tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38639855393232148502024-02-22T13:28:05.764-08:00VIGALAND: OUT FROM UNDERThis blog is for those who have endured sexual abuse, whether as children or adults, in home or career. This blog is maintained by author, Viga Boland, a victim/survivor and thriver after incest at the hands of her father. Viga's memoir of that abuse, <b>NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</b>, along with her other books, are available from Amazon.com. Just click here to visit her author's page now: <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com">VIGA BOLAND'S BOOKS</a>Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-10115993943723503212018-04-10T13:15:00.000-07:002018-04-10T13:15:05.623-07:00#MeToo brings changes to #VIGALAND BlogHard to believe it's been two years since my last post appeared on this <b>#Vigaland </b>blog. I became busy with writing books, mentoring others who wanted to write their memoirs (see my <b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">author's page at Amazon</a></b> for all my books, including my latest and last on how to write your memoir, titled <b>"Don't Write Your MEmoir without ME!"</b>)<br />
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After too many hours of staring at screens, I decided it was time for a change and just recently deleted my several websites, including my personal site. But I am keeping this blog for all those who have endured sexual abuse in their lives and careers as I know there are just too many of us. The furor that erupted and opened a can of worms with the Harvey Weinstein affair and all those celebrities coming forward, along with the<b> #MeToo </b>movement, reminded me that this blog was important and needed to be kept alive.<br />
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Until now, it had been aimed only at victims of incest, but now #<b>Vigaland</b> is evolving into a much more general site on sexual abuse in all its forms. I sincerely hope you will continue to follow this blog and share the URL with others as I have lots to share with you that was previously only posted on my personal website, now deleted.<br />
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Future posts on here will include a series of true stories by others who found the courage to share their<b> #MeToo </b>heartaches with me and which I published and podcast early in 2018. I know you will find these interesting and I am hopeful some of you will leave comments or even share your stories with me on this blog.<br />
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I also intend to bring you my reviews of MEMOIRS of ABUSE that I've read & reviewed over the past 5 years. If you like to read books by others who have shared similar experiences to yours, I think you'll want this information.<br />
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So, that's where I'm at right now. Stay tuned and keep following. Lots to come over 2018. Thanks for staying with me.<br />
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Best<br />
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<i><b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">Viga Boland, author of NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER, a true memoir of incest.</a></b></i><br />
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<i><br /></i>Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-17866647094152539352016-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:002016-11-13T11:11:06.671-08:00#TRUMP'S #ELECTION RE-CONFIRMED ONE INDISPUTABLE FACTThe day after the election, I was in horrible mood. I felt disappointed, defeated, victimized all over again. My husband looked at me and said sadly, <i>"What's done is done. We all just have to get over it." </i><br />
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There it was again: <i>"just get over it"</i>. And I knew he was right. There was nothing I could do. The people had spoken. No matter what, they preferred having a bigoted, narcissistic man lead the US to putting a woman in such a lofty position of power. It didn't matter that Trump obviously enjoyed belittling Hillary during the debates: <i>"What a nasty woman!"</i> It was irrelevant that he sees it as male, and particularly, celebrity entitlement, to joke about grabbing women by their private parts just because he feels like it; or kissing them just because he likes kissing pretty women. That's what men do. It's all part of "go sew your wild oats son!"<br />
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My husband was curious about my reaction. At least he cares. He said:<i> "I've never known you to follow politics but you've been glued to this election. Why?"</i> He waited when I didn't reply immediately. Then he said what I hesitated to say: <i>"Trump reminds you of your father, doesn't he?"</i><br />
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Despite myself, despite so many years of being strong, despite writing 3 books based on the child sexual abuse I'd suffered at the hands of my father, despite feeling I was about as healed as I could be, I started crying. But these were tears of anger.<br />
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<i>"Yes!"</i> I blurted. <i>"That's what it is! Throughout this entire election, all the debates, I watched a man abuse without apologizing, name call, demean, belittle a woman, and always with that supercilious smirk on his face. It sickened me. It reminded me of everything I've tried to forget for over 55 years!"</i><br />
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<i>"Will you ever get over what your father did to you, honey?" </i>my husband asked.<br />
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<i>"I'm beginning to think that's impossible," </i>I replied. "You push it down, away. You get on with your life, get involved in other things. You do everything you can to forget. And then something like this election comes along and reminds you of one indisputable fact: it's still a man's world. Men can lie, abuse, deceive, but if they can convince everyone a woman is guilty of the same, they win. And that is something I will never, ever understand nor accept."<br />
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Yes, I was hoping Hillary Clinton would win. A win for her would have been a win for women everywhere, not just abuse victims like me, but all the women struggling to prove they are as capable, as talented and as intelligent as men. Other countries...Great Britain, India...have elected brilliant, competent females to the highest positions in the country, but America gave that job again to a man. I wish him and the people of the US the great America he has promised to them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">Viga Boland is the author of 4 memoirs, 3 of which detail her life as a victim of childhood sexual abuse (incest). All books are available in digital format for all e-readers from her website store. </a></i></b></td></tr>
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<b>Viga Boland is also podcasting her entire Gold-Medal winning book, 'NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER" from her website, iTunes, Stitcher and GooglePlay under the title "Vigaland". You can listen to Chapter 1 at <a href="http://vigaboland.com/no-tears-father-book-podcast-1/" target="_blank">THIS LINK</a>. Subscribe today so you don't miss a single chapter!</b></div>
Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-41133990377450832212016-07-21T10:28:00.001-07:002016-07-21T10:28:58.585-07:00YOU DON'T "JUST GET OVER" CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE BY A PARENT<a data-topotext="[{"attributes":{"tombstoned":false,"uniqueId":2,"paragraphStyle":{"writingDirection":1}},"codePoints":[73,32,104,97,118,101,110,39,116,32,116,111,117,99,104,101,100,32,116,104,105,115,32,98,108,111,103,32,105,110,32,109,111,110,116,104,115,46,32,65,102,116,101,114,32,119,114,105,116,105,110,103,32,51,32,109,101,109,111,105,114,115,32,97,98,111,117,116,32,116,104,101,32,105,110,99,101,115,116,117,111,117,115,32,115,105,116,117,97,116,105,111,110,32,73,32,108,105,118,101,100,32,119,105,116,104,32,102,111,114,32,49,52,32,121,101,97,114,115,44,32,73,32,116,104,111,117,103,104,116,32,73,32,119,97,115,32,102,105,110,105,115,104,101,100,44,32,104,101,97,108,101,100,46,32,84,104,101,110,32,116,104,105,115,32,109,111,114,110,105,110,103,44,32,116,104,101,32,110,105,103,104,116,109,97,114,101,46,32,10]},{"attributes":{"tombstoned":false,"uniqueId":3,"paragraphStyle":{}},"codePoints":[10]},{"attributes":{"tombstoned":false,"uniqueId":2,"paragraphStyle":{"writingDirection":1}},"codePoints":[55,58,51,56,32,97,109,33,32,73,32,119,111,107,101,32,117,112,46,32,79,104,32,116,104,97,110,107,32,71,111,100,46,32,73,32,119,97,115,32,111,110,108,121,32,100,114,101,97,109,105,110,103,46,32,72,101,32,119,97,115,110,39,116,32,104,101,114,101,32,105,110,32,109,121,32,114,111,111,109,46,32,73,32,119,97,115,110,39,116,32,114,101,97,108,108,121,32,115,99,114,101,97,109,105,110,103,32,97,116,32,104,105,109,32,116,104,97,116,32,73,32,104,97,100,32,110,101,97,114,108,121,32,112,117,116,32,97,32,107,110,105,102,101,32,105,110,32,104,105,109,32,49,54,32,121,101,97,114,115,32,97,103,111,44,32,97,98,111,117,116,32,97,32,121,101,97,114,32,98,101,102,111,114,101,32,104,101,32,100,105,101,100,46,32]}]" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3863985539323214850" style="font-family: SFNSText, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"></a>YOU DON'T JUST GET OVER #CHILDHOOD #SEXUAL #ABUSE BY A PARENT (#INCEST)<br />
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After writing 3 memoirs about the incestuous situation I lived with for 14 years, I thought I was finished, healed. Then this morning, the nightmare.</div>
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7:38 am! My eyes fluttered open. My heart was pounding and my mouth was dry. Where is he? He was just here in this room. I was screaming at him. How could he think I wasn't angry at him all those years he was molesting me? What an asinine question he'd just asked me! He'd asked if I was so angry at him, why hadn't I told him? </div>
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But he didn't ask. Not ever. Nor did he ever say he was sorry. I'd just woken from a dream. No, it was a waking nightmare, just like the one I'd lived with every day between the years of 11 - 24. My father never asked over all those years of sexual abuse if I was angry at him. What I felt or thought never mattered. I didn't matter. </div>
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My waking nightmare today really disturbed me. Where had it sprung from? Why now, nearly 50 years after the abuse ended, and after I poured all of it onto the pages of 3 memoirs?</div>
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It sprung up because you don't "just get over childhood sexual abuse" by a parent. Call it what is is: INCEST. Horrible, ugly word. </div>
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Doesn't sound quite as ugly when you call it CSA, does it. But it's just as bad for any child sexually abused by someone else, be the abuser an adult or even another older child. i know this for a fact: I've met and spoken with too many adults who are only just now finding explanations for their own sometimes crazy, even dangerous behaviour while they were growing up. They are only just realizing why they suddenly 'lose it' over nothing. </div>
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See, it doesn't matter how old you are. I'm 70 now and I still see and hear him regularly. He visits me, almost daily, just like he used to nearly 50 years ago. He still haunts me, hurts me and enrages me. I want to kill him, just as I wanted to then. But I couldn't do it then and it looks like I still can't do it now.</div>
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Writing 3 memoirs helped a lot. I got it off my chest. I no longer feel ashamed. I've gotten on with my life and had a very good and fulfilling one. </div>
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But am I truly healed? </div>
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©Viga Boland, author</div>
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<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER: this original ugly true story</a></i></b></div>
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<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF: the continuation into recovery and self-discovery</a></i></b></div>
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<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">VOICE FROM AN URN: my mother's side of my story from her point of view</a></i></b><br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-27244877904734239072016-03-03T15:05:00.000-08:002016-03-03T15:05:03.023-08:00SHINING the #SPOTLIGHT on #CHILD #SEXUAL #ABUSEThe movie, <b>"SPOTLIGHT"</b> winning the #Oscar for Best Picture was more than a victory for the producers, directors, actors and journalists acknowledged in the film. It was a victory for victims of child sexual abuse. As a victim, I was thrilled to see this happen. And coupled with what I wrote in my previous post regarding #Lady Gaga telling the world it doesn't know how we feel until it happens to you, it's given me real hope that maybe, just maybe, awareness of child sexual abuse will indeed increase as more of us share our own stories and break the hideous silence surrounding abuse.<br />
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But how quickly will that awareness increase? How many more movies like <b>"Spotlight"</b> or the documentary, <b>"The Hunting Ground"</b>, or songs like Lady Gaga's will it take to get the message across that rape, at any age, under any circumstances, regardless of culture or religion is NOT okay?! What will it take for victims to speak up without fear of reprisal and/or rejection by their own families? Look at Lady Gaga for instance: she opened up about the rape in 2014. But according to <b><i><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/02/entertainment/lady-gaga-rape-oscars-feat/" target="_blank">THIS ARTICLE</a></i></b>, her grandmother and Aunt Sheri didn't find out about it until her performance at the Oscars. No surprise there for us other victims of sexual abuse: I told no-one that my father had sexually abused me for nearly 45 years! For pete's sake, I was 65 when I finally spoke up! Am I unusual? Not at all. More likely the norm. And I know that for a fact from the many who have told me about it in my public talks on sexual violence and in my private Facebook group. While shame keeps us from speaking up, much of the time it's our fear of the humiliation and shame such disclosure will dump on our families. So to protect them, we remain the sacrificial lambs on the altars of silence.<br />
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Speaking of altars, while the film, <b>"Spotlight"</b> put the spotlight on the Catholic Church, I think it would be dreadfully narrow-minded of those interested in this subject of abuse by the clergy to limit their finger pointing to the Catholic Church. Just pick up the book I've been reading and studying for a year now,<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Their-Will-Religious-Maltreatment/dp/161614405X" target="_blank"><b>"BREAKING THEIR WILL: SHEDDING THE LIGHT ON RELIGIOUS CHILD MALTREATMENT"</b></a> </i>and prepare to be horrified, even shocked by the degree, range and reasons for the abuse of children in ALL organized religions. What an eye-opener! And what you will read, if you dare, will make you want to vomit. No religion is "clean" when it comes to child sexual abuse. What's more...and don't get all uptight at me for saying this...much of the abuse is based on the teachings of the Bible and all the other "holy" books depending on which religion one follows. If I had the time and space here, there are so many sections of <b><i>"Breaking their Will..."</i></b> that I have highlighted, mulled over and would love to share. But I'd rather suggest one buy the book and read it for yourself. And speaking of books, you might also like to read <b><a href="http://memoirabilia.ca/split-a-book-review/" target="_blank">"SPLIT" by a former nun, Mary Dispenza</a>. </b>That link will take you to my review of Mary's book on my other website. (Mary must be rejoicing, as I am, about the Oscar for "Spotlight").<br />
