like a very safe and supportive place.
Before I really got into blogging, the first thing I was involved in was posting on a couple of online forums very similar to isurvive. In fact, this was the first "forum" (pun intended) where I really felt like I could share my feelings and write from the heart, before I got the courage to do it here at my own blog. I found a lot of support and a true feeling that I am not alone--even on a truly international scale.
Because I am so involved in blogging, The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, Twitter and The Child Abuse ning network (see my sidebar for widgets and links to these), I no longer visit the survivor message boards. The volume there is difficult for me to keep up with at this time. Whew, I can barely keep up with Twitter and all its updates are limited to 140 characters!
But, I really want to encourage you to look into isurvive. Right now, they provide a wonderful service and they are struggling financially. I'm blogging about them today as a way to help them raise much-needed funds. A commenter at my blog--My Monster--turned me on to this cause through this post.
I also heard about it from Faith Allen at Blooming Lotus. I follow Faith through the sources I'm involved in that I mentioned above. In this post here, Faith says, "Over the last six years, I have met, supported, and by supported by hundreds, if not thousands, of child abuse survivors at Isurvive. My life is so much richer for having been touched by these very giving people – all people who were once wounded beyond imagination and now have the courage to reach out and help heal others."
Faith also asks that we include the following information: Note to readers — If Isurvive has touched your life, please consider writing about Isurvive on your own blog. If Isurvive gets enough blog entries, the charity could receive a cash award to help further its efforts.
This blog post is part of Zemanta’s "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.
If you'd like to get involved, please hurry! Tomorrow--June 6th--is the last day for this Blogging for a Cause campaign. Let's help a forum that helps survivors, shall we? I'm glad I did!
Labels: advocacy, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, breaking the cycle, community, network, ning, Poetry, survivor art, survivors, Twitter
May 28, 2009
Remembering "Veteran" Survivors
Hello, everybody. It's Friday, May 29th. Welcome to the May edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. Since Memorial Day just past here in the states, we have a memorial or memory theme for this, our 24th, edition of the carnival.
Thanks to everyone who submitted posts this month and thanks--in advance--for reading and leaving supportive comments at the blogs of our courageous contributors. Trigger Warning: Keep yourself safe as you read. Understandably, child abuse can be a very triggering subject.
ChildPerson from Child Person from the South says it all in the headline for her post, Celebrating Child Abuse Survivors: Veterans of Wars on the Home Front. I like this quote from her post: "So, this May, while taking time to honor those military casualties and veterans of foreign wars, let’s take a moment to remember those who died in home front wars and to honor those who survived." Amen!
Nomorehurt presents Honoring Your Troops posted at Abuse Recovery, saying, "A reader requested I submit this. I hope it is something you'd like to include." I was the reader, actually. I am getting to know Nomorehurt over at Polyvore, where we're both working on art therapy collages. I thought her post was perfect for our theme...maybe you'll agree.
Mike McBride, who runs the Child Abuse Survivor ning Network, almost didn't get his post in on time this month. But, he was able to squeeze in, Carnival Against Child Abuse - Memories and I'm so glad he did. It's a good message for all of us. His blog is posted at Child Abuse Survivor.
Advocacy & Awareness
After blogging with Bloggers Unite against slavery in March, I found myself very touched by this next article. It was submitted by Surbhi and it's entitled, Child Labour: Disgrace for the Society posted at The Viewspaper .
Marcella Chester presents Leading Experts to Discuss How Preventing Violence and Abuse
at her wonderful awareness-raising blog, abyss2hope.
alchemynow is a new blogger and new to the carnival, presenting HOW DID THE ABUSE CHANGE US? posted at Stop the Storm. Welcome, alchemynow!
Lynda Hinkle is another wonderful advocate I've met on Twitter. She gives us International Exploitation of Children and the Sweden Solution posted at In the Best Interest: Child Advocacy Law .
Next, we have a post that hits close to home for me. It's calledRaising A Highly Sensitive Child and it's from Concerning Kids.I have a highly sensitive child myself. I am so glad that he is safe with me. He has given me the great gift and opportunity to give a child unconditional love and break the cycle of abuse. Thanks for raising awareness about these youngsters, Concerning Kids.
JIP enlightens and informs us with Stupid comments, questions and statements about being a multiple posted at Lifes Spacings.
