Good Clean Reads

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” -Calvin...

“i thank You God for this most amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
brea...

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end….”  -Seneca

It is a new beginning at Good Clean Love. The management team that has been running the business has resigned and the business has fallen again squarely on my shoulders. It was a surprising turn of events that caught me off guard and set me searching for my balance. I knew my frustration with our different communication styles...

“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.” ~Hāfez

It is possible that the most universal emotion is fear. Animals, even small insects, have a fight or flight response built in to save their lives. Having the courage to not run and to not defend when fear invades is a form of prayer. Going through the discomfort of uncertainty and not looking for...

“I think all great innovations are built on rejections.” -Louis Ferdinand-Celine

I was so excited to have a preliminary interview on the Oprah radio network for my trip to Chicago. This chance to share my new book in a place where so many people could learn about it seemed too good to be true. It turned out that it was too good to be true. They rejected me- and I remembered again just how much...

“Know that I am absorbed by my work…These landscapes of water and reflection have become an obsession. It is beyond my power as an old man, yet I want to manage to render what I feel…” -Claude Monet

The highlight of the time in Chicago was the Art Institute. Walking through the endless galleries of some of the most beautiful impressionist work ever made and having the luxury to stand up close,...

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling  deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”  -M. Scott Peck

I am in a hotel room, in the middle of a city, in the middle of the country where I am as...

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

Living in the present moment is a relief. The world makes sense just as it is, there is no trying to fashion it to fit your ideas of what it should look like or how things will turn out. There is...

“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

After reading the New York times style section cover storyabout the urgency shared by millions to get onto the Oprah show and the industry building around it, I thought to myself, “As much as I would love to chat with Oprah, I don’t want to be on that waiting list.” I also thought about the...