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Oh I could go on an on here but I'll summarize my feelings on religion and sexual abuse of children with this quote I found <b><a href="http://www.humanreligions.info/violence_and_crime.html#Prison" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>:<br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: sans-serif; text-align: justify;">We should not attempt to mould human sexuality around otherworldly religious ideals. Sexual dysfunction always results. Psychologists and sociologists have noted the association between extreme religious fervour and psycho-sexual problems (the former causing the latter)</span><br />
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No, I'm not saying religious belief is behind ALL childhood sexual abuse. Not at all...and it certainly wasn't a factor in my father's sexual abuse of me. But sadly, it is a justification too many give for abusing children sexually and every other way. When you factor in religion, along with narcissism and the sense of entitlement too many men have when it comes to women's bodies and minds, well, we have one hell of a long way to go yet in shining the spotlight on child sexual abuse, let alone eradicating it.<br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">©Viga Boland, speaker and author of "No Tears for my Father", a true story of incest.</a></i></b></div>
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-67318874149530280772016-03-01T19:57:00.000-08:002016-03-01T20:11:14.884-08:00YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS UNTIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><b>"You don't know how it feels till it happens to you" </b></i>belted <b><i><a href="http://www.ladygaga.com/" target="_blank">Lady Gaga</a></i></b> at the 88th Academy Awards as a throng of sexual assault victim/survivors joined her onstage. When she was done, the cameras panned over the faces of Hollywood celebrities and caught the tears brimming in their eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> As I listened and watched, I asked myself <i><b>"Will this do it?"</b></i> Can Lady Gaga reach the millions with the message that I, a non-celebrity, a child victim of incest, who kept quiet about what happened to me for nearly 45 years shared in my book <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b>? Someone, somewhere must get the message across that non-consensual sex is rape! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Before Lady Gaga sang, <b><i><a href="http://www.refinery29.com/2016/02/104289/joe-biden-oscars-sexual-violence-speech" target="_blank">Joe Biden</a></i></b> took the stage to urge us all to pledge our support for the countless numbers of victims of rape on College campuses. We could do this by visiting the website at <a href="http://www.itsonus.org/" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">IT'S ON US</a><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>where we pledge to do the following: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. To recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The pledge is a wonderful idea, a step in the right direction for students on college campuses. But is there any hope it might raise awareness of those other victims of sexual abuse, the children, the ones being abused in their own homes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There is no question: all rape is horrid for victims of any age. But is there any rape that compares to that of a child by a member of their own family in their own homes? I think not. Taking each point of the pledge above into consideration in relation to child sexual abuse by family members, I ask you:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Will that father, grandfather, stepfather, brother or other family member who rapes a daughter, grand-daughter, step-daughter, sister, son or brother not once, but repeatedly, day after day, for years in their own homes accept, or even care that the child didn't consent? My father certainly didn't. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. Will the general public ever recognize, admit to the reality that sexual abuse, namely incest, is happening in our homes, maybe right next door. Will the neighbours, teachers, clergy "identify a situation in which sexual assault may occur"? Does anyone want to admit, identify that home can be the ideal situation for sexual assault to occur? We victims know better. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Will people "intervene in <b>home</b> situations where sexual consent has not or cannot be given". Will even the mother whose child has just told her that Daddy is doing something bad to her believe her child? Will she intervene or even have the courage to ask her husband or father (the grandfather) about what her child has claimed? Ask the victims of incest what response they got from mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and other relatives when they dared to speak up. Many of those victims were told to never mention it again! And they didn't. As a result, the family itself allowed the non-consensual sex to continue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Is it even possible to "create an environment in the <b>home</b> in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported?" Incest exists in so many cultures. It continues through generations because incest is a family affair: what happens in the family, stays in the family. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How wonderful it would be if all it took was someone like me sharing my true story of incest and getting folks to sign a pledge to bring about change. But I'm not famous. I'm not Lady Gaga or Joe Biden. I can't reach millions with one song. I reach small groups of people here and there, and sure, it all helps raise awareness. But for every one who buys my book, <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b> and reads it, 2-3 times as many tell me there's no way they could read that: the details, the horror, the ugliness is too much to handle. Tell me about it! It's easier not to know than to know. And even if you do read the book, as Gaga sings, "You don't know how it feels till it happens to you." What you hope is it never will happen to you or your son or daughter. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.itsonus.org/" target="_blank"><b><i>It's On Us</i></b> </a>is a wonderful and necessary project and is a great beginning. But it will take a lot more than Lady Gaga singing her song and letting us know she too has been a victim of rape to help the children being raped, not on college campuses but in their own homes by those they should be able to trust most: their immediate family members. These children are doubly raped: by the abuser and by the family that denies the abuse. As Joe Biden said at the Oscars: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "tiempostext" , serif; font-size: 17px;"><b><i>"We must and we can change the culture so that no abused woman or man like the survivors that you see tonight will have to ask themselves, 'What did I do?' They did nothing wrong."</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That is exactly the message in my books, except my focus is the children. While I can never reach the millions that Lady Gaga and Joe Biden did, by sharing this blog post you can help me reach a few more than I have already. Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and sharing. Your comments are welcomed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Viga Boland is a speaker and the author of a Trilogy based on a true story of incest:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">No Tears for my Father</a></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">Learning to Love Myself</a></i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">Voice from an Urn</a></i></b></span></div>
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-80530591070183413052015-08-05T11:06:00.000-07:002015-08-05T11:06:53.745-07:00I am ashamed that this woman never held her father accountable for his actions. Her weakness is unbelievable.<i><b>"I am ashamed that this woman never held her father accountable for his actions. Her weakness is unbelievable."</b></i><br />
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So wrote a "reviewer" of my book, <b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a> </b>Based on that 2-line review, she gave the book a 2-star rating. If I were this "reviewer", I would be ashamed of being listed as a "reviewer". This is not how one reviews or ranks a book.<br />
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But far more important than that aspect is this one: I would be ashamed of being so judgemental. Has this person suffered childhood sexual abuse herself? Was her abuser her father? If not, how can she possibly understand the fear of a child who has been raised with physical, mental and sexual abuse? How can she understand the conflict between being abused all of her young life by a parent. Not a stranger. But a parent. Not a neighbour. A member of the family. How can she understand the long-reaching ramifications of bringing such ugliness into the extended family's life? Of the fear of not getting the justice she seeks, a justice so often denied victims in the courts? Of the fear of the abuser coming back to abuse more and even worse if the attempt to hold him accountable fails and the story has been aired far and wide.<br />
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Why did those women allegedly abused by Billy Cosby or those boys victimized by Sir Edward Heath so many years ago wait till now to speak up? Why do so many victims remain silent for so long, sometimes dying with their secret untold? Are we <b>ALL</b> weak? Is the reviewer above ashamed for all of us then? Oh wait. No, she's just ashamed of me because these victims have all spoken up NOW, while these public figures are alive and can be investigated and possibly made to account for their actions? My abuser is dead. No accountability there. I let him get away with it.<br />
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Perhaps. But again, there's one huge difference between all of them and me, and all the other victims of incest who choose to remain silent: the Cosby and Heath victims weren't molested or raped daily by their own fathers. Guess what Miss or Mrs Reviewer: there is a difference here!<br />
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Regardless of what a parent does to a child, or even what a child does to a parent, there is that bond, a loyalty, or whatever you want to call it, that holds children back from ratting on a parent, just as so many parents can't hate a child who turns into a murderer. We all know what happened is wrong, but something holds us back. There is also that bond between mother and child that keeps that child from telling mommy about the bad that daddy is doing, especially when daddy has brainwashed you to believe no-one will believe you anyway. I've heard from hundreds of victims whose families have cast them out for telling lies about their father. No wonder victims choose to stay silent.<br />
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Just like I did. I elected to put up with the abuse, to die with it if necessary, rather than tell on daddy or hurt mommy. And that makes me "weak" as far as this "reviewer" is concerned.<br />
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I also elected to keep it all secret from my new family: my husband and my children, as I couldn't see how telling what happened while my father was still alive could possibly benefit me or my family. Instead, it could have torn us apart. My husband might have killed my father on learning the truth. Would he then deserve to go to jail for killing my abuser? And what of my children and their grandmother had they learned the truth while my father was still alive? How could blowing this all open while my father was alive benefit those I loved more than myself? Their happiness mattered more to me than me. Yep. I'm weak...if that's how one defines weakness.<br />
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I chose to tell my story when I was ready and when my family were ready for me to share it. I shared it to help others who needed to know they are not alone. I spoke up for the voiceless who may take as many years, or even more to speak up for themselves or to hold their abusers accountable.<br />
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And I stand up for all the other "weak" victims of incest like me. In your "weakness", in your silence, in your willingness to suffer so others may be happy, you are incredibly strong. I am proud, not ashamed, to stand with you.<br />
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©Viga Boland<br />
Author of <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b>, a memoir of incest.<br />
Author of <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"Learning to Love Myself"</a></i></b>, a memoir of recovery after incest.<br />
Editor of <b><i><a href="http://www.memoirabilia.ca/" target="_blank">Memoirabilia</a></i></b>, a magazine for memoir writers.<br />
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-17106171356560659242015-05-26T14:25:00.000-07:002015-05-26T14:25:49.078-07:00BLAME THE #ABUSER...NOT THE VICTIM of INCESTToday, I received a cheque payment for my book, <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b>. It was accompanied by what was, for me, a heart-breaking note, so heart-breaking in fact, that I felt compelled, after a long silence, to write this blog post.<br />
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The purchaser was a woman who found out her husband of many years had been having an ongoing sexual relationship with his daughter from a previous marriage. This lady's world fell apart on learning this ugly truth, and who can blame her? She is now desperately trying to heal and get over this ugliness that she says has just about destroyed her 14-year marriage. Somehow, she feels my book will help. I find myself wondering how it can.<br />
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You see, she is furious and angry with the daughter and has banished her from their home. By doing so, it's obvious she blames the daughter for what happened between her and her father when the daughter was an adolescent. The sexual abuse started when the girl was 11 and continued into adulthood, just as mine did.<br />
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But here's the thing: it was the daughter who told her about it. Why? Why did she tell her? Did she do it because she wanted to hurt her father's wife? According to this lady, the daughter told her because, yes, she wanted to destroy the marriage. This may be so, and if it is, how horribly sad that this daughter is "in love", as it were, with her father and is now resentful of his wife.<br />
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A while back, I talked with a hairdresser who confessed to me that she had been in love with her father who began having sexual relations with her after the death of his wife. She hated herself for liking it, and when her father found a new woman and stopped the sex with his daughter, she tried suicide. When she told me about this, she was still single and unable to have a normal relationship with men, despite therapy. Her father had also passed away in the meantime. She was a broken shell of a woman who gravitated between loving and hating her father.<br />
