Domestic Violence was a national focal point during the month of October.  For that reason, the YWCA of Batavia put on an inspiring program at G.C.C. one week ago, entitled “Dressing for Distress”.  Four women, myself included, participated in a panel discussion about how we had experienced adversity, and what positive lessons we learned from our difficult times.  Two of the panelist had gone through marriages that could be characterized as ones in which domestic violence occurred.  As one of them, I spoke of the emotional oppression of 42 years, during which my spouse controlled, criticized, and  curtailed me.  Those years primed me for going on-line to find a man in 2013.  I “fell in love” with someone who turned out to be a con-man.  (This story is written in my book, Heart Of Deception.)Perhaps the most important lesson I learned through both the difficult marriage and the wanna-be romance/scam is that my heart overrides my head.  I see this in my friends and clients.  Our emotions can cause people’s rational thoughts to go belly-up, and move one to “go under the ether” and fail to think through the consequences of one's choices.  So as the month devoted to domestic violence on a national level comes to a close, my parting remarks are these:   Guard your heart.  Thank God that in Jesus you have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2: 16) and that God is greater than your heart. (1 John 3:20).Gratitude goes out to the people who set up the program and my friends that supported me either in the audience or by prayer.