The V-Word

“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness.  Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.” -Andre Gide

Joy is, in many ways, love’s twin flame. It occurs on the receiving side of love, whether it be romantic intrigue, family relations of just the full body experience of loving life. Joy is the byproduct of feeling loved and...

Now what?

You may be asking yourself, How do I use such a thing? In fact, there are many uses for Love Oil, the first product created at Good Clean Love. Our founder, Wendy Strgar, claims that it was a “love oil” that got her on the path of starting the company because it saved her relationship. After she ran out, she tried to find another one and just couldn’t! So, if your sex life needs a bit of...

This is the fourth and final part of a four-part series. Here are parts one, two, and three.

“I really liked Kerry, before all of this happened,” Jan said. “I mean I really liked her as a friend.”

We had been talking for almost an hour, and our conversation was winding down, but I was still curious: How had it been possible for Jan to fall in love with Kerry when she hadn’t had that experience...

This week, we would like to present to you a new weekly round-up of trending articles and topics on the Internet that we thought drew attention, collected thought, and formulated questions in your heads. In case you missed them on our social channels all week, here’s what’s trending the week of August 1st-7th, 2015. Check back next Friday for next week’s Recommended Reads.

In The News:

From the...

“The hunger to belong is not merely a desire to be attached to something. It is rather sensing that great transformation and discovery become possible when belonging is sheltered and true.”  -John O’Donahue

The experience of belonging, of feeling at home, is at once surprising and yet also so full of ease that it seems like it has always been. It is surprising because feeling deeply a part of...

This is the third in a four-part series. Here are parts one and two.

“We had a Jacuzzi every night—we had a private Jacuzzi—we’d sit on the edge, we had big bamboo and palms, and the moon was out the whole time,” Kerry said. “At the end of each day of the retreat, we’d just sit there and philosophize and share our stories. You [addressing Jan] and your ex-husband, and your other ex-husband, and I...

This is part two of a four-part series. For part one, click here.One fact is that it’s normal to fall in love. Look at history, tally the liaisons among people who are gone, and see that this is true. What is unusual is for a person to fall in love outside of the script with which she is most at ease socially, the one that tells her where she fits, which relationships she can establish, what is...

When she was 70, Jan Adrian fell in love with a woman. She’d had two marriages, to men, and had been single for years when she met Kerry, the woman who is now her partner.

At the time they met, “I was not actively looking for anybody,” Jan said. Nevertheless, she found someone, fell in love, and began a relationship—with a woman, for the first time in her life.

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” ―Franklin D. Roosevelt

I am in one of those cycles again where things aren’t working. Most things, actually… Shipping systems don’t work and air conditioning units break down on the hottest day of the year. Seemingly routine product testing is not routine. More challenging still, is the breakdown in personal relationships at both...