Something awful happened to me this spring: For the first time in my life, I lost interest in dick. I didn’t care to see it. Fantasize about it. Touch it. Taste it. Enjoy it inside my body.

Nope.

The thought of dick made me sick to my stomach.

It’s not that dick isn’t a joyful experience in life. Or that it isn’t beautiful in all its forms (except for dick pics). Or that it isn’t one of the most fascinating parts of the human body.

The problem is that I only know it as a weapon.

My body has been…

“Would you pose naked for me?”

If you had told me three years ago that this question would be popping out of my mouth on a regular basis, I wouldn’t have believed you. But now, it’s a request I make to all of my friends who know I have started taking nude portraits of myself.

The typical answer, I’m sorry to say, is “Maybe someday. But that sounds too scary right now.”

Don’t get me wrong — I get it. Being nude in front of a friend is not necessarily on the menu of “normal behavior” in this culture. And…

I can’t stop visiting my garden these days. I am filled with gratitude every time I step into it. Even this year, when most of my plantings failed, this space still has so much to offer me. In fact, it is overflowing with abundance.

I am grateful for the work ahead.

Calendula

This yellow and orange flower has popped up all over my garden. The petals are antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant. It is great in teas: beneficial for treating gastric ulcers and sore throats. …

Last night, I spent a couple hours on the phone with one of my best friends, Sunny. She only lives twenty miles away, but we haven’t seen each other in three weeks. I know this frustrates her. I’m pretty sure she would prefer we get together once every week or two.

I was talking about this to another friend the other day, how I worried that I wasn’t giving Sunny enough time and that maybe if we lived closer, I would be able to see her once a week. Then I realized, no, I could never commit to that. Why…

Ever since I began writing about vulnerable topics and expressing my creativity with nude self-portraits, I’ve experienced the same cycle of empowerment/disempowerment over and over again. The feeling of joy and fulfillment that I get from my work is beautifully overwhelming to me.

To have a photo shoot work out well and gift me with dozens of shots that give me a feeling of ownership over my body after a lifetime of feeling that it was at the mercy of other people…I have no words for that joy. …

This is a story about four people sitting naked in a hot spring. That might sound scandalous to some. It might be just an average day for others.

For me, it was a challenge, a major leap of personal growth, and a dream come true.

In order to explain this, however, I’ll have to back up a few months…

This story begins with an unexpected friendship. Over a year ago, I started reading Edward Riley’s essays. I was immediately drawn to him. I could feel the love he had for his wife and the respect he felt for other women…

If you asked me what is more personal, scary, and vulnerable to share in public — erotica or my own personal sexual experiences — what do you think I would say? Would it surprise you to know that the answer is erotica?

I realize that this might seem illogical. Maybe even ridiculous. But the truth is, I’d rather share with the public my own experiences with sex than share my fictional stories about sexual encounters. The latter is far, far more vulnerable for me.

So when I was approached by Pollinate Magazine Editorial to contribute to an erotica collaboration, I…

It’s that time of year again. Many of my friends’ profile pictures on social media are changing, going back in time. A large number of them got married in autumn, and each year at their anniversary, they change all their social media profile photos to a photo of themselves as a young bride, with their new husband.

This tends to happen about a month before the actual anniversary, and when that date rolls around, they post several photos of their wedding and a present-day shot, along with a short essay about how blessed they have been to walk through this…