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With her in mind, and now the daughter this lady has thrown out of the house and obviously blames for the entire sexual relationship, I ask the same question I answered for myself years ago: who really is to blame in such a situation? Did these daughters encourage their fathers? Did they ask their fathers to have sex with them when they were pre-pubescent teens? And even if they had, again, which I very much doubt, who is to blame? Who had complete control of the situation? Who should have refused to let such a situation occur and develop over the years to the extent it did that now these daughters were "in love" with their fathers? And if I hadn't been fortunate enough to find a man that I fell in love with, and through whom I found the courage to stand up to my father and get myself out of that loathsome situation, would I have ended up like them? If I believed in God, I'd be praying mighty hard right now for a "no" to that question. The thought disgusts and revolts me.<br />
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So now, back to the lady who hopes my book will help her heal. I hope it will but I believe it can only do so if she realizes that when I was that sexually abused teen, I despised what happened to me and fought it every day until I finally got away from my father. That is what she will read about in my book. She will read how my father manipulated and brainwashed me; how I was too fearful of him to fight him or tell on him; how he convinced me that no-one would believe me. And if this lady reads all that and gets it, she might, just might put the blame where it belongs: on the father and not the daughter. Perhaps she will re-think the reason the daughter told her about the incest: perhaps doing so was a plea for help. I'm willing to bet that behind the daughter's admission is yet another very mentally ill victim of incest in need of therapy.<br />
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No-one will ever convince me the child is to blame when an adult initiates sex with him/her. No-one! I hope when this lady has finished reading <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b>, she will blame the right person: her husband.<br />
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-41751209643871355372015-02-14T11:44:00.000-08:002015-02-14T11:44:23.929-08:00"Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all" if we are to be happy<center>
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One of the saddest, most heartbreaking things about being a victim of child sexual abuse (#incest) is that most of us grow up hating ourselves. Despite every effort, sometimes for years, to find something we like about ourselves, let alone love about ourselves, we continue to find fault with ourselves. Why? Most likely because our abusers' voices keep screaming at us, reminding us we are worthless, unloveable unless we do what they want us to do. So we did it, even though it felt wrong, bad, but each time we gave in to them, we hated what was happening and hated ourselves for succumbing, being too weak to stand up to them. Then, if no-one knew what was going on and we didn't have therapy as a child or even as young adults to turn our thinking around, we grew into adulthood, middle age and even old age, if not hating ourselves, then at least, not loving ourselves either. </center>
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When that happens, so many of us wonder why we fall in love with the wrong person and get hurt time and again. The reason is simple: we don't value ourselves enough. We don't consider ourselves worthy of love. So we sell out to what seems like the best of the worst choices. </center>
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But you know, we don't have to do that. We can stop that from being our pattern by turning off those voices in our heads and replacing them with kinder, loving voices, the ones long ago buried inside us when we were children. Except, sadly, for those abused as infants, most young children actually really like themselves - a lot! It's narcissistic and it's perfectly natural. As young children, we want what we want and feel we should have it. Of course, parents will ultimately teach us that we can't always have what we want and that it's not acceptable to be narcissistic and think of ourselves before all others. And that's quite okay because as we get older, we understand why what they are saying is right and necessary. But abuse victims haven't had time, in many cases, to follow that more natural route to good self-love. Their journey to healthy self-love has been rudely blocked. They are plunged into self-loathing instead of brought gently from narcissism to healthy self-love. </center>
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So now, how do we get ourselves back on track? We must begin by drinking deeply and often from the cup of self-love. I'm not talking about being selfish or narcissistic. I'm saying if a challenge comes our way, if an opportunity to move forward in our careers or personal life presents itself, we have to tell ourselves "Yes, I can do this" instead of "No, I can't". Every "NO" is disbelief in ourselves. It deepens our insecurity, feeds our negativity about ourselves and moves us further from healthy self-love. And why is self-love so important? Because without loving ourselves, we can't fully love others. We need to deems ourselves worthy of their love. By taking on more and more chances to prove our worth to ourselves, the more we are saying "Yes, I can" and "Yes, I'm okay" and "Yes, I'm loveable". It's that profound truth that Whitney Houston sung to us that <i>"learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all"</i>. And that love is vital to happiness. </center>
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That's what I did for the 40 plus years after I finally got away from my abuser, my father. Every time I heard his voice telling me I couldn't do this or have that, I replaced his voice with my own child's voice that said "yes, I can do this and yes, I can have that." And I added one more thing: "And you're not going to stop me!" I became a bit narcissistic again I suppose. But I needed to go there first before I could finally love myself as I had the right to love myself all along. </center>
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I hope you'll watch my video above. It's based on the journey to self-love that I recounted in my second memoir "<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">Learning to Love Myself</a></i></b>". Everyone praised me for speaking out from under incest in my first book, "<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">No Tears for my Father</a></i></b>" but this second book is just as important, maybe even more so because of the hope it offers victims that we can have a better tomorrow. On this Valentine's Day, 2015, I wish you love. </center>
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<b><span style="color: red;">SPECIAL OFFER:</span></b> Visit my website store at <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store">http://www.vigaboland.com/store</a></i></b> and order your copy, printed or digital format of <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF"</a></i></b> before February 17, 2015 and save 20% on your purchase when you type "<b>tearsofjoy</b>" into the coupon box on checkout. (no quotation marks!)</center>
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-45696100588207504952015-01-15T15:13:00.000-08:002015-01-15T15:13:34.497-08:00IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOVE and HATE YOUR SEXUALLY ABUSIVE FATHER?Something was said today in one of my Facebook groups that got me really thinking about this question. We were discussing how some victims of incest, or any childhood sexual abuse. do manage to "get over it" enough to move onto productive, fulfilling lives and others never "get over it" at all. They live out their lives, if you can call it "living", in non-stop agony, self-recriminations, and self-hatred.<br />
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The topic had come up in relation to the slower-than-hoped-for sales of my second book,<b><a href="http://www.learningtolovemyself.ca/" target="_blank"> "Learning to Love Myself"</a></b>. I thought victim/survivors would embrace a book that shows a positive outcome after sexual abuse. My first book,<b><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"> "No Tears for my Father"</a></b> literally flew off the shelves, but this second book, which is actually a much pleasanter read about rebirth and recovery is being passed by. Don't victims want to heal? Don't victims want to believe a happy life is possible after all? Is all they were looking for in that first book was reassurance they weren't alone or validation for their feelings?<br />
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This got me thinking about my own father. Why was my memoir of incest titled <b>"No Tears for my <i>Father</i>"</b>. Was the word <b>"father"</b> in the title accurate? I hated the man who abused me. He had no right! But he was my father. And because he was my father, despite what he did to me, I couldn't 100% hate him. </div>
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This is one of the greatest ironies and agonies of incest between father/daughter or as it does happen, mother/son. There is that bond, the loyalty to the family, that transcends all the horrid aspects of sexual abuse by a parent. The victim, the child, loathes what is being done to him or her, can't understand it, wishes it would stop, but deep down, they still love the parent who once hugged them, loved them, cared for them, gave them life. Even in my own case, when my father wasn't doing the deed, he would talk with me, care about me, counsel me. At times, he seemed to show me more love than my mother did. In hindsight, looking at it now over the great distance of 46 years, I know that in my case, and I speak here only of my case, my father did love me. It was a bad love for me, but he genuinely loved, and was in love with me. Yes, it sounds yukky and it was wrong. But it's the only excuse or reason I can give for his behaviour. </div>
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So, that brings me back to the title question: is it possible to love <b>and</b> hate your sexually abusive father? Yes, because we don't actually hate the person; we hate the situation, and we transfer the hatred of that situation onto the person. Perhaps that's why people stay in abusive relationships of all kinds: they still love the person; they hate the situation, and until they find the strength, as I ultimately did, to get out of that situation, they also hate themselves. And at the same time, we are so overwhelmed with guilt, not just over what happened to us, but guilt over both loving/hating that person, it makes it all that much harder to heal.</div>
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Learning to love ourselves after getting out of a situation like incest or child sexual abuse is probably the hardest part of recovery. It's harder than facing the flashbacks; harder than the horrid nightmares; harder than the feelings of shame and fear of telling others the ugly truth. But if we can find the courage, hopefully through therapy or the love of another person, to face all those things, we can finally reach the state I did in my book, <b>"Learning to Love Myself"</b>. </div>
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I hope those of you reading this post will one day decide it's time to read a book about the other side of child sexual abuse that relates the rebirth and self-discovery of the beautiful human beings we all are, children who once endured so much pain, but came out on top to love themselves and others again.<br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;"> CLICK THE "FULL SCREEN" LINK BELOW TO READ <b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF"</a></b> </span></i><br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-12408347729472812832014-12-17T20:22:00.000-08:002015-02-14T12:08:44.726-08:00CAN ANYTHING GOOD, POSITIVE, EVER COME FROM #ABUSE?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I know most will answer the question <i>"Can anything good, positive, ever come from abuse?"</i> with a loud "NO!" And that response is most expected. But as I move toward the end of another year of my life, and another year further away from my past, I can look at that question from various angles, the most important one being from the perspective of a survivor instead of a victim. And when I look at it this way, and reflect on what has happened in the 40 plus years since I got away from my abuser, I see mostly positives. In fact, I see many positives.<br />
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When, as I wrote in my first book, <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b>, (which has incidentally now won a Gold Medal) that my father refused to let me cry when I fell off my bike and scraped my knee because he told me I had to <i>"get tough"</i>, I hated how he ignored my pain. But I did get tough ... tough enough that when the time came to get away from him, though afraid, I had developed the toughness I needed to cope with the next forty years of my life. I needed that toughness to survive the loss of a job I'd worked so hard to get. I detailed this in the chapter titled, "When Good things go bad" in my latest book, <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"Learning to Love Myself"</a></i></b>. Once again I was facing emotional and mental abuse, but the now ingrained toughness pulled me up and out of a sinkhole that threatened to set me back to the days of my childhood abuse.<br />
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Another positive thing that came from my childhood abuse was the compassion and caring I have for others who suffer. After speaking with so many survivors of abuse who have set up blogs, written books, run groups for victims, I know I'm far from alone. Having suffered as much as we did, we do not dismiss or ignore those victims who hang their heads in shame and think no-one will believe their stories. We do .. because we've been there ... and we know how horrible it feels to live and feel that way. I feel 100% sure that if life had always been easy for me, if I hadn't known such suffering, I could never feel the compassion and the need to help others that I do today.<br />
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As a result of the abuse, I also learned to rely on myself. I learned that when the world turned its back on me, when it seemed God had deserted me, there was still one person I could turn to: myself. As I struggled to understand why I had been the victim of abuse ... and there will never be a good reason for that ... I also came to understand that if anyone could change the situation I was in, it was me. You see, life is about choices. As I have written in my poem above, I can choose to live in darkness, in pain, or I can choose to take control of my life and turn it around. As long as I listen to the voices that brought me down, as long as I ate the garbage those voices fed me and believed it, I was a victim. But just as surely as someone can feed us garbage, we can refuse to eat it. We are what we believe. We can feed ourselves good food, good thoughts, as surely as we can feed ourselves bad ones. It's up to us to choose the foods that nourish, not poison you. <br />
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When we do that, something miraculous happens: with each little step in a positive direction, we begin to regain our self-esteem; we begin to see we are good ... we were never bad. We begin to like ourselves and if we stick at it long enough, keep on challenging ourselves to get better and better, sooner or later we come to love ourselves. And only when we love ourselves can we truly love others.<br />
