May 16, 2009
Things That Make A Difference
I'm taking a break from organizing The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse and Bloggers Unite awareness days and thought I'd just write an update about me and my survivor journey.
I'm feeling quite well right now. In fact, I think I feel so well emotionally, that I haven't caught the nasty cold and cough that my husband has had for a week. It's amazing how that mind-body connection thing works, huh?
I was exhausted from lots of extra trauma processing therapy, so I've been doing some nice things for myself, resting, gardening, etc. I think that's made a difference for me staying physically healthy. During some recent "extra" therapy sessions processing some really icky, terrifying torture memories, I noticed that my IBS had really flared up. But, I took some measures to help with that and I notice that my guts feel better now, too. Yipppeee!
While I was a bit distracted, I got tagged with a couple of bloggy awards. I want everyone to know how much these mean to me. I'm a little embarrassed to admit just how touched and tickled I get receiving these, to be honest. I have some rejected, abandoned, little child parts who still just really want to be liked and accepted. And these awards just seem to go straight to the heart of all that.
First, Cornnut at Picture of Experience has created a whole new award. Is that cool, or what? It's called The Make A Difference Award. Now, as usual, I can't get Cornnut's award graphic to load here, but it has a really great quote on it from JFK that I want to share: "One person can make a difference and every person should try." Excellent, well said, and I so agree!
You know what's amazing? Three days after I received word about this Make a Difference Award, I got a comment from Just Be Real and she's made up her own award as well. Man, I wish I were as cyber savvy as these gals! Just Be Real's award is aptly named, the "Just Be Real" Award. I've always liked the name of her blog and I love the name of this award.
I think one of the reasons I'm so touched at receiving both of these awards is because they recognize what I try to do at my blog:
I used to make the cut-and-paste type collages with pictures and words clipped from magazines. But, recently I've discovered computer collage at Polyvore. My most recent project is that I'm compiling collages and pairing them with some of my poems.
Here is a recent pairing that I think speaks to my current survivor journey status. Maybe you can relate.
Child Fly Away
I love and cherish you
And I know you love me too
Come now and we will dance and play
And then we’ll simply fly away
I can feel your pain
I know they tried to break you
You’re helpless, sad, alone
No peace within
I can tell you’re tired
I see a child who’s tortured
With trying to atone
For unknown sin
Hey, let’s fly away
We’ve struggled with chains too long
Let’s grab this chance so we can see
If we are ever to be free
Why wait here in the dark?
All it can ever show you
Is pain and it’s the pain
That you still fear
I can see the light
In my heart faith remains
And I know that this is it
Our chance is here
I love and cherish you
And now I know you feel love too
Now we can dance and run and play
Then we just simply fly away
Away
Away
Come let’s fly away
We’ll fly away
Copyright 2002 Marj McCabe ~ All Rights Reserved
I'm feeling quite well right now. In fact, I think I feel so well emotionally, that I haven't caught the nasty cold and cough that my husband has had for a week. It's amazing how that mind-body connection thing works, huh?
I was exhausted from lots of extra trauma processing therapy, so I've been doing some nice things for myself, resting, gardening, etc. I think that's made a difference for me staying physically healthy. During some recent "extra" therapy sessions processing some really icky, terrifying torture memories, I noticed that my IBS had really flared up. But, I took some measures to help with that and I notice that my guts feel better now, too. Yipppeee!
While I was a bit distracted, I got tagged with a couple of bloggy awards. I want everyone to know how much these mean to me. I'm a little embarrassed to admit just how touched and tickled I get receiving these, to be honest. I have some rejected, abandoned, little child parts who still just really want to be liked and accepted. And these awards just seem to go straight to the heart of all that.
First, Cornnut at Picture of Experience has created a whole new award. Is that cool, or what? It's called The Make A Difference Award. Now, as usual, I can't get Cornnut's award graphic to load here, but it has a really great quote on it from JFK that I want to share: "One person can make a difference and every person should try." Excellent, well said, and I so agree!
