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- BlogDear Reader: Welcome to my very first blog! This blog represents the next step of faith in a journey I never could have imagined ten years ago, a path full of unexpected turns, rich discoveries and shared connections—personal connections to some of you who might be reading at this very moment, as well as a larger sense of shared practice, kinship, and brotherhood with many of you whom I will never meet. What I now call “Touch Practice” began as an effort to explore and heal my own body. I thought of it as something I created, something invented or made up, just for me. I slowly realized that while it was profoundly healing for me, it also seemed to have tremendous benefit for others, and so it became something for “we” rather than something just for “me.” I began to think of Touch Practice as a form of partnership. Next, I understood that something I imagined I had created or invented myself actually existed before I found it—Touch Practice is more accurately something I discovered, something I became aware of rather than creating. I came to understand that this aspect of touch has probably existed in an infinite variety…
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My Very Last Blog (well, maybe!)
5Those of you who know me (and perhaps a few of you who don’t) have sensed that the way I carry Touch Practice has changed over this past year. I have changed too. This might be the last time I ever write in “blog” format …
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The World of Grindr and Scruff
Back when I first started exploring what I sheepishly called “my hugging thing” (there’s an interesting story if you don’t know it) I tried to find hugging partners using Craigslist ads. That was actually reasonably productive, although if you’ve ever done anything at all through …
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Me and my tiger
I often describe the process of my own recovery from childhood sexual abuse as a little bit like being roommates with a gigantic cat, like a panther or a tiger. For many years, the cat simply slept, all the time—it took up an enormous amount …
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The Teacher is in the Room!
When I was younger, I had a type of cancer that very few people survive. The diagnosis felt like a huge problem at the time, and I suppose it was. Ultimately I survived, but not before really giving serious thought to dying, and to understanding …
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Love it, Hate it, Meh: Spiritual Practice and Reactive Engagement, part two
In my last blog, I talked about the predictable phases of almost any spiritual practice, and how the mature phase of spiritual practice often is acquired only after traversing the mountain of fanaticism as well as the valley of profound disenchantment. In response to that …
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Fear, Part Two: Feeling it
I want to follow up today on two recent blog topics–one about bullying, the other about fear–by reporting one of the most interesting and useful spiritual journeys I have taken in perhaps the past five years. The very simple exercise that I engaged was, “what …
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All things are connected
This blog follows from an exquisite Touch Practice last Friday where, after only a few minutes had passed, I had the sense that I was with a close friend that I had not seen for a very long time. My partner reported a similar experience, …
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Chasing the First High
The phrase “chasing the first high” comes from addiction medicine, where the addict will return to a substance over and over again hoping to duplicate that first euphoric experience. But often, that first high is never to be had again. Subsequent experiences are never quite …
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From Lust to Love
A new friend and brother asked me a question this week which serves as the fuel for today’s blog. He asked, in essence, “what first motivated you to meet and hug total strangers; what drove that, what were you seeking? And, as your “fetish” turned …
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