“She sips her coffee, sets it down, stretches her arms. This is one of the most singular experiences, waking on what feels like a good day, preparing to work but not yet actually embarked. At this moment there are infinite possibilities, whole hours ahead.”
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~ Michael Cunningham, The Hours
Tag Archives: blog carnival against child abuse
Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse December 2014 Edition
Holiday Theme:
The theme for this month is holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions and other functional ways of getting through the holiday season and December.
Have Yourself a Happy Little Holiday
Aprel Phelps Downey from her blog Healing the Broken Parts One Word at a Time submitted this post. I will quote from her post:
“How on earth are we suppose to enjoy one moment of the holiday season with all of these feelings of anxiety, stress, panic and striving for perfectionism racing through our veins?
Start by taking a deep breath and remembering the word “boundaries.” We don’t have to do anything this holiday season that we don’t want to do.”
Throughout this post Aprel writes as though she were giving the best advice to a best friend. And it is great advice for the holiday season. Thanks so much Aprel!
Holidays Are a Time for Boundaries
Aprel Phelps Downey from her blog Healing the Broken Parts One Word at a Time submitted this post early in November on the holiday theme. It is such a great post I decided it should be included in both the November and December Blog Carnival Editions.
Memories of Holidays With My Family
Rainbow Gryphon shares extensively and with a high level of awareness and emotions of her experiences as a child and an adult at holiday times (Thanksgiving and Jewish holidays primarily), with dysfunctional family members and without. Great post that gave me a lot to think and feel about from reading this post. I include it in this month’s Blog Carnival as well as in last month’s Edition.
I wanted to write a Christmas post specifically about making new Christmas holiday traditions while choosing what I wanted to keep from my childhood that I loved. I’ve been working hard on this all month. I hope you enjoy the post.
For the first time ever I wanted to celebrate Advent and especially to try to celebrate each Advent Sunday in a way that was healing and fun, though I was doing it by myself.
Give a Gift to Your Least Favorite Body Part
Give a Gift to Your Favorite Body Part
I’ve also included links to three of my favorite resource pages on my blog, the three that I think relate the most to holidays, how to use grounding/coping skills, self-soothing/comforting skills, and how to manage your holiday coping better than before.
In addition I am including three links to Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse Editions of the past that cover the holidays for another month.
November/December 2013 of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse (hosted at Kate is Rising)
Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse November 2011 Surviving Holidays Edition (hosted at From Tracie)
Mini Carnival: Holiday Survival Tips for Survivors 2009 (hosted at Survivors Can Thrive)
Healing and Therapy:
Sheryl Burpee Dluginski from her blog Sheryl Burpee Dluginski submitted this post. I absolutely love! this post. Thanks so much Sheryl for the submission and the great post. Here is just a few of her wise words from the post:
“Some of us were raised in families whose particular brand of dysfunctions led us to adapt by being overly “good”, helpful and accommodating to others. Yes, it is possible to be too kind to others, when it ends up meaning you’re unkind to yourself.”
and again
“Personal growth doesn’t happen in a linear progression. It’s more like climbing a spiral staircase. You start at the bottom where you see a certain view of the space around you. Think of this view as your perspective on your world. With work, you take some steps up and notice that you’ve achieved a higher level of functioning. The view from here is different. You see the world from a new angle, and your new success motivates you to take some more steps, moving you toward more growth and another new perspective. ”
Please take some time and read Sheryl’s excellent post and check out her blog.Thanks so much Sheryl. I really loved and enjoyed your post.
Still Accepting Submissions Through Dec 21st
The Blog Carnival’s deadline has been extended to December 21st and the Edition will be published late that evening.
The theme for this Edition will be holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions.
Blog post submissions for the Blog Carnivals also include: child abuse survivor stories, art and poetry, art therapy, child abuse as a topic in the news media, as well as PTSD, disassociation, areas of aftermath and aftereffects of abuse, therapy, recovery, and healing from abuse, and, all forms of child advocacy and awareness.
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Advocacy and Awareness
Aftermath
Healing and Therapy
In the News
Poetry
Survivor Stories
Art Therapy
Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse December Submissions
The theme for this Edition will be holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions.
I’m planning on writing myself about my own childhood experiences during the holiday season. Because of my family of origin’s frequently recurring dysfunctional holiday experiences, I wanted to try to make the Edition with some helpful and healing posts.