You know what's amazing? Three days after I received word about this Make a Difference Award, I got a comment from Just Be Real and she's made up her own award as well. Man, I wish I were as cyber savvy as these gals! Just Be Real's award is aptly named, the "Just Be Real" Award. I've always liked the name of her blog and I love the name of this award.
I think one of the reasons I'm so touched at receiving both of these awards is because they recognize what I try to do at my blog:
- Make a Difference in the areas of assault survivor advocacy and child abuse awareness and
- Be Real, share my story and be real, open and honest with it.
I used to make the cut-and-paste type collages with pictures and words clipped from magazines. But, recently I've discovered computer collage at Polyvore. My most recent project is that I'm compiling collages and pairing them with some of my poems.
Here is a recent pairing that I think speaks to my current survivor journey status. Maybe you can relate.
Child Fly Away
I love and cherish you
And I know you love me too
Come now and we will dance and play
And then we’ll simply fly away
I can feel your pain
I know they tried to break you
You’re helpless, sad, alone
No peace within
I can tell you’re tired
I see a child who’s tortured
With trying to atone
For unknown sin
Hey, let’s fly away
We’ve struggled with chains too long
Let’s grab this chance so we can see
If we are ever to be free
Why wait here in the dark?
All it can ever show you
Is pain and it’s the pain
That you still fear
I can see the light
In my heart faith remains
And I know that this is it
Our chance is here
I love and cherish you
And now I know you feel love too
Now we can dance and run and play
Then we just simply fly away
Away
Away
Come let’s fly away
We’ll fly away
Copyright 2002 Marj McCabe ~ All Rights Reserved
Labels: advocacy, award, awareness, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, Bloggers Unite, body connection, child parts, comfort, healing, poem, Poetry, therapy
January 27, 2009
Linky Lunacy!
Hey, guys! Thanks for putting up with me (and supplying some kind words, cyber hugs and support) while I was down in the pit of "woe-is-me." I realized--even before my therapy session (yay, me!)--that I needed to do some more inner child comfort. When I switched my focus on that for a while, I started to feel much more productive.
Speaking of productive: Get ready, because this is post is going to be "linky lunacy!" Links ahead! As you may notice, I switched back to my old Blogger template format. I got all my widgets, awards and avatars back. It's funny, really. Just when I was feeling down and winter-weary, I got two awards that look to be quite similar. I didn't have any luck getting either of these awards graphics to post (here or on my sidebar/template), so go to the post where the bloggers who awarded them talk about the awards, okay?
This first one is from Teresa Lynne who writes Teardrops on Roses, which you can link to on my sidebar. She also writes a blog called The Write Way, which is where I received the award. It's called a "Triple Award." Wow! Cool! Thanks, Tery! The other one comes from Mile 191 at Come Into My Closet. This award is called the "Lemonade Award." Both of these awards are supposed to go to awardees who show great attitude and/or gratitude. I'm glad Tery and Mile 191 don't think I'm a whiney wiener all the time! Thanks!
I'll have to get up my nominees for this award later, otherwise this will be a really long post.
The second linky-related thing I want to mention is a couple of network "ning" groups I've joined recently. Ever heard of those? They are pretty cool. The first one was started by my friend, Mike McBride, over at Child Abuse Survivor. The group is The Child Abuse Survivors ning. Won't you come over and join us? There's room for survivors, supporters, blogging, forums, chats, photo posting, etc. It is so cool and it's a very supportive group. Check it out. You can go over and join up by clicking the widget I've got (back up, thank you very much) on my sidebar there.
Another network ning group I'm starting to get to know and enjoy is called Coach Creative Space. My friend, Denise, turned me on to it. So far, I've been doing some down-and-dirty poetry and posting it over there. They give lots of feedback and support--and I don't even consider myself a real poet!
Yesterday, we got a "prompt" to write a 15-word poem. I'd been thinking about all the "good, bad, and the ugly" of life lately and so I went to my dot com site, where I have a page called "Healing Moments" under the "My Story" area. I went back and read over a place where I was talking about life being the light and the dark, and all the gray in between. I decided to pull a 15-word poem out of it.
A Both/And Life
Head down closed
Sinking black pit
Light dark, here now
Life is all of it.
