about charm...
and why it's needed

CHARM was born in 2016 with the sole intention to honor survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

CHARM

Children Healing as Adults Recovering from Molestation strives to recognize the valor of those of us who carry this story.

Despite the wounds and the trauma that we have endured it is possible to lead a charmed life.

thoughts to heal...
to soothe... to inspire

”when somebody robs you of your innocence…
whether it’s at 7 or 16 you don’t have dominion over your own body
it leaves you with a lifelong anxiety that always lingers in some form
and that to me is the greatest crime of sexual assault”

Padma Lakshmi

“fear does not prevent death
it prevents life”

Naguib Mahfouz

“tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and wonderful life?”

Mary Oliver

“our deepest fears are like dragons, guarding our deepest treasures”

Rilke

“trauma is like a thief
the younger you are when it starts and the longer it went on
the more memory will be taken from you”

Ray Donovan movie

“you will not get over what happened to you but you will reach the other side of it”

Amy Jo Burns
Cinderland

“we are not here to fit in, be well balanced or provide examples for others.
we are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange.
perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little chunky, clunky selves to the great mosaic of being as the gods intended.
we are here to become more and more ourselves”

Jim Hollis

“the words of our enemies aren’t as awful as the silence of our friends”

Martin Luther King



“sensitive suffer more, but they love more and dream more”

Augusto Cury

“i am bent, but not broken. i am scarred, but not disfigured. i am sad, but not hopeless. i am tired, but not powerless. i am angry, but not bitter”

Unknown

“i can be changed by what happens to me, but i refuse to be reduced by it”

Maya Angelou

“when i loved myself enough, i began leaving whatever wasn’t healthy.
this meant people, jobs, my own beliefs and habits—anything that kept me small.
my judgement called it disloyal.
now i see it as self-loving”

Kim McMillen

“you can recognize survivors of abuse by their courage.
when silence is so very inviting, they step forward and share their truth so others know they aren’t alone”

Jeanne McElvaney
”Healing Insights: Effects of Abuse for Adults Abused as Children”

“it is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. all the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. he appeals to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil.
the victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain.
the victim demands action, engagement and remembering”

Judith Lewis Herman

“there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”

Maya Angelou

“goods are damaged often through no fault of their own”

Sophia Shalmiyev
”Mother Winter”

“daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others”

Brené Brown

“never let the sadness of your past and the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present”

Anonymous

“if you ever find yourself in the wrong story, LEAVE”

Paulo Coelho

“stay away from negative people, they have a problem for every solution”

Albert Einstein

“if your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete”

Jack Kornfield

“you either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story & hustle for your worthiness”

Brene Brown

“your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your own understanding”

Khalil Gibran

“we’re all locked into the drum beat of our history but eventually you have to drown out that tune with your own voice”

Sally Field
”In Pieces”

“we delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty”

Maya Angelou

“you are braver then you believe,
stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think”

Christopher Robin

"an arrow can only be shot by pulling it backwards
so when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it is going to launch you into something great
so just focus and keep aiming"

Paulo Coelho

"our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful parts of ourselves"

David Richo

"as i started to be honest about my past, i witnessed a truer, stronger version of myself come to life, a young woman no longer petrified about speaking out about abuse"

Amy Jo Burns
 

"every 8 minutes 1 in 4 girls or 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused in the U.S.

60 million adult survivors but only 1 in 9 reports it

because no one wants to talk about it"

from the movie Beauty Mark

"it's possible" said pride
"it's risky" said experience
"it's pointless" said reason
"give it a try" whispered the heart

Unknown  

"if you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those
you meet"

Fred Rogers

"our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

MLK

"if you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment"

Carlos Santana

"i am stronger than i am broken"

 Roxane Gay

"the world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper"

W.B. Yeats

"loving ourselves through the process of owning our story is the bravest thing we'll ever do"

Brene Brown

"the mind is everything: what you think you become"

Buddha       

"the spiritual path is simply the journey of living our lives.
everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it"

Marianne Williamson

"you just can't beat the person who never gives up"

Babe Ruth

"just like a muscle needs to tear to grow stronger, sometimes we need to wade into our own darkness to find a brighter light"

Lori Deschene

"find what brings you joy and go there"

Jan Phillips

"the only thing i know is this...i am full of wounds and still standing on my feet"

Niko Kazantzakis

"light tomorrow with today"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"you can search the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found. 
you yourself deserve your love and affection"

Buddha

"the wound is the place where the Light enters you"

Rumi

"what lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us"

Henry David Thoreau

"courage is only an accumulation of small steps"

George Konrad

"time discovers truth.  time heals what reason cannot"

Seneca the Younger

"even if you're on the right track you'll get run over if you just sit there"

Will Rogers

"i vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free"

Thich Nhat Hanh

"a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming circumstances"

Christopher Reeve

"when it is dark enough you can see the stars"

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"if we share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding shame can't survive"

Brené Brown

"our past only asks us to remember so our wounds can be healed"

Sarah Ban Breathnach

"i am not a product of my circumstances, i am a product of my decisions"

Stephen Covey

find more inspiration here