October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

"Be the living Expression of God's kindness, in your face, your eyes, your smile,

your greeting. Give not only your care but your heart."

Mother Teresa

In loving memory of Karen Short

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so I wanted to offer my support to breast cancer survivors and those battling this disease every year. According to " breastcancer.org, "Every three minutes a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer..."

In addition, we know the faces of those coping with this disease, they are our sisters, friends, aunts, mom's, co-workers, teachers, and grocery store clerks,...

I lost a dear friend one year, only to watch my mother begin her own terrifying battle with the same illness the following year. The fact that I have my mother here today is the result of the time and effort of someone's volunteer work and/or donation.

Bloggers have a real opportunity to help shine light on the web sites and campaigns that help raise money for research and support of Breast Cancer Awareness Campaigns.

The more money these campaigns raise, the more lives we help save through public awareness. The National Cancer Institute estimated "178,480 female and 2,030 male cases of breast cancer in the United States in the year 2007 in addition to 40,460 female and 450 male deaths" from the illness throughout the year.

I've included a link to breastcancer.org's Virtual Tea Party in addition to Carol Sutton's site where I copied this graphic and the graphic in my sidebar. Thank you Carol, and breastcancer.org for your information rich as well as compassionate sites.

Please be sure and visit breastcancer.org and click on the link to the Virtual Tea Party for more information on how to offer your support or attend the Virtual Tea Party which will be held on October 26th at 3;00 PM. (ET)

For the pink ribbon buttons and other breast cancer web clip art, check out Pink Ribbons by Carol Sutton which are used for address labels, brochures, in addition to web graphics, and images-

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to reading more posts in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.

The above image was donated to Carol Sutton's site, here are Carol's words by the image:

"Pam Sawyer, herself a survivor, has made this framed soft edge pinkribbon with a single rose and and unsual top. Since January 25, 2003. Lovely ! {22k}Thank you Pam.Pam"

This was my favorite ribbon, but there are more at Pam's address, along with a place where you can leave a donation to her site.

National Cancer institute quoted in italics

Breastcancer.org quoted in italics

Bloggers Unite To Stop Abuse

Aeschylus

"And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."

I 've teamed up with a group of bloggers on blog catalog today who are blogging to stop abuse.

Everyday we read the horrifying details of some form of abuse in the newspaper. Whether the article is about the victim or the perpetrator it's origin is always the same, the plot always familiar, and the results life altering. By blogging together in an effort to stop abuse, we're in fact saying no more abuse, no way, not on our watch!


It's horrifying to read that some 40 million children are subject to abuse this year alone, and that many of that number, will never speak of it. Their perpetrators will move on and the world will keep turning in much the same way, except in the eyes of the child involved. For them, their nightmarish existence will continue somewhere in the back of their mind, for the rest of their lives. The victim of abuse retreats into a secret silent world of introspection, often developing an inappropriate inner dialogue of distorted ideas about themselves and the world around them.


Anyone whose experienced abuse has endured an unbreathable pain, that most of us can't begin to understand.
The child abuse victims today are our future tomorrow, and will join a society of bankers, lawyers, doctors, mothers, fathers, etc...

The heartbreaking number of combined abuse statistics has the semblance of a battleground lost to a powerful enemy. That is to say, the combined statistics are emotionally disturbing, to overwhelming a concept to comprehend. Nevertheless, if we work together educating ourselves and others on what we can do as a society to prevent abuse, then we have the framework for a battle won.

When I think of the wasted years and lives of just the few people I know who have suffered from abuse it's horrifying. We must be careful not desensitize ourselves or worse yet, develop an attitude of indifference to the way we think about abuse.

Indifference, to me, is the most intolerable of emotions, the likes of which will rear its ugly head and devour us if we're not careful. What I mean is, what we're indifferent about will often come back to haunt us in the most poetic sense of the word.

When we see signs of abuse or something wrong, we must trust our instincts and do something about what we're feeling or thinking. When we accept a more popular view rather than follow our own instincts, we lose the capacity to be honest with ourselves and others. This attitude breeds tolerance for certain behaviors that at one time, we might have deemed unacceptable.

Here is the link to a post I wrote on an incident I witnessed involving child abuse. I feel I was guilty of the very thing I'm protesting here.

Because, the event happened in a public area, I questioned my ability to judge whether it was considered abuse. Then to my astonishment I saw there wasn't anyone else reacting either to a three year old child being slapped across the face! (Not even the security guard in the waiting area.)

In addition, others in the waiting room, including the perpetrator, looked at me as if they wished to say, " Mind your own business." I felt like saying, "Forgive me, but your child is screaming and you're more worried about me staring at you!"

Well there you have it, my contribution to and public support of a social community obviously dedicated to the "power of the pen." A virtue I admire and am honored to have been a part.

Please feel free to check out the link to my post "Spanking Where Do You Draw The Line?" and please understand this post is not against parents spanking their children. What the post is meant to suggest is the lack of this Mother's ability to draw the line, between what is spanking and what is abuse.