Noe is another blogger that I've been enjoying getting to know over at Twitter. She gives us a post that is a great reminder for parents who want to break the cycle of abuse. It is also a wonderful nudge for anyone struggling with perfectionism. And who isn't? Her post is calledYour Perfect Child Is Not So Perfect and it's up at her blog, Bebelissimo.com. When she submitted her post, Noe said, "When a parent fails to understand that a perfect child is merely a movie character, his not so perfect child will unfortunately have to struggle a lot only to come up to his parent’s expectations. Demanding perfection from a child will put him under tremendous pressure; a parent who asks his child to perfect, will also pretend to be perfect himself."
Aftermath
Since we're talking about memorials, Memorial Day and memories, I thought I'd dig out an old post about the repression of my child sexual abuse memories. The post is calledHow Does One Retrieve Repressed Memories of Abuse? from my own Survivors Can Thrive! archives.
Healing & Therapy
Patricia Singleton is working on a wonderful survivor series called "Incest May Be a Part of My Life." Here, she presents part seven in the series: A Little Girl's Story---Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series---Part 7 from her blog, Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. She remarks, "This article is about a little girl with a story to tell. She has no mouth to tell about the abuse. She has no feet so she can't run away from the abuse. The original story was written in 1989 to go along with the first in a series of oil paintings. This painting was about feelings."
This next post, from little sheep, is actually a poem. It's called, oh therapy! Since Little Sheep already has another poem in the poetry category, we've got this poem about--you guessed it--therapy in this Healing & Therapy category. Little Sheep writes at her blog, my (sick and ugly) story.
Colleen Spiro gives us some good, healthy perspective in her post, Smile over at her blog, Surviving by Grace .
Nancy presents Finding a Therapist posted at Heal and Forgive. I asked Nancy to submit this post in hopes that it may help someone in the search. Boy, I wish I had this information years ago. Thanks, Nancy!
Paul presents Journaling posted at Mind Parts, saying, "I am honored to submit this. Thanks for reading. Paul." Another educational and helpful post for survivors. Again, something I wish I had gotten advice on years ago. Thanks for that, Paul!
Just Be Real presents JUST BE REAL: PAIN in the CHANGE posted at JUST BE REAL. After reading JBR's post, I'm reminded that there is a lot of suffering for survivors, but "feeling the feelings" is so important for our healing.
buffalopine--another dear person I met on Twitter--presents The Struggles Within posted at Buffalopine's Blog. When sharing her story of living without dissociating, Buffalopine says in her post, "Today, my wings are fragile." I hope that this survivor community may be one of the things that gives you and your new wings strength, Buffalopine. Thanks for sharing with us.
In The News
Shiv Dravid presents SEX AND THE CITI-ZENS! posted at The Viewspaper. Thanks for joining us for the carnival and raising awareness about child sexual abuse in Inida.
I'm glad that the story about child abuse within the industrial schools and orphanages run by the Catholic church in Ireland got some press and blogging time. My friend, Marcella, always does an excellent job of covering these "In The News" stories. Here, shepresents Irish Catholic Church Child Abuse posted at her blog, abyss2hope .
vjack is also blogging on this issue in Catholic Responses to Irish Child Abuse Conspiracy posted at Atheist Revolution .
Poetry
nipper presents Like A Rose posted at NIPPERCAT'S HOME.
little sheep wrote may 10-poem for her blog, my (sick and ugly) story. I was just talking to my therapist about something similar today. Hhmmmm...how did she know? Thanks for sharing, Little Sheep.
Rick Belden wrote a poem about how trauma is stored in our bodies in, body memory posted atpoetry, dreams, and the body, saying, "Marj,Thank you for organizing the carnival for everyone. If you decide on a 'father' theme in June, I'll have something to submit for that as well." Thanks in advance, Rick!
JIP presents Little lost angels posted at Lifes Spacings. It reminds us of the inhumane way that adults can actually treat little innocent, helpless children. Thanks for your honest and courage in sharing, JIP.
Thanks to everyone who submitted posts this month and thanks--in advance--for reading and leaving supportive comments at the blogs of our courageous contributors. Trigger Warning: Keep yourself safe as you read. Understandably, child abuse can be a very triggering subject.
ChildPerson from Child Person from the South says it all in the headline for her post, Celebrating Child Abuse Survivors: Veterans of Wars on the Home Front. I like this quote from her post: "So, this May, while taking time to honor those military casualties and veterans of foreign wars, let’s take a moment to remember those who died in home front wars and to honor those who survived." Amen!