Thanks, Coach Creative Space peeps! You helped motivate me to do something productive and helped me work on seeing the "both/and" of life a little bit better!
You know what else helps me feel better again and again? All you bloggy buddies stopping by with words of encouragement and support. I have finally gotten started in updating my blog and my dot com site and I have a lot of new links on my sidebar. They're marked with a "*New*." Go check 'em out!
Last but certainly not least--actually the most important to me right now--is The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. We have another new host for our next edition! Yay! It's Nancy over at Heal and Forgive. Thanks so much for stepping up to the plate, Nancy! She's got her first call for submissions over at this post of hers, here. Please go check out her blog and consider joining us for the next edition of the carnival. It will run on Friday, February 6, with the deadline for submissions set at Wednesday, February 4. Let's all get our submissions together and send them in!
Speaking of productive: Get ready, because this is post is going to be "linky lunacy!" Links ahead! As you may notice, I switched back to my old Blogger template format. I got all my widgets, awards and avatars back. It's funny, really. Just when I was feeling down and winter-weary, I got two awards that look to be quite similar. I didn't have any luck getting either of these awards graphics to post (here or on my sidebar/template), so go to the post where the bloggers who awarded them talk about the awards, okay?
This first one is from Teresa Lynne who writes Teardrops on Roses, which you can link to on my sidebar. She also writes a blog called The Write Way, which is where I received the award. It's called a "Triple Award." Wow! Cool! Thanks, Tery! The other one comes from Mile 191 at Come Into My Closet. This award is called the "Lemonade Award." Both of these awards are supposed to go to awardees who show great attitude and/or gratitude. I'm glad Tery and Mile 191 don't think I'm a whiney wiener all the time! Thanks!
I'll have to get up my nominees for this award later, otherwise this will be a really long post.
The second linky-related thing I want to mention is a couple of network "ning" groups I've joined recently. Ever heard of those? They are pretty cool. The first one was started by my friend, Mike McBride, over at Child Abuse Survivor. The group is The Child Abuse Survivors ning. Won't you come over and join us? There's room for survivors, supporters, blogging, forums, chats, photo posting, etc. It is so cool and it's a very supportive group. Check it out. You can go over and join up by clicking the widget I've got (back up, thank you very much) on my sidebar there.
Another network ning group I'm starting to get to know and enjoy is called Coach Creative Space. My friend, Denise, turned me on to it. So far, I've been doing some down-and-dirty poetry and posting it over there. They give lots of feedback and support--and I don't even consider myself a real poet!
Yesterday, we got a "prompt" to write a 15-word poem. I'd been thinking about all the "good, bad, and the ugly" of life lately and so I went to my dot com site, where I have a page called "Healing Moments" under the "My Story" area. I went back and read over a place where I was talking about life being the light and the dark, and all the gray in between. I decided to pull a 15-word poem out of it.
A Both/And Life
Head down closed
Sinking black pit
Light dark, here now
Life is all of it.
Thanks, Coach Creative Space peeps! You helped motivate me to do something productive and helped me work on seeing the "both/and" of life a little bit better!
You know what else helps me feel better again and again? All you bloggy buddies stopping by with words of encouragement and support. I have finally gotten started in updating my blog and my dot com site and I have a lot of new links on my sidebar. They're marked with a "*New*." Go check 'em out!
Last but certainly not least--actually the most important to me right now--is The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse. We have another new host for our next edition! Yay! It's Nancy over at Heal and Forgive. Thanks so much for stepping up to the plate, Nancy! She's got her first call for submissions over at this post of hers, here. Please go check out her blog and consider joining us for the next edition of the carnival. It will run on Friday, February 6, with the deadline for submissions set at Wednesday, February 4. Let's all get our submissions together and send them in!
Labels: award, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, comfort, don't give up, don't quit, gratitude, hope, network, ning, poem, Poetry
January 17, 2009
Housekeeping Heartburn
I guess I'm just a technology dinosaur. I think I've referred to myself as a "cyber klutz" before as well. Maybe this is one of the reasons why I let things get so old and out of date on my dot com site as well as this here blog: When I set aside the time to update, I end up really frustrated!