Although I will be writing about and focusing on Christmas, primarily, through December on my blog I want to encourage anyone to write and submit posts about holidays that they or their families have celebrated, from their childhoods and adulthoods or ones that they have not celebrated, feelings of community, inclusion, stigmatizing, and exclusion.
December’s deadline will be December 21st and the Edition will be published late that evening. If there is something you want to submit a few days late, do it, and I can add it to the Edition.
Blog post submissions for the Blog Carnivals also include: child abuse survivor stories, art and poetry, art therapy, child abuse as a topic in the news media, as well as PTSD, disassociation, areas of aftermath and aftereffects of abuse, therapy, recovery, and healing from abuse, and, all forms of child advocacy and awareness.
Advocacy and Awareness
Aftermath
Healing and Therapy
In the News
Poetry
Survivor Stories
Art Therapy
If you don’t have a blog or have a private blog you could submit a post directly to me and I can guest post it here on my blog. If you want to write on the holiday theme or any other and want to do a guest post, I can then include you in the Blog Carnival.
Here is the link to make submissions:
Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse November 2014 Edition
The theme for this Edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse is holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions.
Firstly, thank you so much to all those to submitted for this Edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. It was an honor to read and post about your submissions. Secondly, thank you to those of you who visit this Edition and who take the time to read, think, feel, and contemplate the submissions for this Edition.
Our Monthly Theme: Holidays
Memories of Holidays with My Family
Rainbow Gryphon shares extensively and with a high level of awareness and emotions of her experiences as a child and an adult at holiday times (Thanksgiving and Jewish holidays primarily), with dysfunctional family members and without. Her descriptions of the pervasive and oppressive emotional and negative environment were so accurate and detailed. I feel as though I was there. Actually I was, just in another home, with many similar emotionally abusive elements. You have shared and in some way our hearts joined together. Rainbow, what a fascinating piece of writing. Thank you so much for sharing.
Holidays are a Time for Boundaries
April Phelps Downey, from her blog Healing the Broken Parts One Word at a Time, submitted this post. A great post contemplating the issues around boundaries in adult settings with family of origin.
My (Kate’s) contributions are:
A Thanksgiving Time Memory (An Ugly One)
This post has a trigger warning.
This is an ugly post about child sexual abuse, around Thanksgiving time, when I was eleven years old. I only rarely write these kinds of posts, but this memory is steeped, in my mind, with Thanksgiving time, and irrevocably linked to the holiday. Of course, towards the end of the post, I have to find the redeeming quality, and it is there. Please stay safe if you read this and take care of yourself if triggered.
A Thanksgiving Memory (A Bad One)
This post also covers the Thanksgiving time when I was eleven years old. The bad part of any holiday get-together with my older brothers in attendance would always include huge doses of verbal and emotional abuse. Still I was always able to find value in the variety and abundance of food. Healing from childhood abuse and developing boundaries still doesn’t always guarantee a safe and abuse free holiday environment. I’ve learned that life is an experiment in balance and functionality, especially with family of origin. Okay, bring it on.
A Thanksgiving Memory (A Good One)
This post is one of my favorite Thanksgiving holiday memories; from being eleven years old.
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Holiday Coping for Survivors
I wrote this two years ago and really wanted to include it in this month’s Blog Carnival with the holiday theme. I wrote this post after many years of trying to find the right balance, coping and comfort skills to manage holiday seasons with and without my family. I hope that some of my suggestions are helpful and potentially healing.
I’ve also included links to three of my favorite resource pages on my blog, the three that I think relate the most to holidays, all the good and all the bad and how to cope with it all, how to manage your life better, how to use grounding/coping skills, self-soothing/comforting skills, and how to manage your holiday coping better than before and hopefully bringing more life, happiness, and healing to you and into the holiday season:
In addition I am including three links to Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse Editions of the past that cover the holidays. I hope you can take some time and visit them as well.
November/December 2013 of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse (hosted at Kate is Rising)
Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse November 2011 Surviving Holidays Edition (hosted at From Tracie)
Mini Carnival: Holiday Survival Tips for Survivors 2009 (hosted at Survivors Can Thrive)
Please don’t forget we are now accepting submissions for the December Edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse from now until December 17th:
Submissions for December’s Edition
In the News
The Time I Was On TV Talking About Lena Dunham And Child Sexual Abuse
Tracie explains the context behind this television interview:
“I wrote a blog post for The New Agenda about Lena Dunham and the troubling passages in her memoir. That piece led to a television interview.”