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That is the primary message of my book, <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"Learning to Love Myself"</a></i></b>, written by a victim of child sexual abuse who became not just a survivor but a thriver, one who embraces life, never gave up on herself, and found happiness because she deserved it ... just as you who are reading this now do.<br />
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Do not read this post thinking I could ever condone any form of abuse. I most certainly do not. I deplore abuse. But, if you have been a victim of abuse, I can assure you that you too can become a survivor/thriver. Avail yourself of the help others offer; if you can afford therapy, take it. If you can't, read books like "The Courage to Heal". Subscribe to blogs like mine or Darlene Ouimet's excellent blog, <b><i><a href="http://www.emergingfrombroken.com/" target="_blank">Emerging from Broken</a></i></b>. Immerse yourself in books written by survivors; read motivational books. The market is full of them, many written by people like you who have suffered enormously but found a way to turn bad into good. And do one more thing for yourself daily: journal your thoughts, good and bad. Remember, when you commit your pain to the page, you rob it of its power over you. It will no longer control you; instead you control it as you write it onto a page. Above all, choose to be your own best friend. You have a friend in YOU.<br />
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I wish you all a happy holiday season, whatever it is you will celebrate, and may 2015 be a year of making your own choices.<br />
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Your friend,<br />
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Viga Boland<br />
<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/">http://www.vigaboland.com</a></i></b>Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-56892147319519091202014-11-01T14:34:00.000-07:002014-11-02T09:42:42.986-08:00"EMERGING from BROKEN" to "LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF" by being My Own Best Friend<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why have you visited this blog? What were you searching for when you came across the link to <b><a href="http://vigaland.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">"Coming out from under Incest"</a></b>? Unless you're doing an investigation or research for a project or book, my guess is you came here for one reason only: you are a victim of incest or child sexual abuse and you are looking for answers and/or validation that you aren't the only one who has suffered this way, and above all, you are looking for help in getting over and past what happened to you perhaps 10, 20 even 50 years ago. Right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because that's what you want to find, I've decided today to share with you information from one of the best books I've ever come across to help people like you and me: It's <b><a href="http://emergingfrombroken.com/" target="_blank">"Emerging from Broken"</a></b>, by Darlene Ouimet, a fellow Canadian, a victim of child sexual abuse, and today a certified professional coach specializing in life transitions. She has a private practice and a massive following on her blog of the same name, <b><a href="http://emergingfrombroken.com/" target="_blank">"Emerging from Broken"</a></b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many excellent books on the market like, <b>"The Courage to Heal"</b>, designed to help abuse victims heal themselves but Darlene's book is the one to which I could most relate. Why? Because everything she writes in it is true for me! It's based on her own journey of emerging from broken, but her truths are truths that apply to all of us who have been sexually abused as youngsters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what hit home to me most, early in the book, is what Darlene said about believing the lies that I had grown up with, the lies that had been drummed into my head and into my entire being about myself. Lies like I was the problem; I deserved the abuse; that everything that happened was my fault; that I was a bad daughter unless I did what my father told me to do; that what I was living with wasn't unusual, quite normal in fact; that I had asked for it; that I had brought this on myself ... on and on and on. All of this led to self-doubt, low self-esteem, always trying to live up to someone else's ideas of what I should be or how I should act. Because the real me and what I wanted was being rejected by someone else far more powerful than me, a parent, as I grew, I too rejected myself and was always trying to please others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what we have to recognize, in order to heal, according to Darlene, is that our "validation does not come from outside ourselves". It must come from within. And ultimately, to do that, we need to face the trauma of the past, no matter how much it hurts, sift through the lies we've been told about ourselves and see them for what they are: lies! And then, yes, we need to re-program our thinking and what we are telling ourselves daily about ourselves, so that we eventually learn to love ourselves. That idea, by the way, is the theme of my second, just released follow-up memoir, <b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">"Learning to Love Myself"</a></b>.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgboxqM8QlVSXQMT1V5ZkZVdv1jmUlMeHecZcH0Y2_IL1VgXLSAJmh9fV92xufCezPR_SmrAPjjnuueQ60Li1Vgc13ZIeEY8ZFB55U3VFV14tXyVsIi0mJLDKaezmRqCjwJQJP6UHoqwU/s1600/20140909_165920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgboxqM8QlVSXQMT1V5ZkZVdv1jmUlMeHecZcH0Y2_IL1VgXLSAJmh9fV92xufCezPR_SmrAPjjnuueQ60Li1Vgc13ZIeEY8ZFB55U3VFV14tXyVsIi0mJLDKaezmRqCjwJQJP6UHoqwU/s1600/20140909_165920.jpg" height="252" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">Purchase a signed, printed softcover copy or a kindle or ePub version of<br /> "LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF" directly from the author, Viga Boland</a></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #141823; line-height: 20px;">"</span></span>Loving myself has so much to do with being there for myself" says Darlene. That's exactly right! It's finally putting ourselves first, not last, not trying to please everyone else and never pleasing ourselves. It's about having faith in our own judgement and decisions. And of course, that's not easy with all the voices of the past telling us we're stupid, incapable, selfish or whatever garbage was drummed into our heads by parents who more than likely had their own unresolved issues! You see, every time we try to conform to those lies they told us, we are rejecting ourselves! That has to stop if we are to heal. As Darlene writes: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; line-height: 20px;"><i><span style="background-color: white;">"It was when I stopped fighting to prove that I was right and just believed that I was right, that the healing really began. It was when I saw the truth through the grid of love that I realized that love doesn’t harm. It was when I stopped trying to get the abusive people in my life and the people who supported them and their practices to HEAR me, and listened to myself instead, that my world began to look </span><span style="background-color: white;">brighter."</span></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">God that makes so much sense, doesn't it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speaking of God, Darlene brings up something else in her book (which is actually a collection of the first 2 years of the posts on her blog) that also thundered through my brain and had me hollering "Yes, yes!" Darlene brought up an answer so often supplied by well-meaning people who believe it's God's will that we suffer because</span><br />
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"You've been put on this earth to help others who went through the same thing"</span><br />
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Really? Really? If that is so, then as Darlene points out you and I would have to believe that "there is some grand plan for my life that included me being mistreated, abused, invalidated and devalued." Just like her, I cannot and will not accept that explanation. It's like she says elsewhere in the book that it's so easy for believers to simply say if you want to heal, read the bible. Well, Darlene takes one of the most famous biblical teachings that is used not just in Christianity but many religions puts a perspective on it, when it comes to abuse victims, that made my head spin with its profound wisdom. It's too long to copy/paste here but you MUST read it. You can find it here on her website:</span><br />
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<a href="http://emergingfrombroken.com/love-is-patient-love-is-kind-a-bit-of-a-rant/"><b>http://emergingfrombroken.com/love-is-patient-love-is-kind-a-bit-of-a-rant/</b></a></span><br />
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If you were raised Christian and believe in and live by the bible, brace yourself. You might not like how she interprets it in reference to herself and other abuse victims, but you cannot deny its logic. </span><br />
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You came to this blog looking for answers, for help in healing. I am suggesting you will find it in Darlene Ouimet's book, <b><a href="http://www.emergingfrombroken.com/" target="_blank">EMERGING from BROKEN</a></b>. You will find the answers to your suffering there and you will find what you need to start healing. </span><br />
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But she will tell you as I do: in the end, it's up to you to do the work yourself. All Darlene and other victim/survivors like me who write blogs and books can do is share what we've learned from our own struggles to emerge from broken. I've told my story of child sexual abuse in my gold medal book, <b><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"> NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></b>, and now, have also shared my story of self-discovery and recovery from that abuse in<b> <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/store" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER, PART 2: LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF. </a></b></span><br />
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I'd like to leave you with this poem from my most recent book. It summarizes what both Darlene and I are trying to tell you: you need to learn to love yourself by becoming your own best friend: </span><br />
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<b>My Own Best Friend</b></div>
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<b>Today I resolve to be my own best friend</b></div>
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<b>To stand up for myself rather than bend</b></div>
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<b>To pick myself up when I slide down</b></div>
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<b>To undo the shackles that have kept me bound.</b></div>
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<b>To silence the voices that stole my liberty</b></div>
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<b>To trust my own judgement on what's best for me</b></div>
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<b>To love the person emerging from the shell</b></div>
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<b>And spend my days getting to know her well.</b></div>
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<b>I will take on each day as if it were my last</b></div>
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<b>I will decide my own future, uncontrolled by my past</b></div>
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<b>I will move ever forward using what I've learned </b></div>
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<b>To discover the world for which I've yearned.</b></div>
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<b>What's right for others, may not be right for me</b></div>
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<b>But I'll do what I must to be the best I can be</b></div>
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<b>Each day's another year to start all over again</b></div>
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<b>And I have all I need when I'm my own best friend.</b></div>
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<b>©Viga Boland, January 1, 2014</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank"><b>http://www.vigaboland.com</b></a></div>
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-4647863671805369642014-08-22T20:31:00.000-07:002014-08-23T13:45:19.615-07:00WHY ARE VICTIMS of #INCEST or CHILD SEXUAL #ABUSE DRAWN TO OTHER #ABUSERS?You'd think when one's been victimized by an abuser, you'd run a mile before getting involved with another abuser. Yet, time and again victims tell me they left one abuser only to fall for another. It's like victims have indelible signs printed on their foreheads saying "abuse me!" But we all know that's the last thing victims want or need. So why does it happen?<br />
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Some reasons come to mind immediately:<br />
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Victims don't feel they deserve better<br />
Victims feel whatever happened to them was their fault<br />
Victims are needy, desperate for love. As such, they are easy targets for abusers.<br />
Victims often hate themselves so much they believe they should be punished.<br />
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All of those reasons scream of the insecurity the victim feels as a result of abuse. They feel so empty inside, they rush to fill the void. They are looking for confirmation that they are worthy of love.<br />
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This thought came to mind after I read the words below posted by a friend, <b style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.166666030883789px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/johnetta.leonard?hc_location=timeline" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">Johnnie Leonard-Yaegel</a></b> on Facebook. She was reflecting on how it felt to lose someone you love and why one shouldn't rush to find a new love:<br />