Nomorehurt presents Honoring Your Troops posted at Abuse Recovery, saying, "A reader requested I submit this. I hope it is something you'd like to include." I was the reader, actually. I am getting to know Nomorehurt over at Polyvore, where we're both working on art therapy collages. I thought her post was perfect for our theme...maybe you'll agree.
Mike McBride, who runs the Child Abuse Survivor ning Network, almost didn't get his post in on time this month. But, he was able to squeeze in, Carnival Against Child Abuse - Memories and I'm so glad he did. It's a good message for all of us. His blog is posted at Child Abuse Survivor.
Advocacy & Awareness
After blogging with Bloggers Unite against slavery in March, I found myself very touched by this next article. It was submitted by Surbhi and it's entitled, Child Labour: Disgrace for the Society posted at The Viewspaper .
Marcella Chester presents Leading Experts to Discuss How Preventing Violence and Abuse
at her wonderful awareness-raising blog, abyss2hope.
alchemynow is a new blogger and new to the carnival, presenting HOW DID THE ABUSE CHANGE US? posted at Stop the Storm. Welcome, alchemynow!
Lynda Hinkle is another wonderful advocate I've met on Twitter. She gives us International Exploitation of Children and the Sweden Solution posted at In the Best Interest: Child Advocacy Law .
Next, we have a post that hits close to home for me. It's calledRaising A Highly Sensitive Child and it's from Concerning Kids.I have a highly sensitive child myself. I am so glad that he is safe with me. He has given me the great gift and opportunity to give a child unconditional love and break the cycle of abuse. Thanks for raising awareness about these youngsters, Concerning Kids.
JIP enlightens and informs us with Stupid comments, questions and statements about being a multiple posted at Lifes Spacings.
Noe is another blogger that I've been enjoying getting to know over at Twitter. She gives us a post that is a great reminder for parents who want to break the cycle of abuse. It is also a wonderful nudge for anyone struggling with perfectionism. And who isn't? Her post is calledYour Perfect Child Is Not So Perfect and it's up at her blog, Bebelissimo.com. When she submitted her post, Noe said, "When a parent fails to understand that a perfect child is merely a movie character, his not so perfect child will unfortunately have to struggle a lot only to come up to his parent’s expectations. Demanding perfection from a child will put him under tremendous pressure; a parent who asks his child to perfect, will also pretend to be perfect himself."
Aftermath
Since we're talking about memorials, Memorial Day and memories, I thought I'd dig out an old post about the repression of my child sexual abuse memories. The post is calledHow Does One Retrieve Repressed Memories of Abuse? from my own Survivors Can Thrive! archives.
Healing & Therapy
Patricia Singleton is working on a wonderful survivor series called "Incest May Be a Part of My Life." Here, she presents part seven in the series: A Little Girl's Story---Incest May Be A Part Of My Life Series---Part 7 from her blog, Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker. She remarks, "This article is about a little girl with a story to tell. She has no mouth to tell about the abuse. She has no feet so she can't run away from the abuse. The original story was written in 1989 to go along with the first in a series of oil paintings. This painting was about feelings."
This next post, from little sheep, is actually a poem. It's called, oh therapy! Since Little Sheep already has another poem in the poetry category, we've got this poem about--you guessed it--therapy in this Healing & Therapy category. Little Sheep writes at her blog, my (sick and ugly) story.
Colleen Spiro gives us some good, healthy perspective in her post, Smile over at her blog, Surviving by Grace .
Nancy presents Finding a Therapist posted at Heal and Forgive. I asked Nancy to submit this post in hopes that it may help someone in the search. Boy, I wish I had this information years ago. Thanks, Nancy!
Paul presents Journaling posted at Mind Parts, saying, "I am honored to submit this. Thanks for reading. Paul." Another educational and helpful post for survivors. Again, something I wish I had gotten advice on years ago. Thanks for that, Paul!
Just Be Real presents JUST BE REAL: PAIN in the CHANGE posted at JUST BE REAL. After reading JBR's post, I'm reminded that there is a lot of suffering for survivors, but "feeling the feelings" is so important for our healing.
buffalopine--another dear person I met on Twitter--presents The Struggles Within posted at Buffalopine's Blog. When sharing her story of living without dissociating, Buffalopine says in her post, "Today, my wings are fragile." I hope that this survivor community may be one of the things that gives you and your new wings strength, Buffalopine. Thanks for sharing with us.