It is my hope that everyone takes the opportunity to read Tracie’s excellent and important article and then watch the television interview she did on the issue of Lena Dunham. Excellent job Tracie. I so admire your courage and spunk.
Another one of Tracie’s best posts, in my opinion. Although she does many kinds of posts and many of them are enjoyed greatly by me, her posts on In the News topics on child abuse topics are riveting, in my opinion. I have to say I have told her this in an email, and I wanted to say it here. This woman has a mind and when she writes, she does her research and she is strong, intelligent, and compelling.
As upsetting and potentially triggering as it may be for me to learn about what is going on out there in the wider world, at times, it is an important part of healing and living; to know what the abusers and their allies are doing, saying, and believing. Bravo Tracie on another excellent post.
Survivor Stories
A Beyond Survivor’s Story: Poetic Healer and Spiritual Survival – Part 1
There are two wonderful posts from Dolores Miller; a survivor, a poet, and an activist. I could really relate to her connection to an archangel and giving herself the name Beautiful Warrior. I have a strong connection to my guardian angel as well and go by the nickname Kate@DragonWarrior.
I think that Dolores describes her post best with her first paragraph:
“I began writing poetry as a psychological release. I did not plan to write poetry, or to write at all, but as I was going through therapy to cope with suppressed memories of childhood sexual abuse. It was affecting my adult life and writing became the outlet through which I could best express my raw, often angry, emotions, and it turns out that poetry was the form that best fit my thoughts.”
Great paragraph and a great post. I hope everyone reads this.
A Beyond Survivor’s Story: Poetic Healer and Spiritual Survival – Part 2
Dolores shares more details of her childhood, her emergence of childhood abuse memories in adulthood, her therapy and therapist, and many ways that she worked on healing, especially writing poetry. Thanks so much Dolores for sharing your survivor story and of your courage in healing, in life, and now in activism.
Still Accepting Blog Carnival Submissions
Just to let everyone know, I am still working on completing the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse November’s Edition. It might not be ready to be posted tonight, as promised, but probably early on Saturday.
However I wanted to let everyone know that I am still accepting submissions through Monday November 24th, since I will be around and can read and add anything else you would like to submit. Please consider submitting a post:
The theme will be holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions.
I’m planning on writing myself about my own childhood experiences during the holiday season; the good, the bad, and the ugly. The holiday season still manages to bring each of the three types of holiday experiences my way each year. Because my frequently recurring dysfunctional holiday experiences, I wanted to try to make my blog full of the good, suggestions on avoiding the bad, and help and support when the ugly comes along or comes up from the past.
Blog post submissions for the Blog Carnival also includes: child abuse survivor stories, art and poetry, art therapy, child abuse as a topic in the news media, as well as PTSD, disassociation, areas of aftermath and aftereffects of abuse, therapy, recovery, and healing from abuse, and, all forms of child advocacy and awareness.
Advocacy and Awareness
Aftermath
Healing and Therapy
In the News
Poetry
Survivor Stories
Art Therapy
November and December Posting, Blogging, and Blog Carnivalling
I have plans to be blogging a lot in November and December. And more in the new year than I have done this year.
I am glad that I managed to blog more last month, especially in the last half of the month. I really found it helpful and healing to write and post on the topics that I did. I always feel as though posting here on the blog helps me to think, feel, process, and heal on a huge number of topics.
I’m still struggling with writer’s block on a number of topics, but I will just keep writing. It is more difficult to write, but important that I do, even if it is flawed, even if I can’t explain things as well as I would like, even if things are very imperfect. I will continue with the struggle.
With that in mind I offered to host the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse for November and December. The upcoming holidays have given me a lot of ideas for a central theme for the blog carnival editions.
The theme for each of the months will be holidays; good childhood memories and difficult childhood memories, coping and grounding and self-soothe and comfort skills from the past, what works now, and what skills you are working at doing, and creating new holiday traditions.
I’m planning on writing myself about my own childhood experiences during the holiday season; the good, the bad, and the ugly. The holiday season still manages to bring each of the three types of holiday experiences my way each year. Because my frequently recurring dysfunctional holiday experiences, I wanted to try to make my blog full of the good, suggestions on avoiding the bad, and help and support when the ugly comes along or comes up from the past.
Since World Kindness Day and World Peace Day are November 13th and 17th, please also consider writing a post on kindness or peace as well and submitting them for the Blog Carnvial. I am going to try to write posts for both days.