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<i>"<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Filling the spot of someone you have lost to a break up, divorce or even death with anything or anyone else is not always healthy. When the body heals, it focuses on that wound till it is completely well again. It doesn't add another human to the body to heal. So many are in a hurry to fill a void. But <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="3f19e7b4-ebc8-462f-afca-e4c33fc55c3e" id="de9aca5a-b7d2-4da1-b09e-ddfb821bac75"><span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="13a5548a-2a1f-46e3-9864-159a3ec992cf" id="2ff7f088-668c-42e0-8d2d-7a1920dc77f0">a void</span></span> is room to grow. Sometimes we are too quick to put something there that inevitably slows our growth." </span></i><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">Her words struck me as being applicable to victims of abuse. Now, you might ask "What has that got to do with abuse victims? They aren't mourning the loss of someone they loved." To which I say </span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">"Really? I beg to differ"</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">Here's why: <b>Abuse victims are indeed mourning the loss of someone they loved. That someone is themselves!</b> When we are abused, especially as children, we lose ourselves. Some of us spend a lifetime trying to find ourselves again. We are drawn into relationships, some as harmful as the one we escaped, in our desperation to find that person we loved and lost: ourselves. We hope that somehow the new person in our life will convince us we are worthy of their love and that through him or her, we can once again learn to love ourselves. Some of us find that person who can do that for us. I did. But sadly, too many of us never do. We drift from one relationship to another, from one abuser to another, ever seeking confirmation that we are worthy of love. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">But as my friend states above: <i>"A void is room to grow."</i> If we immediately seek a new partner to fill that void, without giving ourselves time to heal, we might end up filling that void with more emptiness, more insecurity. So why rush? Slow down; take the time to heal; let the wound close. Slowing down will give us time to clear our heads, to step back and look objectively at that new person who's saying all the right things but possibly for the wrong reasons. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">Welcome the chance to be alone; to think for yourself; to not have to answer to someone else or do what that person tells you to. In that period of <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="ba609d4b-81ca-4693-ae59-bbca538a3bb1" id="fc3f3286-7774-4475-adef-0a35048b16d4">alone-ness</span>, not to be confused with loneliness, you might find someone you can trust and love: yourself. Remember, as Whitney Houston <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="6ef4cbf0-12e2-4569-8c6c-9d28fcc9e4a7" id="c5393b4e-aa57-4f7e-8da5-0c511f58391c">sang</span>, <b><i>"Learning to love yourself is the greatest gift of all."</i></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 14.166666030883789px;">That, by the way, is the title and <span class="GINGER_SOFTWARE_mark" ginger_software_uiphraseguid="9214f2f7-3651-4935-b314-221ee77664f6" id="fa034081-240b-4a4a-92f3-6144f69fec5a">theme</span> of my new memoir, a love story of rebirth and recovery after abuse. All being well, it'll be available from <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">my website </a></i></b>in late September/early October. </span></span><br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-27448046402536938192014-07-12T19:03:00.000-07:002014-07-12T19:03:26.030-07:00DOWNLOAD A FREE eBOOK of NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER and you might win a KINDLE too!If you have subscribed to my personal blog, <b><i><a href="http://vigaboland.com/category/blog/" target="_blank">VIANVISIONS</a></i></b>, on my author's website, you probably are aware that I am currently in the last stages of writing the Sequel to my true story of #incest,<b><i><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"> "NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER".</a></i></b> I wrote and published that book a little less than a year ago, and today, I have been thrilled with the sales and particularly pleased to see my book added to 6 Ontario libraries. <div>
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Nonetheless, I know there are many thousands of victims of incest and their families who have never heard of the book, or even if they have and would like to read it, feel they can't afford to buy even the eBook copy. I decided to remedy that if I could, at least temporarily. </div>
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So I uploaded <b>NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</b> to a site called <b><i><a href="http://storycartel.com/books/no-tears-for-my-father" target="_blank">STORY CARTEL</a></i></b>. By joining this site (it's<b> free</b>) readers can download tons of ebooks for<b> free </b>for a limited time. My book can still be downloaded for<b><i><span style="color: blue;"> FREE</span></i></b> for another 12 days. So if you've been wanting to read it, here's your chance. </div>
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What's the catch? There is none. </div>
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<b>And what's this about winning a KINDLE? </b></div>
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Well, if you download my Free book, and leave me a review at <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Tears-Father-Viga-Boland-ebook/dp/B00H2ZK754/ref=la_B00H3LK45K_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405216255&sr=1-1" target="_blank">AMAZON</a></i></b> (and anywhere else you like e.g. Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Apple iBooks, Kobo, GooglePlay) within the next 15 days, you will be entered for a chance to win that KINDLE, or an Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift or more...just for leaving me a review. </div>
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<b>Why is your leaving a review for me important to me?</b></div>
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Because the more reviews my book receives, especially at Amazon, the higher it goes in the rankings, meaning many readers are likely to find it. And if they want or need this book, to help them heal, to help them realize they are not alone as victims of incest, then that's important to me. </div>
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Won't you help them, or perhaps help yourself, by downloading NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER absolutely FREE, leaving me a review? Even just a few lines would help. </div>
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Thank you in advance for doing this and I hope you'll share this blog post with others who might like to take advantage of this FREE offer. As for my sequel, where I cover the years since I left my abusive father and built a new life for myself with my husband and children, look for it to become available in the next few months. </div>
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Title?</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: red;">LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF. </span></i></b></div>
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To understand and enjoy <i style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">LEARNING TO LOVE MYSELF, </i>it will help to have read <i style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER. </i>So go grab yourself a<i style="color: red; font-weight: bold;"> FREE </i>copy now from <b><i><a href="http://storycartel.com/books/no-tears-for-my-father" target="_blank">STORY CARTEL</a></i></b>. </div>
Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-71174320146318318562014-06-16T15:02:00.000-07:002014-06-17T08:33:32.561-07:00SABRINA'S STORY: #INCEST VICTIM STILL IMPRISONED AFTER 40 YEARS<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Sabrina is in her 40's now and still lives at home with her mother and step-father. She works in their shop but receives no salary. Her step-father thinks she's insane and wants to have her committed. Her mother is abusive and narcissistic. The rest of her relatives think Sabrina is crackers too. Everyone tells her to stop talking rubbish and tarnishing the family name with her ridiculous allegations of incest by an uncle who is today a very prominent member of society. He also wields lots of power. Sabrina is scared of what he could do to her and her family if she ever goes public. So she stays silent. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">She's told her mother the story time and again. One minute her mother says she's making it all up; the next she tells her to get over it: it happens to lots of girls, so just get over it. But Sabrina can't. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">She was only 7 when 'it' happened. Her parents had left her in her uncle's care. She trusted him when he said she was being taken to have a needed medical procedure. There were 4 "doctors" in the room. She was put under. When she awoke, one of the doctors was on top of her. No, correct that: he was inside her and she hurt. Then the other doctors took turns. And they took photographs too. And they laughed. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">They took turns. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">When they finished with me, I was told the procedure went wonderfully. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I was sore. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I was tired. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I was confused. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I wanted to throw up. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I didn't want to be near him anymore. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I sensed something had changed my relationship with him forever. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I sensed something had changed me forever. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I just wanted to go home. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #141414; color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">I was 7-years-old</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Sabrina never forgot and never got over it. She did what all incest victims do: she went quiet because she was fearful of what would happen to her if she told. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Sabrina has been quiet for 40 years now. She's gained weight, on purpose. She doesn't want men to get interested in her. That doesn't mean she wouldn't love to have a good husband and children and all the rest, but she's too scared and she can't trust any man. The same relative abused her again at a later date under different circumstances and not to the same degree. But his abuse just cemented her fear and buried her silence even deeper. She's written about it in her blog, <b><i><a href="http://lightdancingintheshadows.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">LIGHT DANCING IN THE SHADOWS</a></i></b>. Click the link to read her side of the story. Right now, her only support is readers like you and writers like me. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sabrina wants to leave home but has no money to head out on her own. She's a prisoner of her past and her present. She's trying to fight back using the only weapon she has now: words. She is <b>speaking out from under incest</b>. She's committed to writing a book about it and has already started. And every day, her parents keep her chained, convincing themselves and everyone around her that she is nuts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We other victims of incest know better. Sabrina is not nuts. She needs support and ears willing to believe her side of the story. I have promised to help her publish her book when it's done. As much as I wish she'd find the courage to get out of the prison she's been in for 40 years, that is ultimately up to her. Only she can change her life. But writing her story is a beginning. Don't back down Sabrina. Fight for your life and your freedom. Fight for your chance to be the beautiful woman you can be and are, away from your persecutors. Others have done it. You can too. Courage and love my friend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-14705902641631973422014-06-08T17:22:00.002-07:002014-06-08T17:22:18.782-07:00GRANDPA WILL LOOK AFTER YOU SWEETHEART: #INCESTYou have to go out to pick up some groceries and don't feel like getting your youngster all dressed up to take him or her with you. Grandpa's watching TV and having a cuppa. You wonder if he'd mind looking after the little one for an hour. You promise not to be long and you tell your child to be good and do whatever grandpa tells him or her to do. And you're out the door.<br />
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When you get back, your little one runs into your arms and starts crying? Did he or she miss you that much in such a short time? Why does he/she looked scared? Oh it's probably nothing. Your little one's just a bit tired ...<br />
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Meet Angela: she's in her 20's now and a member of my secret incest group on Facebook. She wasn't that little when "it" happened. She had just graduated from Grade 8, but she waited another 3 years to tell on Grandpa. As she wrote to me recently:<br />
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<i>"A<span style="color: #323333; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">s I was still too young to stay alone over night, I went to my grandparents' house. The night started off as any other, watching some boring shows that my grandparents just loved. My nana decided to have a shower while my papa and I just continued to watch the television. I heard the shower turn on and that's when the night took a turn for the worse. My papa got up out of his usual seat in the rocking chair and came over and just looked at me. He then proceeded to lift up my blue nightgown and touched me; he fondled my lack of a chest, and kissed me, trying to stick his tongue in my mouth. He must have gotten spooked because he suddenly went back to his chair and sat down. But not even five minutes later, while I was still trying to process what had happened, he was in front of me again. He held his finger up to indicate "one more time" and repeated what he'd just done 5 minutes earlier. When I heard the shower</span><span style="color: #323333; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;"> water turn off, I'd never been so thankful in my life! I ran into the bathroom with cramps (which I later learned happens when ever I'm nervous) and begged my nana to call my parents. She called and called and finally my dad came and picked me up at 3 in the morning. He asked what was a matter. I told him I had cramps he said it must be my period coming on. I agreed, unable to tell him the truth. When we got home I went right to my room and cried and cried and cried."</span></i><br />
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Maybe to the reader of this post, that doesn't sound so horrific. Perhaps readers have experienced what they consider much worse happen to them at the hands of a grandparent. But all children are different in how they react to violation of their bodies. Some take it much harder than others. But none of them ever walks away and forgets about it.<br />
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And the bottom line is NO GRANDFATHER has the right to do what Angela's grandfather did! To this day, though Angela's come a long way thanks to some therapy for this and other abuse she later suffered at the hands of others, she still has a lot of "self" issues.<br />
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Before writing this post, I did a quick Google search on "grandfathers, sexual abuse". Pages and pages of articles, forums, blogs came up, like this one:<br />
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<i>http://www.southshorenow.ca/en/20140115/News/16612/Grandfather-sexually-abused-girl-for-years.htm</i><br />
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and this one:<br />
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<i>http://www.psychforums.com/sexual-abuse-incest/topic52830.html</i><br />
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Read the articles. Feel the pain. Now tell me this isn't happening again and again with those, whom next to our parents, we should be able to trust most: our grandparents!<br />
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And then there's this information I found at this link: <i>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1393732:</i><br />
