Welcome to the November Edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. This being the month of Thanskgiving the theme was Gratitude. So let’s begin with that…
Gratitude
April Optimist from The Thriver’s Toolbox writes about the way in which gratitude worries her in Gratitude and Survivors, grappling with “the issue of how to balance profound gratitude for all that is good in my life and still seeing ways I might want to make it better”.
Over at Survivors Can Thrive!, Marj aka Thriver discusses Gratitude & Beauty, exploring her mixed emotions about the holiday season before expressing the thing she is truly grateful for: “The beauty inherent in each survivor.” She includes, by way of thanks, her poem, Your Beauty.
Advocacy & Awareness
Barry Pittard from Call For Media and Government Investigation gives us 2 posts, both in relation to Sai Baba. In Abuse. Some Reach Out. Many Suffer in Silence he answers the question, “Why are they not standing up for themselves?” and in Hazards For Abuse Survivors Both Timid and Bold he looks at the reasons why “even those few ready to go public can often be in no position to litigate”, examining some of the relevant case histories.
Marcella Chester at abyss2hope: A rape survivor’s zigzag journey into the open has written in support of the I-VAWA, Support International Violence Against Women Act. She provides some information on the legislation and discusses in detail the double standard prevalent in our society. “To be truly effective at crime prevention, the “Don’t …” statements need to be aimed at those who inflict violence and those who are tempted to do so. Rather than limiting the options of women in the name of crime prevention, their options need to be widened.” The code for the graphic is available in the post.
Megan Bayliss from Imaginif child protection became serious business responds to a meme and tells us all about the purpose and function of her blog in What’s a blog got to do with child protection? Me me Megan Bayliss. She tells us who her true mentors are, “those millions of bloggers affected by child abuse”, and thanks them. She reminds us that “Child protection is a bit like butter is to bread - hard to spread sometimes. But, the longer it’s out, the easier it gets.”
Risingrainbow from My Clouds, My Storms and Multiple Personality Disorder gives us Human Nature with All It’s Twists and Turns, exploring the idea of the human conscience and how it can be manipulated and broken, especially in children. So broken, in fact, that it can lead to Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is the first of a four part series which goes on to tackle responsibility and culpability. “Human nature as it is means there is a bit of “bad” in all of us.”
Healing & Therapy
April Optimist at The Thriver’s Toolbox thinks about all the steps it took to get her current place in life in Post Thanksgiving, knowing that when she faces today’s challenges, she can remind herself how far she’s come. “We get to choose. And as scary as that can sometimes be, it’s good, too.”
Jumping In Puddles at Lifes Spacings writes Old Learning To New about “the price of living as a multiple… as well the price of living in the extreme pain of trauma that is in the process of healing,” but also about all they are learning now: Learning to play, learning to cry, learning to touch and learning to say, No.
Keepers over at KeepersKorner took a giant leap forward and in Moving from Reliving to Simply Remembering describes an incident which would normally have triggered an abreaction. An overheard conversation some time earlier made them stop and think and now, more than ever before, they are considering themselves true survivors.
Poetry
At Ria Ludy’s blog, Fantasy or Ria Ludy?, you’ll find Only If YOU Believe in Me? railing against old ideas of worthiness and validation.
At My Dissonance, Ani Star contributes Restless, the first line of which is, “This mistaken refuge…” (The poetry is in PDF format and require an Adobe reader.)
Survivor Stories
New blogger, Steve Wurzer, presents My First Post, the very first post at Steve’s Recovery blog. About it he says, “This is the beginning of my blog on my own personal story of childhood abuse and recovery. It helps me to post it, and I hope others can be helped by reading.”
In Steve’s second post, Why I am posting this blog - Reason #1, he talks about shame and childhood rage. “I feel that I’m not good enough, like there is something wrong with me that makes me unable to say or express what I really feel or want to say. What seems so easy for many others, is difficult for me, and sometimes completely impossible. This comes from the shame inside of me.”
Before I go, I would just like express my gratitude to those who share their stories, to those who speak up and to those who are willing to listen. I have felt fortunate to be able to read this months contributions and I am honoured to have been able to present them here.
Thank you. All of you.
NB: Next month’s Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse is coming up quickly. Megan at Imaginif is hosting. The carnival will be posted on December 14. If you would like to submit you can use the button below.
Related Posts
Today, November 25, was the 