If you don’t have a blog or have a private blog you could submit a post directly to me and I can guest post it here on my blog. If you want to write on the holiday theme or any other and want to do a guest post, I can then include you in the Blog Carnival.
Submissions for either month can be done from today until the date of each Edition. Since I am hosting the Blog Carnival here at my blog for both months, you can submit for both months in the next few weeks, before the holiday season gets a hold of us all. You can also write some new posts on the holiday theme ideas or one of the other regular topics.
November’s deadline will be November 21st and the Edition will be published late that evening.
December’s deadline will be December 17th and the Edition will be published late that evening.
Blog post submissions for the Blog Carnivals in November and December also include: child abuse survivor stories, art and poetry, art therapy, child abuse as a topic in the news media, as well as PTSD, disassociation, areas of aftermath and aftereffects of abuse, therapy, recovery, and healing from abuse, and, all forms of child advocacy and awareness.
Advocacy and Awareness
Aftermath
Healing and Therapy
In the News
Poetry
Survivor Stories
Art Therapy
Here is the link to make submissions:
Blogging for Peace
More than a year ago I came across a blog called Bloggers for Peace. Every month, or so, I’ve thought about starting to do what they suggest, joining them and making a blog post at least once a month on the topic of peace. I’m not a good joiner, at least, at certain times of my healing work I am not really good at joining groups, even something like this.
I was happy and proud, some time ago, to join a women’s collective blog on healing and creativity and art. It took a lot for me to post, I really had a lot of trouble doing that. That group was deleted some time ago, or at least no longer available to view online. I really do miss it and I wish that I had been more active there, with a lot less fear, or at least that the blog was still available to be read.
I’ve thought about blogging for peace a lot and thought about peace and how I have yearned for peace since I was a very young child. I suppose that every child of abuse yearns for peace. Violence and the threat of violence is everywhere in a childhood of an abused child. The work that I have done in my life and in my healing work has been very hands-on about peace in the last few years and I want to write more about that here in the near future. It is a huge challenge for me and often takes every ounce of energy that I have.
I’ve been thinking about blogging for peace a lot in the last couple of months. I recently went to the blog Bloggers for Peace and discovered that the blog had not been updated for about a year. However, I decided to start writing posts on peace by myself. I think that other people are still doing that as well. I think that I will be as focused about blogging about peace without other support.
I have come across another collective blog on the topic of peace and have recently submitted a post. And another collective blog on a topic of artistic expression, where you have to submit posts and for them to be approved. And I finally submitted a post to there as well. It only took me about a month to do them both. So, I guess I am trying to be a joiner, even though I am not good at being a joiner.
I had to remind myself recently that I have submitted lots of posts from my blog to the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, so I guess I have been a joiner all along. Big surprise, that. And participating in the Blog Carnival have been wonderful and healing experiences.
I love the Blog Carnival and what it stands for, and Tracie at her blog fromtracie for continuing the blog carnival. Thank you Tracie! And I want to encourage everyone who blogs on the topic of child abuse to submit a post to the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse and to read some of their archives scroll down on the page once you click onto the link. The most recent edition is the August 2013 Edition. If you don’t have a blog, you could submit a post to me or to Tracie and we could host your post on one of our blogs, so that your post could be included in the next Blog Carnival. Please consider participating in the next blog carnival.
By the way, I am hosting the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse for November and December. I will be posting more information on November 1st, with suggestions and topics. I hope to get many submissions and readers for them.
If you don’t have time to write a post for submissions, you can still submit an already existing post on a wide variety of topics. Participation is another way of refusing to be silent and to make connections and a sense of caring and community among survivors of childhood abuse in the blog community.
Submissions for Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse
Submissions are being accepted for the August 2014 Edition of the Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. The deadline for submissions is August 27th.
Mike, at Child Abuse Survivor, is hosting the Blog Carnival this month.
The topic of the month is change. One that I think is great. I am going to be thinking about this a lot and trying to write a couple of posts to be submitted.
As well; the regular categories for submissions include:
Advocacy and Awareness
Aftermath
Healing and Therapy
In the News
Poetry
Survivor Stories
Art Therapy
July 2014 Edition of Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse
I wanted to post a link to the most recent Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. I really enjoy participating in the blog carnival and encourage everyone to participate by reading and submitting.
Good and healing thoughts to you all.
Kate Is Rising 
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