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<i>"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 14.166666030883789px;">Using a sample of 95 case records of sexual abuse substantiated through child protection investigation, this study confirmed several findings from earlier studies of sexually abusive grandparents: (a) virtually all perpetrators are male, (b) the vast majority of victims are female, (c) a disproportionately large share of abusive grandfathers appear to also be sexually abusive fathers, and (d) stepgrandchildren appear to experience greater risk. Additionally, it was noted that stepgrandparent perpetrators were more threatening and physically violent. However, contrary to some earlier studies, evidence was provided that <b>this form of abuse is inappropriately described as "gentle."</b> Explicit threats and overt physical assault were noted in 14 cases. Moreover, the other tactics used to gain children's compliance, such as overpowering them, suddenly grabbing their genitals, and attacking them in their sleep, appeared to seriously compromise children's autonomy and personal integrity."</span></i><br />
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I was intrigued by that sentence above that said these forms of abuse were considered "gentle". I guess they were like Angela's case. That statement makes such abuse sound less significant, something moms leaving their children with grandpa needn't worry about even if the old man does decide to lift the child's nightie and cop a feel or stick his tongue in her mouth. After all, it's only grandpa. Right Angela?<br />
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-40789816551000134142014-06-01T20:04:00.000-07:002014-06-01T20:04:43.550-07:00VICTIMS of #INCEST or #ABUSE of ANY KIND HELP THEMSELVES HEAL THROUGH #WRITING and/or #JOURNALINGAfter writing and publishing my own true story of #incest, "<b><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"><i>No Tears for my Fathe</i>r</a></b>", I began mentoring memoir writing groups for my local library. This most rewarding volunteer position brought me, and the participants, a few surprises, the biggest being what many of the members were experiencing as they completed various writing exercises I assigned: they found what they were doing ... writing ... was therapeutic!<br />
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Of course, I'd known writing was therapeutic since I was a teen: in my unhappiness, I'd begun penning poems and writing songs that captured my angst and heartache, and in doing so, I often found release for my pain and bottled up rage. I had no-one to talk to about the incest. But putting what I was feeling down on paper somehow helped.<br />
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And now, the members of my memoir group, even those who hadn't necessary come into the group to write about trauma or personal tragedy, found that as they recalled their past, remembered things about their childhood, even incidences like feeling awkward at puberty, or their first crush, were finding that writing about these things was "freeing". They realized that even now as adults, some of their present insecurities and hangups harked back to those earlier days. Writing about them now brought them face to face with some issues they still have trouble dealing with day to day in their personal lives and careers. And hence came the realization for them all that writing is utterly therapeutic, because, as <b><i><a href="http://www.adairlara.com/" target="_blank">Adair Lara</a></i></b> once stated:<br />
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<i>“When you pin your misfortune to a page, you rob it of its power. You begin to get distance from an event the moment you write it down. Even the most intimate and horrendous details of your life become transformed into material”</i></div>
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That misfortune could be something as current as losing a job you've worked years to get, or saving money for a trip only to have to use it to fix a leaking roof. It doesn't have to be something as horrendous as incest or rape, but when it is, then the therapeutic nature of writing becomes incredibly healing.<br />
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One of the members of my memoir writing group had always been a writer, but she only wrote fiction. Suddenly, in the memoir class, with every exercise, her past surfaced so strongly she couldn't stop writing about it. It was she who first said to us all, <i>"I'm finding these sessions, the writing, the exercises are therapeutic,"</i> and everyone agreed. This same discovery was made by the authors of that famous book, which I highly recommend for those wanting and needing to heal, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Courage+to+Heal" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">THE COURAGE TO HEAL. </a><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>They point out again and again how therapeutic it is to write your pain onto the page.<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b><br />
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Have you tried writing your pain on a page yet? Try it! Try it the next time you have a flashback that knocks the wind out of you. Or the next time you hear your abuser's words mocking you, frightening you, reducing you to a blubbering mass of tears. Wipe away the tears by writing down everything that is on your mind, all the tortuous thoughts. You don't have to share it with anyone. This is just for you.<br />
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And as my memoir member recently wrote on our writers group page at Facebook:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><i><b>"Vomit flows freely from my past, cleansing the depth of my soul at last."</b></i></span><br />
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Let this happen to you. Heal yourself through writing and/or journalling.<br />
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Did you know you can read excerpts from <b><i><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father"</a></i></b> for FREE? Just click on the book title to read some sample chapters now!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">Purchase your signed, printed version of NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER directly from the author, Viga Boland</a></i></b>.</td></tr>
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-17068502382391922722014-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:002014-05-09T16:57:35.602-07:00WHAT GIVES MEN THE RIGHT TO TREAT WOMEN THIS WAY! #Boko Haram<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These past two weeks, like many of us, I have been horrified and nauseated by the news of the kidnapping of those young girls in #Nigeria by the #Boko Haram. I am appalled by the rationale, the justification their mad leader, <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;">Abubakar Shekau,</span> gives for their actions, i.e. </span><br />
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<i>"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;">Girls, you should go and get married!" </span></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;">Adding further that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; line-height: 19px;"><i>"There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women!"</i></span><br />
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This line of thinking about women ... no ... young girls barely in their teens, is appalling! I want to scream out "What gives men the right to treat women this way?" Why, in this day and age are there cultures that still hold this archaic, barbaric attitude toward women? How many more centuries will it take before women are seen as equal and as deserving as men, not put on this earth to serve men, to be their slaves, good for nothing more than sex and having children? </div>
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And yet, this attitude, as we all know, is not limited to Nigeria and many middle eastern cultures. Here in the great Western world, how much progress have women really made? We are far from equal to men in so many areas of life: work, home, educational opportunities etc. Men continue to rape women; pedophiles from all walks of life, abuse children of both sexes. Fathers, grandfathers and uncles continue to sexually molest their daughters, and families in denial continue to protect the abusers and victimize the victims. </div>
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In my never-ending efforts to understand my own childhood sexual abuse and my mother's role in it, as told in my book, <a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/"><b><i>NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</i></b></a>, I've been reading a book titled "Mothers of Incest Survivors" by Janis Tyler Johnson. This author studied and spoke with six mothers and daughters about incest, how the moms found out, when they found out, how they handled it etc. Explanations for their failure to do nothing even when they knew the abuse was happening, are generally focussed on either the dependence these mothers had on the fathers for financial support or their own fear of their spouses. Both of those reasons would have applied to my own mother. Here's an excerpt from my book that explains her own fear of my father: </div>
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<i>"She met dad in the camp when she was 16. He fell madly in love with her but she never loved him. It was war-time and she had no-one, so he looked after her. One night in the trenches as the planes still patrolled overhead just after the war ended, I was conceived. So there she was, 17 and pregnant to a man she didn't love. </i></div>
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Whatever pressures they were under, it didn't take long for Dad's violent nature to surface after they got married. I remember her telling me many years later how he kicked her off the bed and onto the floor, then continued to kick her in her swollen belly because of something she said that upset him. Another time he forced her down on her knees, demanding she kiss his little finger to acknowledge his dominance over her. She refused. </i></div>
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The beating that followed her "disobedience" convinced her once and for all that opposing him was futile. She turned into a quiet little mouse who went to work, cooked his meals, cleaned the house and had little time for me, who after all, had come along, unwanted, and unfortunately for us both, chained her to him forever. No wonder I felt she had an unspoken resentment of me all my life. "</i></div>
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That was 50 years ago. How different was my father or his attitude toward women from the Boko Haram? And how many men living today in our very modernized western society still perceive women as my father did ie. that it was his right to treat mom this way, that indeed, she should kiss his little finger and if she didn't do as he commanded, then it was his right to kick her in the belly or beat her up or whatever he felt was fitting punishment for this little woman he most obviously saw as beneath him, as something so much lesser than he was. Garrghhh! It just makes me want to spew!</div>
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I think about my father and I read news items like this and every day I am so thankful that the man I married doesn't think like these men. How did I get this lucky? How I hope my daughters meet and marry men just like their dad. Did you, dear victim of incest or child sexual abuse have the good fortune to meet a really good man, one who understands that women deserve the same love and respect that men do. I sure hope so. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">Purchase a signed, printed copy or electronic copy for all e-readers directly from the author's website</a></i></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><b><i>Have you read <a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank">"No Tears for my Father",</a> a true story of incest, yet? Click the title to purchase a signed, printed copy today directly from the author herself. You will also find the electronic version for all e-readers, including Kindle, on the <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">author's website</a>, where you can also read chapters from the upcoming <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/category/sequel" target="_blank">SEQUEL</a> to her book which covers the 20 - 25 years of recovery and finding herself through love. </i></b></span></span><br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-45538724806991269782014-04-18T19:01:00.000-07:002014-04-18T19:01:21.039-07:00WHAT DO #INCEST VICTIMS EXPECT TO READ IN A SEQUEL to a TRUE STORY of #INCEST?At the request of readers and fans of my book, <b><i><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></i></b>, I am currently writing a<b><i><a href="http://vigaboland.com/category/sequel/" target="_blank"> SEQUEL</a></i></b> to my true story of incest. In a previous post here, I invited subscribers to this blog to subscribe to that sequel as well. It's FREE, and you can read as I write because, at least for a while, I'm posting the story chapter by chapter.<br />
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But as I work my way through it, I have to ask myself what do my readers want to know? If they are simply interested in knowing how I recovered from 12-13 years of incest at the hands of my biological father, "got over it" as it were and moved on to have a productive life after incest, then I am writing what they want to read. It's a memoir of my married life following my exit from a despicable situation.<br />
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But if the person who reaches for this sequel is looking for a book on healing, therapy for their own pain, then my Sequel, as yet un-named, may fail to satisfy their need. You see, for some reason I cannot explain even to myself, once I walked away from my father it was like I erected a wall between me and my past. And once on this side of that wall, I stopped letting the past rule my present. Where I found that strength, I don't know but perhaps it's rooted in the fact that it took so much strength not to buckle, commit suicide, resort to drugs or booze while I was being abused, that once I was away from it, I had a arsenal of strength to carry me through whatever life might throw my way. You see, as far as I was concerned, I'd been through the worst already ... and I'd survived.<br />
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On top of that, I now had a whole new world to discover, a world that had been denied me. I was naive. I'd never dated. I'd been locked in a prison. But my jailor had let me go, not easily, and not without trauma and drama, but I was out of there and ready to taste a freedom I'd never known. Perhaps by focussing on the good that was to come instead of forever slipping into the very bad of the past, by thinking of the positives instead of the negatives, therapy and healing came quietly, subtly, and I never really knew it was happening.<br />
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Now granted, as I've said many times, I got lucky: I found a really good man and slowly but surely started to trust again. As my trust and love for him grew, and I realized he wasn't going to dictate my every thought and action or restrict me in any way from doing whatever I wanted to, bit by bit my confidence in, and respect for myself flourished. I began to like myself again, even love myself again, and as Whitney Houston once sang:<i> "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all", </i>and the most important love if one is to heal from childhood sexual abuse.<br />
