By Sharon Cuff

The national celebration of mothers comes each May, eliciting feelings of love and appreciation. Greeting card companies, florists and phone companies have prospered well because of this day of maternal honor.

What happens to the children who were abused by their mothers? As they grow, they are overburdened by the guilt and shame that is heaped on their backs by the expectation and demand to honor the mother they don't even like.

by Rose-Marie Chaperon

Last October while volunteering at a battered woman shelter in Missouri, I met a young lady who was a recent volunteer in an orphanage in Haiti, Due to privacy reasons; I will refer to her as Krystal. The goal of my visit to the shelter was to do a presentation on proper interviewing etiquette; instead I ended up making a friend.

As most people know, a women's shelter is a place of temporary refuge and support for women escaping violent or abusive situations, such as rape, and domestic violence. Having the ability to leave a situation of violence is valuable for those who are under attack because such situations frequently involve an imbalance of power that limits the victim's financial options. The most dangerous time for a domestic violence sufferer is on the point of exit. If their partner catches them on their exit then they are at the most risk of being seriously injured or killed.

by Grace O'Malley


"No one is willing to acknowledge a fault in himself when a more agreeable motive can be found for the estrangement of his acquaintances" ~ Mark Twain

The blame game. Don't we all do it?

It starts when we are children "The dog did it" "I don't know" "It wasn't me" "I swear I didn't do it"

By the time we are adults we have learned to hone our skills. What do we do? The report you were supposed to finish hasn't even been started: the computer dumped it before you could back it up. You burn dinner because you were on Facebook and forgot to check it: the oven is not working right. You crash into the car in front of you because you were on the phone and not paying attention: the idiot cut in front of you and slammed on the breaks.

Uh huh. Right.