Columns

On a recent hot (triple digit) summer evening at Bend’s Midtown Yacht Club, my friend and I were thankful for the icy-cold mist spritzed from tiny nozzles suspended above our heads. The only two at a large wooden spool table, we welcomed a middle-aged man and his two teenagers who asked if they could join […]

We’ve been married for over 10 years and we’re best friends. But these days, I can’t get my partner to give me any touch at all. Dear Dr. Jane,  My relationship has been hanging by a thread for quite a while now, but these days I’m almost ready to call it quits. We’ve been married for […]

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I’ve swung from ancient vines in the caves of Jamaica,” exults Hoodoo priestess Luisah Teish. “I’ve danced with delight around totem poles and pressed foreheads with Maori warriors. I’ve joked with the pale fox in the crossroads, then wrestled with the jaguar and won. I have embraced great trees between my […]

Last week my dear college roommate, Robert S. (aka Bobby), called to check in like he and I have been doing for over 50 years. Why we became roommates, I’ll never know. I was the first hippie at St. Lawrence University in 1965. Hair down to my shoulders, bleach-stained jeans with holes in them, protesting […]

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): One of the inspiring experiments I hope you will attempt in the coming months is to work on loving another person as wildly and deeply and smartly as you love yourself. In urging you to try this exercise, I don’t mean to imply that I have a problem with you loving […]

This year, on Father’s Day, I attended an unforgettable concert. It was held, of all places, at an assisted living facility specializing in memory care. A friend of mine now resides there, a preventative decision made after months of thoughtful conversations between him and his grown children as together they weighed other options: living on […]

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the coming weeks, Leo, I urge you to always be confident that YOU ARE THE PARTY! Everywhere you go, bring the spirits of fun and revelry. Be educationally entertaining and entertainingly educational. Amuse yourself by making life more interesting for everyone. At the same time, be kind and humble, never […]

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian author Laurie Sheck writes, “So much of life is invisible, inscrutable: layers of thoughts, feelings, and outward events entwined with secrecies, ambiguities, ambivalences, obscurities, darknesses.” While that’s an experience we all have, especially you Cancerians, it will be far less pressing for you in the coming weeks. I foresee you […]

Previously, we wrote that the brain instantaneously parks emotional overloads in our tissues. While these continuously broadcast a state of emergency to every cell in our body, we can use the mindbody connection to evict that troublesome content. Today’s focus is on how all that relates to pain. Forget supercomputers and Artificial Intelligence, the human […]

Dear Dr. Jane, My wife and I have had problems with intimacy for years. The last time we had sex was early in 2021. I know that we need to have “The Talk” but I have no idea how to bring up the topic of intimacy without making things even more awkward between us. I […]