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Coupled with all that is something else I'm realizing as I write this sequel: while I hated myself for not standing up to my father for all those years, unlike so many victims of incest, I never really blamed myself for what happened. Maybe that's because I was 11 and not 2 or 3 when my father started abusing me. At 11, as horrifying as what he was doing to me was, somehow I knew this wasn't my fault. I never saw myself as the reason for the abuse; I didn't invite him in: he forced himself on me. How was I to blame? I fought him for months but there's only so much mental and physical abuse one can take before you finally give in. It's self-preservation. And somewhere inside the recesses of my mind, I made the logical and intelligent decision that regardless of what anyone might think, what happened was NOT MY FAULT!<br />
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I truly believe that realization, and the acceptance of it, is tantamount to recovery. Once we stop blaming ourselves for what happened, once we put the blame squarely on the abuser, we can finally begin to heal. So when my Sequel is ready, if you, as a victim of childhood sexual abuse want to read it in the hope that somewhere in there you will find a means, a pathway or guidelines to your own recovery, you most likely won't find it. Instead, if you are still blaming yourself, asking why me, and waiting for an apology from your abuser or for justice be done in the law courts, my SEQUEL will be of little use or interest to you.<br />
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If, on your other hand you want and need to believe that you CAN survive the memories and flashbacks of incest (and you will indeed see me battling them in this sequel) you will get that from this second book. You will also come away knowing it is possible to learn to trust and love yourself and others again, for, if you survived the actual abuse, you can survive the recovery from it too. Don't think "can't" or "won't". You survived the war. You can survive the aftermath too by believing you can do it.Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-24770522272250740262014-02-24T14:21:00.000-08:002014-02-24T14:21:42.584-08:00The SEQUEL to #NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER offered #FREE to SUBSCRIBERS to the Author's Blog!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank">Purchase a signed, printed copy OR the eBook version for all e-readers of NO TEARS FOR MY FATHERdirectly from the author's website. Support indie writers trying to increase awareness of an important subject.</a></i></b> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">If you’ve read <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></i></b> and wondered what life was like for me, after leaving home and my abuser of 13 years, then subscribe to the RSS for the blog on my personal author's website now!</span></div>
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Why?</div>
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Because I have decided to <b>BLOG my SEQUEL</b>, temporarily titled: <b><i>VIGALAND: LIFE AFTER INCEST!</i></b></div>
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Why am I doing it this way instead of simply writing and publishing another book? Well, for one thing, self-publishing is expensive, especially if an author doesn’t know how many to have printed for the first run. Now I’d love to think that I’ll sell as many copies of the sequel as I did of the original book, but I’m going to be cautious and test your interest first.</div>
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Readers who subscribe to this RSS will be my “testers”, the ones who hopefully will tell me how I’m doing, by leaving me comments, feedback, chapter by chapter. It’s a novel, as in "new" approach, to writing a book, but the beauty of doing it this way, for you, the reader, is it’s <b><span style="color: red;">FREE</span></b>!</div>
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And for me, it’s motivation to keep writing this sequel. With subscribers, I have no excuses for not adding a chapter every few days. And the more of you who subscribe, the more motivated I will be! So subscribe today and get your friends to subscribe. Just fill in the form provided below or click on the RSS symbol on the bottom right of the homepage of <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">MY WEBSITE</a></i></b></div>
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Okay, that’s it for this post. I’ll be looking for your subscriptions for the next week or so, and then I’ll start posting the chapters of <b><i>VIGALAND: LIFE AFTER INCEST</i></b> bit by bit. </div>
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-58754883136971192792014-02-21T19:06:00.001-08:002014-02-21T19:07:59.020-08:00OBSESSED WITH #INCEST and a #BOOK TRAILER for #NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER<center>
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<b><i>Watch a Book Trailer for NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</i></b></center>
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Recently, someone on Facebook asked a question along the lines of this: <i>"How was it for you after you finally got away from your abuser? How did you manage?" </i><br />
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I was hesitant to answer this at first because of all the pain and suffering I read of in my own private and other abuse groups, the pain that questions like this can stir up again for so many. After all these years, I'm no longer suffering like they are. When I read their pain, I almost feel I should apologize for not suffering!<br />
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The other thing that held me back from answering is what I'm seeing daily on Facebook: victims & group moderators spending hours and hours posting horrid stories of child sexual abuse, incest, pedophilia etc. I know many post these articles to keep spreading awareness, but the way Facebook works, I'm not sure those posts are being seen by anyone but other victims and I'm not convinced that's a good thing for the victims. It keeps us all obsessed with incest and child sexual abuse and we are not the ones who need to know about it: we already do!<br />
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As I thought through how to answer, fact is, of course I suffered, not just during the 13 years of abuse but for many years after. I just never told anyone about it for 45 years. Yes, I had flashbacks ... daily! And yes, I wanted to scream and sometimes cried uncontrollably over the slightest things. And the nightmares continued for many years. And yet, I never had therapy, and didn't resort to drugs or booze. So what's with me? Am I some kind of freak?<br />
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I never turned to those things because I knew that after the effects wore off, the pain would still be there. The memories would still be there. Booze and drugs would just keep me running from the truth, keep me from facing it. But only by facing it, by acknowledging it happened, telling myself over and over that what happened wasn't my fault and accepting that I could never change the past, could I put the past to rest and get on with my life.<br />
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The only answer I had to that Facebook question, was the paragraph above, along with this: by getting away from my abuser at last, while I wasn't free .. yet ... of the memories, I was free of the abuser and his dominance over every decision, every action in my life. I was free to decide and act as I wished, not as he told me to. I just had to decide and act and not be afraid to do both.<br />
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Furthermore, my abuser had stolen 13 years of my life, 13 years so important to any girl or boy: their teenage years. He had kept me imprisoned, mentally and physically. Now, away from him at last, I had so much catching up to do, so much world to see, so much life to experience, and something inside me said: <i>"This is your new world. Embrace it!"</i> And embrace it, I did! I was so busy embracing it, I was like a child let loose in a candy shop after never having had candy. I didn't have time or inclination to dwell on, or obsess over the abuse. And that is how I managed; that is how I healed after incest.<br />
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At the request of many who have read my book,<b><i><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"> NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></i></b>, I am now writing a sequel. This is hard to write, much harder than I thought it would be. On the one hand I find myself wondering if readers are expecting to see me wallowing in despair and pain as I pulled my life together. I worry that if I don't give them that, they might think then it all mustn't have been that bad, and they would be wrong for thinking that. On the other hand, will readers, especially other victims who still can't see a light at the end of the tunnel, understand that because I found strength in the love of a good man who showed me not all men are like my father and gave me the freedom to be, and become who I am today, that it is possible to "get over it" to a certain degree, if not fully, then at least to the point that I'm no longer obsessed with it and feel the need to talk about it daily. Will they say, "Well it's alright for you! You got lucky. You got a good guy. I don't think I ever will...!"<br />
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I certainly hope that won't be the case, but I'm committed now to writing that sequel. I don't know how long it will take but I'm planning to share it with the world in a different way, one that won't cost anyone a penny to read. There will be nothing to buy, not even an eBook! To find out how I plan to do that, you will need to sign up for the <b><i>RANT, RAVE & REVEL BLOG</i></b> on my website. You'll find the place to do that right on my <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">HOME PAGE</a><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>where you can also purchase a signed, printed copy or an electronic version for all e-readers of<b style="font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a>. </b><br />
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<b style="font-style: italic;">And if you haven't yet seen it, I hope you'll watch the BOOK TRAILER for "No Tears for my Father" at the top of this blog post. It's a bit creepy, as someone said, but then, incest is creepy!</b><br />
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<br />Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-55937077149160371752014-01-08T13:47:00.000-08:002014-01-08T13:47:38.033-08:00IS JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF #INCEST and CHILD #SEXUAL ABUSE POSSIBLE?Some time ago, I came across an incredibly informative op-ed by <b><a href="http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/361436" target="_blank">Ruth Hull, on Digital Journal</a></b>. Ruth began her article with these words hit me like a brick in the face:<br />
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She expanded on this by adding:<br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">Wyatt Garcia was born in April 2009. Nine months later, he was shot and killed by his father, who then turned the gun on himself. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, helvetica; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px;">It might have turned out differently — if a family-court judge had listened to Wyatt’s mother."</span></i><br />
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Now I'm not going to copy and paste Ruth's entire article here because I'm hoping you'll go over and read it yourself. If you are a victim of incest contemplating taking your abuser to court, or a parent desperate to get justice for your child who has been sexually abused by your partner or other family member, you MUST read Ruth's well-researched article and watch the videos she has included with her op-ed. I was floored, and I think you will be too. What I learned about the court system, at least in the US, and I have no reason to think it's different elsewhere, was horrifying.<br />
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According to <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SupportJudgeDeannSalcido" target="_blank">Judge Deann Salcido (support her efforts on Facebook!)</a>, </b>as a young judge she was trained, along with other judges, to be suspicious, very suspicious of women claiming abuse of any kind during a divorce. This attitude was based on the possibility that the woman ... and it was generally always aimed at the female in the divorce case, might just be being vindictive or angry because her husband or partner has moved on with someone else etc. Judge Deann followed this mantra to the letter and then says she made a terrible mistake. In one divorce case where the mother, Joyce Murphy, claimed the father was sexually abusing their daughter, she ruled against the mother and gave custody to the father, Bud Parsons. Parsons was later convicted for sexually molesting two young teenaged girls, friends of his daughter! Judge Deann never forgave herself for the mistake she made and has since, become a "whistle-blower" about what really goes on in the courts. If you don't go over and read Ruth Hull's article, at least watch this video where Judge Deann tells us about this:<br />
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Ever since I watched this, I've wanted to share this with my subscribers and all who care about child sexual abuse. It won't make them happy. It won't make them less bitter about what they have endured or are enduring in the courts. In fact, it'll probably make them twice as angry when they see how the system is working against them. But it might help them understand why and how this is happening.<br />
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I hear time and time again in my private Facebook group for incest survivors how the courts are failing and have failed victims of child sexual abuse and the parents trying to get some justice for them. They share how the abusers are getting away with the abuse, how difficult it is to be believed when they do go to the police, and even if they do manage to take the case to court, the sentences are so light as to be ridiculous and the victims continue to live in fear of the day the abuser is back on the streets and can get to them. And in the meantime, scores of sexually abused children will spend years, decades, trying to cope with the horrific memories, their shame, their insecurities, their feelings of worthlessness, of being dirty, of being the ones to blame! What kind of justice is this?!<br />
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When and if you watch this video, and I hope you do, you will learn more that is even more shocking regarding how CPS and probably most child protective services in all countries are failing the abused children when they investigate the cases in the first place because of their own fears of being sued. Other issues involved are the almighty dollar, the costs involved in removing children from abusive homes and placing them in foster care. All of it, is more important than the minds, hearts and souls of the children being abused. It breaks my heart to hear this. I'm sure you'll feel likewise.<br />
