1. More compassion for myself and others.

2. I'm not grateful that this is a part of my life. I would have loved to have had a loving family. But it is what it is, and I'm doing the best I can to heal and help others.

a gift was my husband and the support he has given me to get through it and I suppose the difficulty of getting through this area has made our relationship stronger.

i think grateful is the wrong word but because of it I am who I am and I am getting a proffesional at sorting out my rubbish and would not cause a fraction the pain that i have experienced.

Sometimes when you look some things just are beautiful.

sometimes i feel bad posting because i haven't experienced things that are as horriffic as most here...i'm sorry if any of my responses seem insensitive or uncaring...

i think the gift i was given is appreciation for what others have to endure and how strong they are despite their past experiences. it's made me more sensitive and responsive to other's feelings and needs.

i'm able to understand other people better and have become more intune with my emotion's and why i might be feeling them. it's made me stronger, i've learned/learning to stand up for myself more and to be proud of who i am and not ashamed. i'm able to look back and be like i got through something really hard and i can handle anything that is thrown at me.

I am so new to this that I haven't discovered any gifts yet, unless it's how caring and compassionate total strangers can be. Also, the compassion of my husband and best friend amaze me at times. I am closer to both for having confided in them that I was before I did.

I haven't found anyway to be grateful that this is my life path.

My gifts, yes I do believe that I have received gifts, to balance the darkness so to speak. When I was abused as a young child I would leave my body and astral travel, communicate with my guardians, totems and guides. Part of my gift is that I can still astral travel and am very perceptive to metaphysical things. I am a healer, of myself and others. I always stick up for and advocate for the underdog. I am deaf, can hear a wee bit with my hearing aid in...but this hasn't stopped me from going after what I want in life, I am strong, a survivor. As a child and teen, I wanted to die...as I healed and found peace, I began to really live. I am so in tune with mother earth and animals and plants. I resonate well with the elderly and children, those who are not caught up in the status quo mundane lifestyle. I am an artist, I carve cedar women's ceremonial masks, my passion and creativity I believe also reflect the spirit warrior of my heart. I am very emotionally based, sensitive, and abit of a social hermit. My kids keep me moving on days when I just don't wanna move! I regret nothing in my life, I love myself and going through everything I have has made "me". I no longer blame myself or think that I must have been really bad in my last life to have to work through all this sexual abuse karma....I am coming to a place of quiet acceptance, it happened to me and it was horrific, but it no longer defines me.

When I started having flashbacks of my abuse I realised I was psychic! Along with the memories/flashbacks of the abuse came the memories of the psychic things I did to try and fight against it. In all of the hard times I have been through my gift comes back and I can use it to help myself and others. I am trying to learn to not be scared of it as it is a very powerful good thing. I think previously I had linked it with the abuse emotionally. The great thing is that with this gift comes a lot of comfort and it really helps me to heal.

I've found strength that I did not know I had. I am grateful to have suffered because it has given me understanding and grace. Empathy comes better from one who has felt pain. You know, the old whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger thing....
I am still a work in progress though and do not know my path yet....

My path, is a wandering one that shall never end, the destination is not the focus. I am feeling good right now, and can embrace it all with motherly compassion and great peace.....then I have other days - when I will most likely post about the scarring, the terror, the impact, the losses, and hopefully link back into healing!