Good Clean Reads

Spirituality is having a moment right now. From the countless articles and research studies on the many benefits of mindfulness and meditation, to all the people you know taking yoga classes, it’s safe to say that everyone is looking for ways to relax, take a break, and maybe even do some growing in the process.

Finding and sticking to a daily practice of yoga, mindfulness, or anything else that...

Sometimes, when I can remember to, I stop what I am doing for just a minute or two and notice what’s happening in my body. Often as not what I find when I do this are areas of tension — especially in my neck, jaw, shoulders — that are uncomfortable, even painful. It’s as though my muscles and fascia have tightened into a kind of protective armor against life’s unpredictability.

We receive a...

Lots of deaths last week. First Bowie, then Alan Rickman – and, maybe a notch or two lower in fame if not in awesomeness, American poet C. D. Wright. I knew her a little, so to me her death seems about as big as Bowie’s and Rickman’s.

When people die, either people we know privately or public figures who we all know, we seem to be faced with a problem that’s hard to get a grip on because it seems,...

I have serious sexual music habits. Ever since I can remember, in the many years of making love to my husband, there has been a familiar soundtrack playing, animating our sexual encounter with its rhythm and bass in the background. It probably began as our way of covering up anything that might have been overheard by our kids sleeping down the hall, but slowly and imperceptibly, my dedication to the artist of the year, or as my husband would probably argue, artist of the decade, the familiar notes of my habitual go-to songs became a powerful aphrodisiac, igniting my memory of previous sexual interludes and awakening my sleeping libido with a little romantic music.

“Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. ” -Thomas FullerFor many years when my parents used to send me gifts, I tried to make light of the many ridiculous, worthless bargains that made their way to my door in the holiday season. It wasn’t the gift itself, but the reflection of how invisible I felt with them. Worse still, the holiday dinners where my...

“Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be, stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.” —Robert Henri

If ever there was a cliché to take to heart when it comes to our relationships, especially in these weeks before our annual holiday reunions, it is this age-old mandate to “try and try again.” 

We’re all trying to make our marriage work, which seems to be why, almost every day, there’s a new study out there on how to make it last.

One of the latest, out of the University of Southern California and the University of Utah, show that that old adage, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it,” is truer than ever.

By tracking over 100 conversations of married couples in marriage therapy for...

How many siblings did you have? Three, like me? Less? Were you an only child?

According to a new studyout of Penn State, having opposite sex siblings affected your confidence in attracting and interacting with the opposite sex. The researchers think that this has to do with being provided plenty of opportunities to resolve conflicts, have discussions and witness varying perspectives about things....

“When it’s over, that’s the time I fall in love again…” -Sugar Ray

The more deeply I accompany my grief of late, the more resounding are my feelings of gratitude. When we allow ourselves to befriend loss and know it for the lifelong companion that it is. You would have to be a fool to not recognize how blessed you are – for all the many ways life is working right in this moment and, even more...