Today, I discovered that I could switch from Blogger's old "template" format on my blog to the newer "layout" format. I finally found a way to display my archives the way I want. I didn't like having every month from the beginning of my blog--2005!--displayed, tumbling all the way down on my sidebar. I can also direct readers to various posts by category/label; I like that. I also can now do a little font and color formatting that I couldn't do before. Oh, and I really like the new "following/follower" widget thingy. These are the things I gain with the switch.
Unfortunately, I don't think these things are worth what I lost: All the awards I've ever received, the Cluster Maps graphic (which is the only thing close to site meter statistics I've ever used) and the widgets for The Child Abuse Survivor Network and for the Blog Carnival. (This last one is very imporant to me.)
Does anybody have some advice for this cyber klutz? Maybe I'm just missing something that's so obvious to other bloggers out there who are more savvy than I am.
Today, I discovered that I could switch from Blogger's old "template" format on my blog to the newer "layout" format. I finally found a way to display my archives the way I want. I didn't like having every month from the beginning of my blog--2005!--displayed, tumbling all the way down on my sidebar. I can also direct readers to various posts by category/label; I like that. I also can now do a little font and color formatting that I couldn't do before. Oh, and I really like the new "following/follower" widget thingy. These are the things I gain with the switch.
Unfortunately, I don't think these things are worth what I lost: All the awards I've ever received, the Cluster Maps graphic (which is the only thing close to site meter statistics I've ever used) and the widgets for The Child Abuse Survivor Network and for the Blog Carnival. (This last one is very imporant to me.)
Does anybody have some advice for this cyber klutz? Maybe I'm just missing something that's so obvious to other bloggers out there who are more savvy than I am.
Labels: award, Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse, blog carnivals, links
October 10, 2007
Spreadin' The Love
I am so grateful that I wasn't forgotten while I was away, taking care of mental health and physical healing issues. I so appreciate being remembered by my bloggy friends. It helps so much to know I'm not alone and that I am the recipient of your warm empathy and compassion.
During my hiatus, I got tagged with two award memes: the Rockin' Girl Blogger and the Caring Blogger. I am honored, humbled and thankful. Thanks! :)
The Caring Blogger Award was created by my friend Marcella, at Abyss2Hope. Marcella is a tireless awareness-raiser and the founder of the Blog Carnival Against Sexual Violence. Marcella started this award meme to highlight bloggers who make us care. The rules and origins of this meme are here.
Here's my list of bloggers who make me care and help me keep my heart open (in no particular order):
During my hiatus, I got tagged with two award memes: the Rockin' Girl Blogger and the Caring Blogger. I am honored, humbled and thankful. Thanks! :)
The Caring Blogger Award was created by my friend Marcella, at Abyss2Hope. Marcella is a tireless awareness-raiser and the founder of the Blog Carnival Against Sexual Violence. Marcella started this award meme to highlight bloggers who make us care. The rules and origins of this meme are here.
Here's my list of bloggers who make me care and help me keep my heart open (in no particular order):
- Mike at Child Abuse Survivor
- Enola
- Jumping in Puddles at Life Spacings
- Al Johnson at Recovery Poetry/Wrong Words
- Dr. Deb
All of these caring bloggers have succeeded, through their writing, in making me care about them, personally, about child abuse prevention and about reducing the stigma of mental illness. They all raise awareness and make me want to stay aware myself--aware, involved and engaged.
I also got tagged by Enola with a Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I haven't been able to find out the origins of this meme, but I think it's cool. (Poo! I can't get the graphic for this award to load either. Anybody out there know how to help me with it?) Suffice it to say that I think the following girls really rock and I'm glad to know them through their blogs. Again, in no particular order:
- Karma at Jew Exploring Buddhism
- Cassie at Overcoming and Conquering CSA
- S'onnie at Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
- Wanda at Wanda's Wings
- Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker
Rock on, ladies! You rock our bloggy world!
Labels: award, awareness, child abuse prevention, meme, mental illness, stigma
