Good Clean Reads

They feel different, sex and love…but together they are the best. You know it when it is love, the act penetrates deeply to center, something uncovered, released and energy connecting. It transforms energy through flesh, or maybe flesh to energy. Hard to say at that moment.

By itself, sexual acts take us far out of our ordinary mind. They are a departure from the daily in the most visceral of...

There are days I long to look up and see an opening in the sky that would remind me of the truth about life. I work to see and to believe that life is good and our inclination to love is always one to be trusted. However, sometimes love and trust are not companions — affairs happen, partners are left, love goes unrequited, and accidents of the heart happen as frequently as they do with dishes.

I...

Rejection of any kind can really ruin a day. For some people it can ruin a week or more. It happened to me today when I was terminated on a blogger site. Most rejections whether they happen in personal or work situations press the same buttons- they strike all the weak links in the personality we have built, stretching thin all the places of low self esteem which we patch over each time it...

Have you ever noticed the power of letting go? The freedom in surrender, when you give over your cravings and desires to how it is. Then suddenly the situation is different and possibilities that weren’t there a minute ago are opening up everywhere. I remember the hunger for a boyfriend that held me for years. A longing that filled me with sad songs and led me continuously to the wrong guys. I...

This is an ongoing decision/issue for me and my husband, and I think we are not alone. What to do with the exhaustion level that we often bring into our intimate interactions is a significant problem for a growing population. Giving up sex for sleep is a good idea when you are just too tired to imagine sex. But if this becomes the routine, then we lose the powerful source of vitality that comes...

“The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.”–M. McLaughlin

There are days, and well, sadly, sometimes weeks when there just simply isn’t enough energy, resources or time to take care of the relationships and people you should be loving the most. Careers and work goals, children and social commitments, inner work and incomplete personal transitions…on any given day, we work...

It is the small things in life that teach us the most. Often it is the moments that we least recognize as remarkable that have the power to change our lives. Lately I am making a point of looking at the eyes, the facial expression of the people I am talking to. It is amazing how that changes what I hear. Maybe it even changes what they can say.

I am trying to remember my friend telling me how she...

I have been feeling like something has been broken inside for a couple of months now. For a while it showed itself in a variety of back and neck ailments, but lately it is more diffuse and more amorphous. Sometimes it is a physical sensation, but just as frequently it is a visceral experience of being overwhelmed and exhausted. The drive part of me is stalled.

In part at least, it is impossible...

The NPR story on the Art of Aging marks another rung on my ladder of Making Love Sustainable. According to Dr. Sherwin Nuland, a professor at Yale University’s Medical School, the three most important factors to graceful aging are: a consistent exercise program, tapping into creative impulses, and sustaining the intimate relationships that make life meaningful.

Nuland admitted he used to focus...