"To Soften the Blow is a powerful true story that will change the way you look at loss, stress, and trauma. At seven-years old Lynnie Vessels steps out of the bathtub to discover her father has just shot her mother with a shotgun across their dining room table. Literally standing naked in her mother's blood throughout the ensuing horror, she is magically transported into the loving eyes of her younger sister. Simultaneously, her older sister uses words to convince her maniacal father to put down the gun. In those moments, the author comes to understand the miraculous power of eye contact and words. Going back into the second grade, she unknowingly suffers from severe posttraumatic stress. She remains silent about her ordeal until at fourteen she meets a principal who turns her life around. From there she sets out on a path to study the undeniable power of using eye contact and words in resolving conflicts. Mahatma Gandhi said, "The only demons are those running around in our own minds and that is where our battles must be fought." This is no ordinary story of triumph over troubles. Lynnie Vessels details her battles with her demons in the most instructive way a book has yet to do. As a warrior replaces the victim in her, she comes to understand the spiritual implications of violence. Reading this, you will, too. Ironically, this is one of the most uplifting stories you may ever read."--P. [4] of cover.

Idioms are expressions that cannot be understood from their individual words alone, and the English language is full of them—and so is this dictionary: 4,800+ English idioms and phrases with example sentences included for you so as to understand them all. This is the essential idioms dictionary if you want to talk like a native speaker—or just find out more about the colorful phrases you hear and say every day.

Recognizing that different sports and activities stress the back in different ways, sports medicine expert Dr. Lewis Maharam tailors exercises for more than a dozen sports, including hiking, cycling, in-line skating, golf, tennis, aerobics, and bowling, as well as a program of exercises for the non-sportsminded. Line drawings.

The first study to examine More's complete works in view of his concept of statesmanship and, in the process, link his humanism, faith, and legal and political vocations into a coherent narrative.b

Marked by a period of massive structural change, the 1970s in Europe saw the collapse of traditional manufacturing. The essays in this collection question aspects of the narrative of decline and radical transformation.

Covers all aspects of this highly popular form of communication and provides guidance on knowing what e-mails to send, what not send, how to write something effectively, responding with style, and adopting a time management system for dealing with an overloaded inbox. Original.