Good Clean Reads

“A kiss that speaks volumes is seldom a first edition.” -Claire Whiting

Kissing is not only an important art form in intimacy, but also and more importantly a form of conversation. It can act like a comma, an exclamation or a question mark, but rarely is it as misunderstood as our spoken language. What we tell our partners with our kisses, their frequency, their depth, their vulnerability is...

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...

It’s that time of year again, the flu in sixteen varieties is floating around seemingly everywhere. This is just a reminder that in addition to some robust multi-vitamins, herbal teas and throat lozenges, please consider the power of love to heal. Love and intimacy are some of life’s all-time best cures for just about anything that ails you.

If you don’t believe me, I refer you to Dean Ornish’s...

This week I had a near miss. The gynecologist’s office called to have me redo my mammogram because there was a lump present. Every woman’s worst nightmare and one that becomes a life transformation for one out of seven. After a few harrowing hours I learned that it was benign. A new lease on life. The sky seemed bigger and the relationships that define my life so much more precious.

Valentine’s...

I came home to Eugene from a whirlwind tour of Whole Foods stores in Northern California. I am always happy to come home to the quiet and peace of this green valley after the excitement and density of the large metropolis surrounding us. On arriving home I learned of a community tragedy, two of our Eugene Symphony players were killed in a tragic and senseless wreck on their way home from a...

Here is one of the sweetest stories to come across the front page of the newspaper in a long time. Not far from Mantua, Italy, the home of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, this neolithic couple who lived over 5000 years ago were found on their sides holding each other, a very unique find in that period. “Double burials in the Neolithic are unheard of and these are even hugging.” Menotti, the...

This weekend we began our sustainable love tour… Our Good Clean Love products are launching throughout the Northwest and Northern California Whole Foods stores and we intend to visit every one of them. It is exciting to be included in such a respectable and highly valued business model and I feel grateful to be trusted to bring a healthy and sustainable slant on intimacy and sexuality to their...

"I felt angry toward my friend.
I told my wrath. My wrath did end.
I felt angry toward my foe.
I told him not. My wrath did grow."

-William Blake

When we don’t air our feelings they harden in us. They become the stories that separate us. They are the hard edges that eat away at our connections Staying in a relationship requires that we each are responsible to our feelings at every moment...

"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."

-Mary Oliver