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I welcome your comments, your thoughts, your indignation, and your own stories of how the courts have failed you or someone you know. Just as I dared in my book,<b><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank"> NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></b>, to speak my own truth about incest because silence is deadly, people like Judge Deann Salcido are speaking out from under. She's taken a risk, as we all do, when we blow the whistle on the real criminals in our society. She's one gutsy lady and I'm sure she's made lots of enemies and perhaps even put herself in danger. But when you believe in doing what's right, you do it. I hope you'll <b><i><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SupportJudgeDeannSalcido" target="_blank">"LIKE" her Facebook page</a></i></b>. If you're reading this, it's most likely because YOU need people like her. She's working for YOU.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">PLEASE NOTE</span></b>: if you are wanting a signed, printed copy of my book,<b><a href="http://www.notearsformyfather.com/" target="_blank"> NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></b>, please use the <a href="http://vigaboland.com/contact-us/" target="_blank"><b>CONTACT PAGE</b> <b>on my website</b></a> as we are having a temporary problem with the e-commerce processing on the site. This is the only place online to purchase the <b>printed book</b>. <b>e-Book versions</b> are available from the following online distributors:<br />
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<b><i><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/377698" target="_blank">SMASHWORDS</a></i></b>, <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-Tears-Father-Viga-Boland-ebook/dp/B00H2ZK754/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1389217148&sr=1-1&keywords=no+tears+for+my+father" target="_blank">AMAZON</a></i></b>, <b><i><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/no-tears-for-my-father/id757654915?mt=11" target="_blank">iTUNES</a></i></b>, <b><i><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no-tears-for-my-father-viga-boland/1117474485?ean=2940045437011" target="_blank">BARNES & NOBLE</a></i></b> , <b><i><a href="https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/viga-boland/no-tears-for-my-father/_/R-400000000000001163546" target="_blank">SONY eBook Store</a></i></b>, as well as my <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">personal website</a></i></b>.<br />
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<b>NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</b> is also available at these Ontario Libraries: HAMILTON, CAMBRIDGE, MISSISSAUGA, GRAND VALLEY and TORONTO.<br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-59142576587194017782013-11-23T10:38:00.001-08:002013-11-23T10:38:51.388-08:00HOW MUCH GRAPHIC DETAIL SHOULD ONE INCLUDE IN A BOOK ON #CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE?<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I came across a very interesting blog post this morning that I want to share with you all. You can read it here:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have very strong feelings about this excellent post and the ideas presented. Because of that, I left a long comment on it. Here's what I wrote:</span><br />
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“I really liked your blog post Marjorie. I felt the points you raised were very important and I left a long comment on the post. Hope you don't mind. I'd like to share my comment here too in case others don't read what I wrote: "The points you've raised here are very important. This is something I had to decide when I was writing my book, NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER: how graphic should my book be? In the end, I found I couldn't write it any other way that to tell how it happened, what he said to me, how he coached me, led me to do what he wanted, and what he actually did. I saw no point in even writing the book without these details. Otherwise, what was the purpose of writing it? I wanted to enlighten others to how a predator, in this case my own father, gets his way. I wanted readers to see his thinking, the psychology, the motivation behind his actions and his ability to manipulate a defenseless child, his own child. How else to do that than by actually giving details? But as you suggest, it was necessary to put a 'trigger warning' on the book and that's what I did.<br />
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I have been criticized by only one other writer, herself a victim, for providing, what she called "the guts and gore" in my story. She said victims don't need those details, that I should have focused on recovery and healing. Well I'm not a therapist and how I healed was not the focus of my story. Mine was just that: my story ... take it or leave it ... but it was honest and real. If I wanted to write a book on healing, I would have. But I don't feel qualified to do that. And besides, there are many wonderful books out there for that purpose. I even addressed this in one of my book talks where some of my readers, themselves victims, said I'd done the right thing as it helped them relate even better and helped them realize they were not alone when they heard what he actually said and did to me.<br />
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Bottom line: 2 sides to this argument and you are so right: write the story as YOU need to and if it's graphic, put in a warning and let the reader decide if they can handle it. As for the others, get your heads out of the sand folks. This is the real world and this is happening in a home near you!”</div>
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We actually videoed segments of the book talk I referred to above where other victims gave their views on the graphic detail in my book. If you'd like to hear what they said, watch this video:<br />
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So now, I'd love your feedback on my response and on Marjorie's original blogpost on her LAMPLIGHTER MOVEMENT site. Was <b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank">NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></i></b> too graphic? Should graphic details be spared in books on child sexual abuse? Waiting to hear from you: what do you think? And by the way, you can download a <b><span style="color: red;">FREE SAMPLE</span></b> of my book at both <b><i><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/377698" target="_blank">SMASHWORDS </a></i></b>and <b><i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18273968-no-tears-for-my-father" target="_blank">GOODREADS</a></i></b>. </center>
Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-79194708970180465462013-11-06T16:58:00.000-08:002013-11-06T16:58:55.401-08:00Book Review: BEYOND THE TEARS by Lynn C. Tolson: #incest <br />
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My first encounter with Lynn C Tolson was actually on Facebook. As I became involved in groups and pages about childhood sexual abuse, Lynn's name kept popping up everywhere. Who was this woman? My research revealed she was an author, herself once a victim of sexual abuse, and currently a social worker and speaker who gives a great deal of her time and self to helping other victims, both on and offline. I got the impression she was well-known and I felt dwarfed by her achievements. But at that point, she was still just a name with a nice Facebook photo. </div>
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Now, having read Lynn's book, if it were possible, the one thing I'd love to do is meet her in person. I want to meet this woman who at the opening of her book was on her way to commit suicide. She'd had it! She couldn't take any more. She hauled into a motel, swallowed all the pills she could find and waited for death to come. But life wasn't done with her yet because she had a mission to fulfill: to heal from her own devastating and lonely past; to conquer her drug-addicted lifestyle; to rid herself of an older husband who was using her low self-esteem to victimize her further, and ultimately to share her path to recovery with the thousands of other victims out there who might also think that taking their own lives is the only solution. Thank heaven Lynn's attempt to end it all failed or Beyond the Tears wouldn't have been written. </div>
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The one thing that stood out for me as I got further and further into Lynn's story of sexual abuse by both her schizophrenic biological father, and later, by her older brother, was her extreme isolation, even as a young child, in a family of several members. Like all victims of sexual abuse, she couldn't bring herself to tell her own mother of the abuse. Why? Because her mother was too delicate, too fragile. So to save her mother from heartache, she let her own heart ache with her ugly secret. Intimidated by her step-father, confused by her own father, ignored by her mother and scorned and berated by her abusive brother, Lynn wandered through her teens dulling her pain on street drugs. She watched a soul-mate die from an overdose and still couldn't help herself. After compounding the mess of her life by marrying a mentally and verbally abusive husband, suicide seemed the only out till fate stepped in. Lynn met Karen and with love, caring and wise counsel, Karen got Lynn to open up and tell all.</div>
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As all abuse victims come to realiize sooner or later, healing begins in finally telling someone, but it is journalling, writing, that ultimately closes the wounds. Karen encouraged Lynn to do that. Lynn took another 20 years before putting pen to paper and further heal, but it is her readers, especially those who are victims of childhood sexual abuse who benefit from her writing. Lynn not only shares her life with us in an easy to read, semi-fictional style, but she peppers her story with insights and reflections on the personalities of her family and how they contributed to her isolation, an isolation I sense she still feels today but is able to live with. Every so often, she throws in some touching poetry that is short and poignant. And by sharing Karen's words of counsel and wisdom with us, Lynn offers the reader concepts that truly help one heal. </div>
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If there's one thing I love about the internet and social networking sites like Facebook, it's that it clarifies perceptions we form of people when we only meet them in print, as in their blogs, poems or books. Read their words and you form a picture of them. Look at their photos and we see what the words don't show. Listen to their voices, as I did recently in a blog talk show with Lynn and the image sharpens. Watch a video (Lynn has one on her own blog site at <a data-mce-href="http://beyondthetears.blogspot.ca/" href="http://beyondthetears.blogspot.ca/" style="color: #167efb;" target="_blank">http://beyondthetears.blogspot.ca</a>, and you suddenly know a lot more about this person who till now was just a name on a book.</div>
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Getting to know Lynn C Tolson begins with reading BEYOND THE TEARS, but don't stop there! Visit her blog, read her posts, check out her other reviews and videos at Goodreads, and come to know this strong woman who was once a victim of child sexual abuse but is today a survivor and thriver. As Karen told her: "When you lose your identity as a victim, you gain an identity as a survivor". BEYOND THE TEARS is a guide to doing just that. </div>
Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-7665741788794309412013-10-28T18:31:00.001-07:002013-10-28T18:44:59.332-07:00HALLOWE'EN: NOT MY FAVOURITE NIGHT OF THE YEAR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not the greatest fan of Hallowe'en. Don't know why. I find nothing particularly wonderful about seeing horrible masks, ghouls, freaks, cobwebs on trees and houses and all the other things that scare children ... and adults too for that matter.<br />
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Maybe it's because of my past, of living with someone of whom I was so frightened that I was too scared to go to bed at night. I still hear doors opening when everyone was supposed to be asleep. I see the thin shaft of light coming into my room and the dark, looming figure of a man ... my father ... carefully closing the door behind him and feeling his way in the dark over to my bed...<br />
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My monster was alive, real. He put on a different mask when friends were around. He was Mr. Friendly, affable, personable. He cared about his wife and child. But he didn't wait for or need Hallowe'en to terrify me. He just did.<br />
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Sorry if I don't get into the spirit. Oh I still give out the candies and smile at the sweet little princesses and angels who come to my door shyly saying "Trick or Treat". And I even write poems for them, and in my heart hope that the only monsters and ugly people they ever see in their lives are the other kids running around the streets in costumes on October 31st.<br />
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Viga Boland, NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER: a true story of incest<br />
http://www.vigaboland.comVigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3863985539323214850.post-35143364413635676802013-10-20T16:41:00.000-07:002013-10-20T16:41:33.068-07:00FLASHBACKS! A UNWANTED NECESSARY EVIL RESULTING FROM #CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE AND #INCESTOne of the most devastating after effects of childhood sexual abuse and incest is the FLASHBACKS. For years, the victim may not have them. Then suddenly, they may smell something and it sets off a panic somewhere inside. Or they may hear a bit of music that triggers a memory of something horrid, unpleasant, but they're not sure what's happening. All they know is the memory hurts. It begins hurtling around their minds and try as they may, they can't get it to stop. It feels like it's consuming their minds. It's overwhelming, like screaming in the brain. And once the flashbacks start, it seems to take less and less to trigger them and the vicious memories come harder, faster, deeper every time they strike. What is going on? <div>
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According to Beverly Engel, author of <b><i>"The Right to Innocence"</i></b>, as awful as flashbacks are, they tell you something very important about yourself. You are evolving; you are changing, growing emotionally even if you don't believe it. And as much as you despise how it makes you feel, like you were going insane, it's what I call, a necessary evil to recovery and healing. To repeat what I so often say in my private group at Facebook: <b>"No pain, no gain"</b>. The longer you avoid facing the truth about your past and what happened, the longer you are going to suffer. As Beverly says:</div>
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<i><span style="color: blue;">“You cannot make yourself have a flashback, nor will you have one unless you are emotionally ready to remember something. Once remembered, the memory can help you to face more of the truth. You can then express your pent-up feelings about the memory and continue on your path to recovery. Think of the flashback as a clue to the next piece of work. No matter how painful, try to view it as a positive indication that you are now ready and willing to remember.”</span></i><span style="color: #666666;"> </span><em style="color: #666666;"><strong>The Right to Innocence by Beverly Engel</strong></em></div>
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So many readers of my book,<b><i><a href="http://www.vigaboland.com/" target="_blank"> NO TEARS FOR MY FATHER</a></i></b>, have asked me how I got over it. How come I'm so "together" today. Don't I have flashbacks? Yes, I do. Every day in fact. But the intensity isn't even remotely close to what it was 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. It's more like the sudden storm that terrified me as a child but instead of running and hiding, I applaud how far I've come: it doesn't frighten me any more. Now it's just a reminder that I am free, no longer a prisoner of my past.<br />
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Vigabohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07759933133939472793noreply@blogger.com9