Good Clean Reads

“She glanced this way, I thought I saw… And when we touched, she didn’t shudder at my paw. No, it can’t be; I’ll just ignore… But then, she’s never looked at me that way before…” –The Beast

Every member of the family can view January’s Sustainable Love Movie of the Month. Walt Disney’s Beauty and The Beast (1991) is considered a classic animated film and received rave reviews from many a critic....

The system reset button can be found in the center of an orgasm. It is a mysterious cascade of chemicals and reactions that are energetic but also biological. Think of the lucky among us who were conceived in the power of that center. I had several children arrive from the event. For many years my sex drive was often wrapped in my drive to procreate. The sex took a wild leap the year that I had...

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”-Confucius

One of the personality traits that I most aspire to is resilience. I have long admired the people who face seemingly unbeatable circumstances with some magical blend of inner confidence and an abiding trust in things to work out. They don’t worry about things that can keep some of us up at night and in...

“The only thing worthy of you is compassion -invincible, limitless, unconditional.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

A comment on a recent positivity post came to mind today when I was watching the tragic post-earthquake unfold in Haiti. A reader wrote in and said that all the positivity babble in the world won’t change the suffering in the world one iota. The positivity quest is no different than Dale...

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.” –George Washington

Scientific research has demonstrated that just one person’s negative energy can significantly reduce the productivity in a work group. Likewise, when one person in a couple consistently is negative, it is very difficult for the relationship to thrive. The...

“Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” Confucius

The habits we form in life tend to form us. Our lives and the behaviors that shape them tend to be habitual. Partly because we like consistency and because change is challenging our habits start to resemble our personalities or maybe our personalities are really just a bundle of our most dedicated habits. I have read that...

“No human thing is of serious importance.” -Plato “The Republic”

It is the small things in our days that open us to both the breakthroughs and breakdowns in positivity. I love lazy Saturday mornings when I can wake up when my body is ready and leisurely choose among the activities that I know make me feel good. This morning was easy and as I moved from exercise to meditation, gratitude and...

‘And in the end, the love we take is equal to the love we make�’ -The Beatles

This year we prepare for Valentine’s Day with the aspiration of Love for All. The world is demanding that we wake up and realize that the most important thing we have to discover in ourselves is our capacity to love. Sometimes the most challenging work we undertake is following through with our promises to love, other...

“In all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.”– ‘Contact’

For a loveologist, everything is about the relationship. It is the first thing I notice in any given situation and the thing that I most work to cultivate. How I feel about myself and the world starts and ends with the myriad relationships that make my days. This can be hard on my positivity quest as many of my relationships are not predictable or stable. (Think teenagers, although babies and midlife crisis and aging would probably all fit the bill as well). Still, my life gets breath and meaning from relating. I believe that my ability to relate provides the truest reflection and for better or worse acts as the barometer of my days.

I remember once reading something that struck me early in my marriage when things were challenging for us and I often wondered why I wanted to be married so much to begin with. The quote as best I can remember it said “choose your partner wisely, for it will create 90% of the joy or sorrow of your life.” Having been married now for more than half my life, I would have to say that it is more true than not. When things are working between us, my life also works. When things are not working- so goes my life.