A Failure to Thrive ... marriage in the 21st century

Waiting for my flight I check my email, “Tina, Duane and I need to come in to see you ASAP.  I found out he has been communicating with another woman and has had drinks with her a couple of times.  I suspect more …” Read More...

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Barely Touched - Sexuality and the Single Christian Adult

“I have nowhere to turn and I have myself all jumbled up inside.” Before me sat a 28 year old Christian woman who had been in a wonderful loving relationship for about a year Read More...

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Tools for a Deeply Connected Relationship

When two people commit to each other they do so believing their love is strong and want it to grow even stronger over time.  My dad used to call marriage a Mutual Admiration Society Read More...

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Walking the Talk …

As I prepare for our next Couple’s Sacred Intimacy Retreat as well as a couple of upcoming talks, I find myself thinking about the eight couple’s that bravely ventured into the vulnerable world of intimacy at our last retreat in March. Read More...

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Embracing Our Sexuality

I was recently interviewed by Jennifer Bostrom for the blog spuchablog.wordpress.com - a blog for Campus Housing at Seattle Pacific University. The interview centered around how to cultivate a healthy sexuality integrating sexual beliefs/expression with a Christian faith. Here is the interview:
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How the Teachings of Sexual Purity Leads to Violence

"Tina, I don't know what to do. I'm supposed to be in the honeymoon phase of my marriage ... and we are both sexually miserable." Tears began to flow down her cheeks. Read More...

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Eros and the Force of God Within

Years ago life presented me with the experience of online dating ... not an experience for the faint of heart ... yet from which I learned a ton, experienced even more ... and somewhere far down the rabbit hole, met my beloved. Read More...

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America's Sexual Ethic

Silence ... just because it cannot be heard, does it have no effect? And ignorance ... no responsibility?

What is the guiding sexual ethic in our country? Read More...

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It's Your Call

Have you ever had one of those experiences when you are standing in the presence of someone (or a group of some one's) who believe that they know what YOU should think, believe, care about? Read More...

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What is the story ... of your life ... of you?

A day bits and pieces - parts of a story ...
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Taken Hostage ... musings by Parker Palmer

A week or so ago I basked on my favorite spot on Orcas Island ... a spot I have visited most years since I was 4. It was over 90 degrees (it is never that hot!) and I was sitting on the edge of Cascade Lake listening to the sound of life's laughter ...Read More...

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SEX!!! EDUCATION???

A Reader Question:

What would a healthy sex education look like inside a truly Christian paradigm? How do we teach our kids about sexuality when we believe our bodies and our sexual desires are a gift from God?

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Your Time To Live ...

Today as I walked around the lake near my home the chill in the air was softened by the sun’s rays reminding me that winter will in the end relent and spring will come. Read More...

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Children learn what they LIVE

When I was a little girl we had a cloth wall hanging in our family room that I remember noticing every day. As I got older and could read, I would read it. Then as I grew to understand more I would read it and think about what it meant and how it related to my experience. Read More...

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Women, Mom's and Oxygen Masks

Sitting on the plane waiting to push off for a 9 hour flight, I watch the automated “safety instructions” on the video screen. Today the language is German and the figure demonstrating what to do is a handsome avatar. Read More...

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What Children Have to Teach Us about Pure Sensual Joy

There is something so refreshing and soul nourishing in the innocent observations of children. Before they are infected by societal messages of what or who is appropriate and inappropriate, valued and unvalued and all the judgments regarding what they ‘should’ think and feel.  Read More...

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Three Blind Mice ... and Sex?

Question from a reader:
“I often see groups in the media proposing the idea that sex addiction is rampant, that pregnancy rates are rising, and that generally speaking people are having sex at increasingly young ages, but are these facts? Read More...

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Shame and Sex in America

Here is a question I received from a reader:
"When I look at culture in this country, I see a lot of shame, shame that is attached to sexuality in a fear-based and pathologizing fashion that doesn't seem to be as present in other cultures in the same way. Read More...

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The Fire Hose Life ...

Here was a question sent to me:

As someone who is interested in looking at sexuality from a sex-positive point of view, and marrying that component with the idea of personal responsibility, how can we as a society navigate sexuality without it trampling on the rights of others?

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