In The News
Shiv Dravid presents SEX AND THE CITI-ZENS! posted at The Viewspaper. Thanks for joining us for the carnival and raising awareness about child sexual abuse in Inida.
I'm glad that the story about child abuse within the industrial schools and orphanages run by the Catholic church in Ireland got some press and blogging time. My friend, Marcella, always does an excellent job of covering these "In The News" stories. Here, shepresents Irish Catholic Church Child Abuse posted at her blog, abyss2hope .
vjack is also blogging on this issue in Catholic Responses to Irish Child Abuse Conspiracy posted at Atheist Revolution .
Poetry
nipper presents Like A Rose posted at NIPPERCAT'S HOME.
little sheep wrote may 10-poem for her blog, my (sick and ugly) story. I was just talking to my therapist about something similar today. Hhmmmm...how did she know? Thanks for sharing, Little Sheep.
Rick Belden wrote a poem about how trauma is stored in our bodies in, body memory posted atpoetry, dreams, and the body, saying, "Marj,Thank you for organizing the carnival for everyone. If you decide on a 'father' theme in June, I'll have something to submit for that as well." Thanks in advance, Rick!
JIP presents Little lost angels posted at Lifes Spacings. It reminds us of the inhumane way that adults can actually treat little innocent, helpless children. Thanks for your honest and courage in sharing, JIP.
I'm noticing for this--our 24th--edition of The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, that we have more male survivors coming forward to share their stories, we also have several new carnival participants joining us and more international representation here. I'm very happy to see that. Now, let's make sure we get out there in cyberland and thank these folks for raising awareness with us by visiting their blogs and leaving comments. Thanks!
Please Note: We're looking for a new host for the June carnival. Some of you who have been participating by submitting posts to the carnival for a while may want to consider hosting a monthly edition. It's really quite easy, and I help you through it every step of the way. Come on, you can do it! Leave me a comment if you're willing (for June or anytime in the future).
All blog carnival entries are saved for our next monthly edition, no matter when they are submitted. So, if you'd like to get an early start and submit your blog post for next month, you can use our carnival submission form right here.
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, Bloggers Unite, child abuse, community, healing, Poetry, therapy
May 26, 2009
Child Abuse "Veterans" Remembered
After getting some feedback from some of you, thank you very much, I've decided that we'll go with the Memorial Day/Memory theme for May's Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse and we can use the Parent Day/Father's Day theme in June if we want to.
In the wake of the United States holiday we call Memorial Day, we can choose to be survivors-turning-thrivers and put our victim status to rest. We can think of our childhood abuse as simply a memory, but not as charged as it was before therapy and/or healing. Or, you can choose to focus your submission post on what it's been like for you in therapy, processing childhood trauma memories.
But, that's just a theme and nobody's bound by it. We still have our regular submission categories every month: Survivor Stories; Aftermath; Poetry; In-The-News; Advocacy & Awareness; and Healing & Therapy. So you can submit for the theme or go with one of the six categories. Just hurry! The deadline is tomorrow--Wednesday--for our Friday, 5/29 edition. You can use this handy-dandy submission form here . As often happens, for some reason, our submission form over at BC is way down on the page. So, when you click on the link, just scroll down to get to it.
Update/Please Note: Like we've done before--if you've submitted your post already, leave me a comment saying so. That way, I won't come and bug you to get your submission in. So far--of the bloggers I have on my blogroll--I have submissions from: Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker ; Marcella at Abyss2Hope ; Little Sheep at My Story ; Nancy at Heal & Forgive ; JIP at Life Spacings ; Just Be Real ; Colleen at Surviving by Grace ; Buffalopine ; and Mary at Nippercat.
Am I forgetting anybody? I haven't sorted through all the spam yet and we always get a lot of last-minute entries (I'm the biggest offender!), so let me know if you submitted your post. Thanks! See ya Friday!
In the wake of the United States holiday we call Memorial Day, we can choose to be survivors-turning-thrivers and put our victim status to rest. We can think of our childhood abuse as simply a memory, but not as charged as it was before therapy and/or healing. Or, you can choose to focus your submission post on what it's been like for you in therapy, processing childhood trauma memories.
But, that's just a theme and nobody's bound by it. We still have our regular submission categories every month: Survivor Stories; Aftermath; Poetry; In-The-News; Advocacy & Awareness; and Healing & Therapy. So you can submit for the theme or go with one of the six categories. Just hurry! The deadline is tomorrow--Wednesday--for our Friday, 5/29 edition. You can use this handy-dandy submission form here . As often happens, for some reason, our submission form over at BC is way down on the page. So, when you click on the link, just scroll down to get to it.
Update/Please Note: Like we've done before--if you've submitted your post already, leave me a comment saying so. That way, I won't come and bug you to get your submission in. So far--of the bloggers I have on my blogroll--I have submissions from: Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker ; Marcella at Abyss2Hope ; Little Sheep at My Story ; Nancy at Heal & Forgive ; JIP at Life Spacings ; Just Be Real ; Colleen at Surviving by Grace ; Buffalopine ; and Mary at Nippercat.
Am I forgetting anybody? I haven't sorted through all the spam yet and we always get a lot of last-minute entries (I'm the biggest offender!), so let me know if you submitted your post. Thanks! See ya Friday!
Labels: advocacy, aftermath, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, body memories, community, healing, Poetry, therapy, thriver, victims
April 24, 2009
Child Abuse Prevention Month: Some Good News
Well, Child Abuse Prevention Month is drawing to a close. I don't feel like I participated in as much advocacy and awareness-raising for this month as I would have liked to. I've been dealing with a lot of "feeling the feelings" and grieving from my own child abuse history. I want to thank everyone who sent cyber hugs and kept me in your thoughts and prayers this past week. I have to say, the outpouring of compassion I received here at my blog, through e-mail, and on Twitter and The Child Abuse Survivor ning network has been truly touching. This survivor community means a lot to me.
Through my therapy and healing journey, I've learned how to keep healthy grief from turning into despair. One of the ways we can do that is by answering the question: "What can I do?" Another way to avoid despair is to look at the good news and the victories in child protection.
Connect for Kidshas a wonderful article reprinted on their website that highlights the Top Youth Activism Victories of 2008.
I found the highlights list inspiring. Here are some victory examples:
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/L25zCvH5y10&hl=en&fs=1& type=]
It's a relief and an inspiration to learn what others are doing to improve the lives of children. But, what can we do to prevent child abuse? Here are some tips from a couple of my favorite "ways to prevent abuse" lists.
From Prevent Child Abuse America:
Be informed. Get involved.
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/-LlYZ8_GtrM&hl=en&fs=1]
Through my therapy and healing journey, I've learned how to keep healthy grief from turning into despair. One of the ways we can do that is by answering the question: "What can I do?" Another way to avoid despair is to look at the good news and the victories in child protection.
Connect for Kidshas a wonderful article reprinted on their website that highlights the Top Youth Activism Victories of 2008.
I found the highlights list inspiring. Here are some victory examples:
- A farm labor coalition that's working to end involuntary servitude (slavery) and improve wages and conditions for pickers
- An acknowledgment of disappearing, traditional blue-collar labor and creation of green collar jobs; equipping young workers with the skills to work in renewable energy industries
- Student-led solutions: Students keep their peers in school and combat high school dropout rates
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/L25zCvH5y10&hl=en&fs=1& type=]
It's a relief and an inspiration to learn what others are doing to improve the lives of children. But, what can we do to prevent child abuse? Here are some tips from a couple of my favorite "ways to prevent abuse" lists.
From Prevent Child Abuse America:
- Anything you do to support kids and parents can help reduce the stress that often leads to abuse and neglect.
- Be a friend to a parent you know. Ask how their children are doing. Draw on your own experiences to provide reassurance and support. If a parent seems to be struggling, offer to baby-sit or run errands, or just lend a friendly ear. Show you understand.
- Be a friend to a child you know. Remember their names. Smile when you talk with them. Ask them about their day at school. Send them a card in the mail. Show you care.
- Talk to your neighbors about looking out for one another's children. Encourage a supportive spirit among parents in your apartment building or on your block. Show that you are involved.
- Give your used clothing, furniture and toys for use by another family. This can help relieve the stress of financial burdens that parents sometimes take out on their kids.
- Volunteer your time and money for programs in your community that support children and families, like parent support groups or day care centers.
- Learn the facts
- Minimize opportunity
- Talk about it
- Stay alert
- Make a plan
- Act on suspicions
- Get involved
Be informed. Get involved.
[埋込みオブジェクト:http://www.youtube.com/v/-LlYZ8_GtrM&hl=en&fs=1]
Labels: advocacy, awareness, child abuse, child protection, childhood sexual abuse, community